Anticipating Interviewer's Agenda

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CEO, Chip Perry
Correctly anticipated interviewer's agenda

Dismiss the notion you can control the entire interview. What if the reporter had an argument with a spouse and is in a bad mood? Or, what if he/she is under unusual deadline pressure with lots of stories to cover and file and in a rush and impatient?

Sometimes interviewers simply change signals on you and insist on going in directions you’d perhaps prefer not to travel. Good preparation allows you to anticipate this and bring your answers back to your primary objective, and to do it responsively. It’s a matter of focusing on how you can fit your messaging agenda around the reporter’s agenda.

Chip Perry is CEO of the very successful online automobile marketing and advertising site autotrader.com. Preparing for an interview opportunity on the Fox Business Network with anchor Neil Cavuto, Perry assumed correctly Cavuto would want to talk about carmaker bailout loans granted by Washington. Also, by watching Cavuto’s show a couple of times, it wasn’t difficult to figure out Cavuto isn’t in favor of all the billions being handed out.

But Chip Perry still saw the chance to effectively position his company as an important player in the commerce of cars and get his message to the industry: get rid of inefficiency. And one way to do that is more efficient advertising. According to Perry, more than 90% of the $30 billion spent on advertising is invested in traditional mass media. His point, there’s a lot of waste. Based on the number of cars sold, he estimates that’s more than $2000 per car; probably well over the typical per vehicle profit a dealer makes on sales. (Click on video below.) Implicit in his message is that autotrader.com provides a much more cost effective advertising alternative.

One irony to note here. Autotrader.com is owned by Cox Enterprises, one of the most successful and respected owners of “traditional” media in America. Their newspapers and radio and television stations depend heavily on the automobile category for their advertising revenue. But, Perry was speaking to his business model, one of the reasons for autotrader.com’s success.

A Punch in Pillsbury Doughboy’s Tummy

“Anyone who talks about you…or your business…is media!”

It doesn’t only take a camera phone to compromise what you assumed was private.

Ever been somewhere in public when someone is on their mobile phone speaking in a voice people in the next zip code could hear? For most of us it’s just an annoyance. But, for others it could be grist for a news story and/or blog.

Consider the case of Pillsbury’s Bob Robbins, head of the Corporate and Securities practice, reportedly on the phone with COO Rick Donaldson while Robbins was riding on an AMTRAK express from Washington, DC, to New York City. He was overheard (indeed, apparently you couldn’t help but hear him) telling Donaldson the names of 15 to 20 attorneys who should be laid off in four offices by the end of March.

Unfortunately for Robbins and Pillsbury, a law student was hearing all of this and communicated the information to Above the Law, a Legal Tabloid. The student, self-identified as Jennifer Everest, having heard him say his name during the phone call, tracked down Robbins and contacted him by email asking if he had been on the same 2pm AMTRAK express she was riding at the time. He responded in the affirmative and asked if he had left something behind.

Jennifer answered him quite succinctly: “Why yes, Bob. Your discretion.”

Pillsbury has confirmed the gaffe and apologized in a prepared statement to Legal Pad.

Now Is the Time for Greater Visibility

Make News for Doing Things Right


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Cheating, dishonesty, and poor judgment are among the primary drivers today generating a wide and deep sense of distrust in businesses, institutions and individuals. Every day, it seems, there is more reason for the public to doubt, suspect, and condemn.

And, for companies like the Peanut Corporation of America that try to get away with horrible (perhaps criminal) behavior, consider this lead sentence in the Feb. 18th edition of the Wall Street Journal:

For any business thinking of cheating on quality to save a few bucks, here are some famous last words: Peanut Corporation of America.

Most American businesses are ethical and honest. The wise ones stay on the radar screen, understanding the need to maintain visibility and accessibility to important audiences through the media.

But in times like this, the good businesses can easily be splashed by the sins of others. Remember all the recalls of products produced in China last year? We witnessed a series of recalls for kids’ toys, many of them laden with lead-based paints.

Those stories bred an environment of guilt by association for anyone in the toy business. But the wise companies doing their job to prevent bad product from reaching their shelves made themselves available to the media. Toys R Us CEO Jerry Storch understood the potential downside and made a point of confronting the issues proactively. (Click on video below.)

It’s this kind of wisdom that corporate America needs to practice in today’s highly-charged environment. The media are masters at driving impressions. They can do it with you, or without you. If you choose the latter, you’re letting them set the agenda.

How Is Your Company Being Perceived?

Using the media: Dan Amos and “Say-to-Pay”

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Image is huge. Especially now in a sinking economy, when companies are under media microscopes, being examined for bonuses, junkets and perceived abuse of government bailouts.

Whether criticism in every case is fair really is a moot point. It’s all about impressions. Some of the most vocal critics are roaming the halls of Congress, yet both political parties continue their time-honored practice of luxurious junkets at the expense of lobbyists, campaign donations and, yes, even taxpayer dollars.
It’s all about how you and your business are perceived, especially through the prism of the news media. Congress already has a dismal rating in the polls. Recent comments from New York’s senior senator might be one of the many reasons for the record lows federal lawmakers have achieved. Theirs is not an example you and your business should follow.

