Media Training Worldwide

Date:30/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/05/30/stories/2005053001760100.htm

Now, corporate execs being trained to tackle media

Neha Kaushik

Corporate executives are generally adept at crunching numbers and strategising for the market - but they are never taught how to deal with the media.

New Delhi , May 29

IT'S not only the media that is being extensively trained to handle the corporate world, the reverse is also happening.

Corporate honchos - may they be from multinational concerns, equity outfits or local listed and private entities - are also being tutored to handle the growing number of media set ups, both print and electronic.

This is to help them stay on top of the situation - be it restructuring, product defects, mergers and acquisitions, family feuds or boardroom rifts.

And it is not public relations companies that are doing the intensive training - but specialised firms who do detailed homework and work out day-to-day media interactions, and best and worst case scenarios for their clients.

"Corporate executives are generally adept at crunching numbers and strategising for the market - but they are never taught how to deal with the media. While every activity involves meticulous planning and a gameplan, why should dealing with the media be any different," said Mr Ravi Shyam, Chief Executive of Media Training Worldwide (India operations), a New York-based 21 year-old training company.

With the company primarily focussed on teaching corporates the skills to handle the media, Mr Shyam explains that increasingly CEOs and spokespersons need to address their constituencies with confidence and command. "This is one responsibility that they cannot delegate."

"Stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, financial institutions, bankers and analysts need to be spoken to at regular intervals and the media in particular, is pivotally placed, to reflect the image of individuals and corporates. In the context of a fiercely competitive environment, the most cost effective method of balancing the perception reality matrix is through media training," he says.

And how is this done? Media Training Worldwide, with its President Mr T.J. Walker, author of `Media Training A - Z' and `Presentation Skills A-Z' at the helm, uses a combination of presentations and seminars to bring clients up to date with the techniques.

"We provide more media and presentation training workshops and seminars (54 separate courses) than any other company in the world. We also provide video recordings and critiques per participant with an emphasis on pre-training and post-training - thus providing the cutting edge," he says.

The company also publishes more than 100 presentation training books, DVDs, CDs, and other information products and claims to be the largest presentation/media training publisher in the world. Apart from this, to stay connected, participants are sent daily and weekly newsletters that provide interesting and handy tips in the specialised area.

"Companies may think that they can `control' the outcome of their media interface. That this is a fallacy needs no proof. In fact, we convince our participants that they have zero control over media. However, they can have hundred per cent control over how and what they say," Mr Shyam reiterates, as he reels off the list of his clients, which include sectors that range from banking and finance to tourism, lifestyle, FMCG, health care and IT.

"In the US they say that `when corporate buckets leak, the media cups its hands to drink,' it is no different here. We always tell our participants that it is not a journalist's job to make you look and sound good. It is yours," he quips.