The mumbling non-committal interviewee, and these meetings are invariably with either non-desi executives or early morning meetings. Some of these meetings invariably turn out to be a chance to catch up on coffee, because half the answers get lost in either the accent or are not answered - "We don't disclose those numbers..." The weird thing is that those numbers are often revealed (though sometimes on page 467n of the Annual Report) but our friends just have to act cagey. I have figured out what is a 'forward looking' question by now, and what the Regulators can claim to be out of line, but so being fed bullshit is sometimes very irritating. Especially at nine in the morning. Then again, god knows whagook those guys have been fed by their PR handlers, they could go to disgruntled nutjobs to find out about me. Who knows?
Though you also manage to get interesting interviews once in a while. A recent interview I conducted with an industrialist was on a beach, another one was fun because the person (strangely for a foreign executive) came out with all guns blazing! Of course, you also get the most fascinating interviews with some characters who suddenly claim that their company is developing some all-new thing (which invariably would be a copy of something else) or that they expected a 40 per cent market share in a years time from under one percent today. You don't know what to ask delusional interviewees, because if you ask 'How?' you will be stuck there for half the day and be subject to quadruple your daily recommended dose of Powerpoint's, without one worthwhile slide.
Anyway, enough cribbing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
When you say non-desi, do you mean Japanese or European/American? My impression is that the styles are different. The Americans love to elaborate on their work - the Japanese are more laconic.
Post a Comment