Davos Day 3: From predictable ground to new insight – Ben Verwaayen

Ben Verwaayen is guest blogging for the Forum. He is CEO of Alcatel-Lucent and a Member of the World Economic Forum Foundation Board. He will attending the Annual Meeting in Davos. You can follow his updates @Alcatel_Lucent.

Bumping into famous people is one of the great attractions of Davos.  Having a few words with someone who is desperately looking at your badge to figure out who you are is inspiring!  But actually, I find the real inspiration in the conversations that start on predictable grounds and then go into different directions.

It was supposed to be one of the routine 10 minute interviews.

But it developed into a most interesting conversation.

We now have more media outlets then ever before. Classical ones, print, radio, tv and new ones on the internet.  An explosion of real time media, with rush to the public attitudes. No time to verify a thing. And thoughtful press, clearly focused on catering to their audience.

Tell me how you feel, and I tell you what to read or watch or listen to.  Mmm, so we select in what we want to know, in what light we want to get the explanation. And the media, knowing how their audiences feel about things, selects subjects and tone accordingly. They give audience perspectives.

So much for dialogue and communications…

We decided to go back to the interview, and deal with it professionally.  But it felt different, especially here in Davos where we strive to have in depth communications and dialogues about everything. The journalist and me.

It was a moment of great insight…..and a very enjoyable media interview.