On being interviewed by Newsweek

My thought map

I received an interview request two weeks ago from a Newsweek correspondent. 

Now there's no hiding that I was a newbie to international media, particularly about being interviewed by as prestigious a global publication as Newsweek (for the Davos special edition), because I was quite frankly very excited about the prospect! At the same time, I was really curious how they came along to selecting me!

The interview request came with a set of four question categories they would cover: My business performance, the state of the South African financial services industry, opportunities and threats in South Africa, and opinions on the BRICs economic grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

The day before the interview I duly went about structuring my thoughts as per the thought map in the image, to give myself some structure to think around. I also prepared some opinions based on the facts at hand. The latter is pretty important to me, because in a position of leadership, I expect no less than applied thinking. So I interpreted my mind map, and generated some ideas on the BRICs Group in particular, from the perspective of how to leverage the opportunity of this emerging alliance.

Along came the interview, and we flew over most of the matters I had prepared for, discovering instead that they were keen to explore some matters around SMEs (small business)! Now I have some global credibility in this matter, having presented around the world on SME development to business, academic and technology forums, but I was not quite mentally prepared for the questions. However, I don't think it went too badly, considering that I have some pretty sound opinions of the state of SME development, based on years of academic research on the subject as well as years of practical experience in banking SMEs.

In retrospect, I think I should have spoken a little slower, perhaps have had a more formal posture (the interview was recorded on 'video'), and perhaps taken a second or two to gather my thoughts after each question was asked! I will now wait to see how the interview will be published, when I will no doubt learn more about how to conduct responding to the media in this way! Hmmm, I think I had better find myself a media coach for next time!

Thank you Newsweek for the opportunity!

Here is the content of the invite received, per fax.