Recent issues
We've been plenty busy here, churning out issues and keeping our heads down, so it's about time I pointed out some "wins" and great work from staff and corries.
If you missed it, do look at Spanish Editor Santiago Fittipaldi's interview with OAS head José Miguel Insulza. For a guy with every ax in the world to grind (Pinochet threw him in jail, tortued and killed his friends), and heading a fractious and difficult club that includes Venezuela and Mexico and is still taken quite seriously as a political organization (Chávez called him names just after this interview ran), he's pretty cool and quick on intelligent answers.
We asked Mexico Correspondent Marisol Rueda to get out of the capital and write about something non-business, like maybe food. So she headed into the countryside and ended up munching on insects and drinking agave straight from the plant. Now that's dedication! And an excellent piece of writing.
What's the essence of a Latin Trade story? Brazil Correspondent Margarida Pfeifer pitched an idea about Natura, a company we've covered before, with an entirely new angle: They were opening stores, and not based on some idea from the home office in Brazil but from accidental sales happening at a demonstration store in Mexico. Talking about crossing borders. A Brazilian makeup retailer opens a store in Mexico just for salespeople to try stuff out, ordinary people start walking in, then the whole idea of opening shops is translated back to Brazil. Excellent!
In Ecuador, ever the news hotspot now with Correa in charge, we got an exclusive with him that ran as he took office in January. But how you ask, considering we closed that issue in November? Well, María Elena Verdezoto decided the best way was to approach both leading candidates, interview them both as if they had already won (with their agreement), write them both up but then run only the actual winner. Back story: We had to hold that till the last excruciating second as recounts set in. When other presidents began to publicly congratulate Correa, then we said to production, Yeah, okay, print. He probably won. You have the right interview in the magazine.
A great idea drives the story. We see that in action in the executive education feature turned in by Doralisa Pilarte in Washington. I try not to give writers really hard-and-fast instructions, since I know a good reporter will find a better story if she feels she is free to pursue it. Doralisa did just that, coming up with a great trend piece on how b-schools are not only teaching inside corporations, but doing actual business tasks and being measured in terms of return on investment. Great example of how to buck the obvious trend story (businesses want external training) and find real news instead.
Brazil Editor Carlos Adese is a red-meat kind of journalist. He goes for the big interview, the sweeping political story, the exclusive access our readers expect. Then he turns on a dime and writes things like Rent-a-Husband. Love it, just love it.
It's getting harder and harder to write our annual executives-to-watch feature. Partly, it's kind of a worn-out idea, so recruiters and executives are tired of responding to multiple magazine and consultant/researcher requests for the same data. We can understand, and we're working to freshen up that concept for next year. Just for fun, though, we made this year's look at executives on the rise even harder. Under the direction of News Editor Forrest Jones, we set out to name the guys who should be running companies soon, the CFOs and operating heads of major companies in the region. Nevertheless, it turned around great, and the file from Paul Harris in Chile and Lisa Wing in Peru was exemplary work, as usual.
If you believe Marcelo Odebrecht -- and you have no reason to doubt him, he's head of huge Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which is busy putting up bridges and digging giant tunnels around the globe -- we've already outgrown our capacity to create infrastructure. Not sure if that's a sign of impending financial calamity or poor investment planning, but the notion that a company as big as his is turning down work is compelling. Brazil Editor Carlos Adese nails the important stuff in this revealing interview.
If you missed it, do look at Spanish Editor Santiago Fittipaldi's interview with OAS head José Miguel Insulza. For a guy with every ax in the world to grind (Pinochet threw him in jail, tortued and killed his friends), and heading a fractious and difficult club that includes Venezuela and Mexico and is still taken quite seriously as a political organization (Chávez called him names just after this interview ran), he's pretty cool and quick on intelligent answers.
We asked Mexico Correspondent Marisol Rueda to get out of the capital and write about something non-business, like maybe food. So she headed into the countryside and ended up munching on insects and drinking agave straight from the plant. Now that's dedication! And an excellent piece of writing.
What's the essence of a Latin Trade story? Brazil Correspondent Margarida Pfeifer pitched an idea about Natura, a company we've covered before, with an entirely new angle: They were opening stores, and not based on some idea from the home office in Brazil but from accidental sales happening at a demonstration store in Mexico. Talking about crossing borders. A Brazilian makeup retailer opens a store in Mexico just for salespeople to try stuff out, ordinary people start walking in, then the whole idea of opening shops is translated back to Brazil. Excellent!
In Ecuador, ever the news hotspot now with Correa in charge, we got an exclusive with him that ran as he took office in January. But how you ask, considering we closed that issue in November? Well, María Elena Verdezoto decided the best way was to approach both leading candidates, interview them both as if they had already won (with their agreement), write them both up but then run only the actual winner. Back story: We had to hold that till the last excruciating second as recounts set in. When other presidents began to publicly congratulate Correa, then we said to production, Yeah, okay, print. He probably won. You have the right interview in the magazine.
A great idea drives the story. We see that in action in the executive education feature turned in by Doralisa Pilarte in Washington. I try not to give writers really hard-and-fast instructions, since I know a good reporter will find a better story if she feels she is free to pursue it. Doralisa did just that, coming up with a great trend piece on how b-schools are not only teaching inside corporations, but doing actual business tasks and being measured in terms of return on investment. Great example of how to buck the obvious trend story (businesses want external training) and find real news instead.
Brazil Editor Carlos Adese is a red-meat kind of journalist. He goes for the big interview, the sweeping political story, the exclusive access our readers expect. Then he turns on a dime and writes things like Rent-a-Husband. Love it, just love it.
It's getting harder and harder to write our annual executives-to-watch feature. Partly, it's kind of a worn-out idea, so recruiters and executives are tired of responding to multiple magazine and consultant/researcher requests for the same data. We can understand, and we're working to freshen up that concept for next year. Just for fun, though, we made this year's look at executives on the rise even harder. Under the direction of News Editor Forrest Jones, we set out to name the guys who should be running companies soon, the CFOs and operating heads of major companies in the region. Nevertheless, it turned around great, and the file from Paul Harris in Chile and Lisa Wing in Peru was exemplary work, as usual.
If you believe Marcelo Odebrecht -- and you have no reason to doubt him, he's head of huge Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which is busy putting up bridges and digging giant tunnels around the globe -- we've already outgrown our capacity to create infrastructure. Not sure if that's a sign of impending financial calamity or poor investment planning, but the notion that a company as big as his is turning down work is compelling. Brazil Editor Carlos Adese nails the important stuff in this revealing interview.
posted by Greg Brown at 10:39 AM
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