Image frequently is tied to compensation and AFLAC CEO Dan Amos and his board months ago (May, 2008) took an historic step: shareholders voted on his compensation. Amos is paid nearly $15 million annually. More than 90% of shareholders voted in favor. Amos says stockholders wanted this prerogative and he agreed. The company had an outside consultant research a projected salary range. That, in turn, was brought to the annual shareholders’ meeting and put to a vote. (Click on video below.)

Dan Amos projects warmth and a positive and proactive image. His body language speaks volumes, all of it good. He’s been AFLAC’s CEO for 19 years. His attitude and demeanor undoubtedly are major reasons for his longevity at the top.

Chuck Schumer: A New High in Hubris

Why isn't he listening?

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There have been many complaints, more than a few of them legitimate, over corporate hubris concerning junkets, salaries and bonuses. And, yes, this blog certainly has been part of that chorus.

And, while the loudest and most shrill voices have been from the halls of Congress, New York’s senior senator has set a new standard for arrogance.

According to Chuck Schumer, you don’t care about the hundreds of millions, yes, even billions of dollars in “pork” in the so-called stimulus bill.

His exact words on the floor of the Senate:

"And let me say this, to all the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments: the American people really don’t care!” (Click on video
below.)

This inside-the-Beltway, let ‘em eat cake attitude is horrifying, enlightening and validating, all at the very same time. The message seems to be that people aren’t paying attention, so we can get away with it.

According to polls, an estimated 80% of people surveyed don’t like the bill, but Schumer (and, apparently, others on the Hill) don’t care, aren’t listening and will do what they want.

The Wells Fargo Withdrawal

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Emotions always trump statistics. So, when companies that are taking billions of dollars from Washington during a deep recession continue to appear to be living too high on the hog, the negative perceptions are damaging.

Some might make a case that these trips—often called junkets—help transfuse cash into supporting businesses (e.g., hotels, taxis, tour guides, etc.). But, we’re seeing that time and again the company in question will be vilified because of the way things appear.

Thus, it should’ve been no surprise to Wells Fargo, one of those banks on the receiving end of billions of dollars in TARP money, that when word broke the company was planning a Las Vegas-bound event for employee recognition and appreciation there would be loud and angry fallout.

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has complained about the media in full-page ads in both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He cancelled the trip, yet also defended it.

His letter to the public reads in part:

“OK, time out. Something doesn’t feel right…deliberately misleading” (news reports created an impression) “every employee recognition event is a junket, a boondoggle, a waste, or that it’s for highly paid executives. Nonsense!”

But what doesn’t make sense is the fact that Wells Fargo had not learned from the sins of others and that the company even considered this trip in the first place. While hundreds of thousands are losing their jobs, now is not the time. It makes you wonder who’s not paying attention, and why.

The media can be blamed for many things but, in this case, Wells Fargo’s management need look no farther than their own headquarters. They may have had good and honest reasons for their plans, but there’s an old saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Especially when so much of the country is going through hell right now.

“A rat was dry roasted in the peanuts”

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The devastating quote in the headline to this story is from an employee recently laid off with many others at the Blakely, GA, plant of Peanut Corporation of America. He also said roaches regularly landed in the processing, blending in with dry roasted peanuts. (Click on the video below.)

You'll rarely, if ever, outrun the news media. But, you should do everything you can to keep pace. In this case, the company hasn't even tried.

PCA is a family-owned business run by Stewart Parnell. But we haven’t seen him or heard his voice. Indeed, no company representative has materialized, leaving the impression they’re hiding and giving merit to the charges of a filthy processing plant. This, despite PCA’s latest response by written statement, the only way the company has communicated:

There has been a great deal of confusing and misleading information
in the media. We want the public to know that there were regular visits and inspections of the Blakely facility by federal and state regulators in 2008. Independent audit and food safety firms also conducted customary unannounced inspections of the Blakely facility in 2008. One gave the plant an overall "superior" rating, and the other rated the plant as "Meet or Exceeds audit expectations (Acceptable-Excellent)" ratings. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the ongoing investigations, we will not be able to comment further about the facts related to this matter at this time. (Including, of course, the possibility of criminal conduct by the company.)

PCA is done; whether the company’s claim is true seems moot at this point. Lawsuits by victims and manufacturing customers are piling up. Even the company’s own insurer is contesting its obligations in the suits by salmonella victims.

And since the news broke on the outbreak traced to its Georgia facility, AP and other news sources have reported PCA also owns a four year old plant in Plainview, TX, that’s never been inspected and does not hold a food manufacturing license. While there are no claims that facility also is a source of tainted product, it, too, is now being investigated.

Even had management been accessible and visible from the start, it’s hard to imagine that PCA could survive. Too many have been sickened, at least eight deaths appear to be connected, and the company’s many food manufacturing customers surely would not return.

Meanwhile, the list of recalls continues to expand.