The Hindu Business Line : The one thing we do have control over is our attitude

My notion about work is that since we can only change those things that we can change, don’t worry about trends beyond our control. Those are factors that one person cannot change.

JOHN ECKBERG, AUTHOR OF ‘THE SUCCESS EFFECT’.

In an era that has seen many popular CEOs suddenly fall out of favour (as in Enron, WorldCom, etc.), can it be risky to extol their virtues during the up-tick of their trajectories? Also, how close to truth can their presentations be, considering that corporate honchos can be great communicators?

“The vast majority of chief executives of private companies are not felons, deceitful or mining a company at the expense of shareholders, despite the news coverage of those who have been engaged and caught in that criminal behaviour,” says Mr John Eckberg, author of The Success Effect ( www.thesuccesseffect.com ).

“That said, reading and studying public documents like proxies and quarterly reports is critical for background for a reporter,” he advises, in the course of a recent email interaction with Business Line.

“Grounding questions in that background material is important. And yes, these leaders are savvy, smart and usually charming. They know about the power of the pen. They respect it.”

Mr Eckberg, who grew up in a country town near Akron, Ohio, and worked at a meat shop and gas station before graduating from Ohio University, was a night police reporter at The Cincinnati Enquirer in 1980; and he has been a business reporter for a decade. He has also created Pot of Gold, a calendar of business insights, and Fascinating Ohio, a calendar of pop culture and history.

In The Success Effect, Mr Eckberg adopts an unorthodox style to capture candid conversations with the US’ top business leaders and innovators, ‘detailing what it takes for individuals, teams and companies to lead, achieve, prosper, and grow,’ so that ‘the reader gets insight, not spin — perspective and life-lessons, not canned responses and public relations.’

Excerpts from the interview:

What are the challenges in business reporting during an economic downturn such as what we currently face — a phase in which the media houses too are impacted?

The institution of the American Free Press is clearly under assault and the precipitous decline in advertising revenues is the most pressing challenge in decades if not centuries. The Free Press may be the greatest and most lasting gift of the American Constitution as it creates checks-and-balances beyond the halls and walls of government.

But without a healthy printed media — television and radio producers generally follow our lead — those checks and balances stagger. What’s more, competition from the Web, time-pressed consumers, a new generation of non-newspaper readers and the advent of citizen bloggers, who are not journalists at all, offer still more competition for news.

When layoffs hit newsrooms, an already staggering workload increases for the journalists who remain. There is, however, a paring down to what is essential and that may in the long run fortify newspapers.

Do corporate heads generally harbour certain notions about business media, which can often be wrong?

Most journalists have a rule of thumb about professional baseball players that may apply here, as well, that is, a baseball player is a jerk until proven otherwise. So, too, with reporters — they may be jerks until proven otherwise.

Business leaders should be wary of the media because it is a great leap of faith to talk candidly with a reporter. Much damage can be done to a company reputation with an ill-advised word or out-of-context quote. However, few reporters have an agenda to tear down. They are rare.

And besides, most reporters have more than three editors between them and the next day’s newspaper to ensure fairness and a complete report. That system is ample assurance to corporate leaders that their words will not work against them. The upside to a newspaper story, too, can be immense for any business or corporate leader with a resulting increase in exposure, revenues and certainly acclaim.

Can you talk about your style of interviewing, resulting in the ‘uncommon conversations’ that form the theme of ‘The Success Effect’?

My first job came at a small grocery store where I learned the first two rules of customer service. Smile and be pleasant. I think that approach carries over into my professional life. Above all else, be pleasant. My credo to the topics of my stories mirrors Plato’s notion that the unexamined life is not worth living. Sometimes, to lighten up an interview, I’ll take a break and pull a random card from a box of Trivial Pursuit questions that I keep on my desk. Sources seem to like the break.

I think that many business leaders are also amazed at their station in life, their achievements and how it happened. They want to share the lessons and because they are seldom asked about the “How” of achievement, they welcome those queries. I try to focus on how and why. Sometimes it takes an unusual line of questioning to get there: what was your first car, did you pay for it with a part-time job, what was your first job, what did you learn from it….

Were there any criteria behind the choice of candidates for the interviews? And also the reason behind including info on CDs and books in the format of chapters?

After about five years into my time as a business reporter I realised that one theme resonated with everybody we wrote about: they were successes. That’s the first bar that a business or executive must hurdle to get into the paper, usually, they have to be a success.

It occurred to me that many interviews were dry and fairly predictable. That’s when I realised that by injecting a personal note such as what books they were reading and what music was in the changer, then these icons of commerce immediately became more accessible and real.

On your view to work — as fun and privilege, and also why it is not too regularly seen around.

Back to the economy — it’s tough to be cheerful and optimistic when advertising is contracting and so, too, payroll at media companies. But my notion about work is that since we can only change those things that we can change, don’t worry about trends beyond our control. Those are factors that one person cannot change. The one thing we do have control over is our attitude. Start each day with a good one. Life is too short to do otherwise.

You are working on your next book already…

I have taken a respite from writing but that is about to end. An unpublished book The Mud Daddy Chronicles: Raging Bass, Mystic Muskie and Twinkie Tiramisu is completed and with my agent (Kathryn Green of Manhattan). It is a memoir of friendship, a career in journalism and 25 years of fishing trips. There are mystic elements to the book — the Lord is watching and probably laughing at our antics — with plenty of man-with-a-pan recipes, too. In the book, three men go from young guys with dreams and gumption to old guys with guts and grey hair.

My next book will be an off-beat history book called Hidden Cincinnati that looks at the places and people who have come here and in major or modest ways shaped this historic American city: from Abe Lincoln to Charles Dickens, Lafcadio Hearn to Winston Churchill.

Any views on the best practices that the media in developing countries such as India can adopt.

Encourage and support freedom of the press by all means necessary. It is the salvation of democratic societies and, what’s more, it’s under assault. We must protect the world press. It is the most important thing that a free people can do.

Top tips for a student aspiring for a career in business journalism.

Realise that your pen (these days it’s a keyboard) is a powerful force that can bring goodness into the lives of others. But first you need to secure a job during an era of shrinking opportunities. You will not start at the top of your profession, either. Learn to write. Write in short sentences. Take a job at the bottom rung of the ladder and grow.

D. MURALI

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