1.1 Introduction- We are living in interesting times where it takes 29 days of civil disobedience by the newly empowered citizens to throw a dictator of more than 30 years out of business. It is indeed the age of speed and social media where news spreads like fire about the Mumbai train attacks to all parts of the world before the major media channels even have time to catch their breath. In these times, people in Japan are relying more on the social media websites than even the internet search engine, UN or credible charities to send out SOS calls, track the aid activity and search for loved ones. Back in the good old days a lot capital was required to open up a cable television business and a few Million dollars were required for the newspaper publishing stunt. That was not all. In order to succeed there was a need for reputable high caliber human resource. Even then it would take a few months to setup these empires and few years to get the reputation and name in the business. But today it’s not the same story anymore. Anyone with a mobile phone fitted with a camera and an internet connection is a media broadcast station. All it requires is a few hundred dollars in capital investment for the mobile phone and internet connection. It takes a mere few minutes to upload your material and it’s there: live. It’s pretty scary when you have uploaded a draft version of the presentation on slide share/ doc share and someone has already read it or worse still when you have not even posted your face book status for five seconds and someone liked it. How about when you just sent out a tweet and someone or a few people re-tweeted it. And if that wasn’t enough everyone from your mother to grandfather is now on the Internet and actively using social media, skype and blogs. Just like the technology has made the life for the old people (who are the most resistant to change) a difficult proposition; in a similar fashion the social media given a biggest run for money to the traditional media industry. The same conventional media that questioned the validity of social networking sites a few years back now have the biggest following on twitter, facebook or myspace. The art of doing business has changed for all whether in the media or not. Google reports that every single day the percentage of searches on brand new topics is approximately 25%. Let this statistic sink in. 25% of all content is becoming obsolete every single day. What that means is this: companies that are industry leaders today may not be 5 years down road or worse still maybe completely wiped off. In this age of such speed nothing remains constant. Nothing that is EXCEPT the fact that the Lords of Finance have fooled the media into buying their story and only getting better at their game employing technology, social media and innovation to reach their objectives. As the media struggles to keep pace with them, they know they are winning the battle without firing a single bullet. This is reality today but it can change just like the Egyptain dictator did if we are committed enough to it. All the information needed to fight back and winning the battle is here through a step wise methodology aimed to equip the modern day financial journalist or common man to have an impact as well as a financially rewarding career. 2.1 The Blood on our hands- The World Bank is holding online debates on a pressing question “How to feed the 1 Billion hungry people of the world.” The doors of the mighty Bank are open to one and all to answer this question and to create a lasting solution for generations to come. Being an investment banker turned social entrepreneur, I got charged up to answer this question. As I took a mental stock of the solutions for the great debate, ranking each in terms of effectiveness, impact and the probability of World Bank implementing it, my thoughts began drifting to another topic. How did we create this food crisis. Of the approximate 7 Billion people in the world, 1 Billion hungry translates into 13% of the world population affected by this issue. But that’s not all. According to Ariane Arpa of DG of the Intermón Oxfam (Spain) the economic crisis is forcing a hundred people below poverty line every minute. And enough reports on from various development agencies confirm the same thing: we may not reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. Something about the picture is just not right. Our development progress it seems is deteriorating. Targets are being missed, mistakes being made and with an increase in natural calamities (as floods in Pakistan and Earthquake in Japan) due to the climate change are forcing poor further down the poverty line. What’s happening in here? And why is no one talking about it? Or maybe we need to ask a more pertinent question: why should we talk about it now and why is it important? The answer to this is simply because no idea, solution or innovation can solve the problem of feeding a billion hungry people or end the aids in Africa or child labor across the globe unless media plays it role proactively. 2.2 The Media’s role in finance-The total amount of foreign assistance by governments is so huge sometimes it’s hard to comprehend. What is 1.25 Trillion? It’s the approximate total of the net-worth of the top 400 on the Forbes Billionaire list. Doubling that would land us on a whopping $2.5 Trillion , the same amount spent on foreign assistance by the governments in the last fifty years. And what real progress have we seen? We know the answer to that one. But the real issue is that no one has bothered to ask where the tax payer’s money has gone? This does not only happen in the development finance sector, we could just as easily find examples in corporate finance where the media was fooled and the public was robbed of its hard earned money. It doesn’t take much of a jog across the memory lane to remember the cases of Enron and World Call and if that was not chilling enough then the mere thought of the wave of tsunami of global financial crisis starting from the United States spreading across the globe sparing nothing in its path, should send shivers to any normal, feeling human being. And while the media may not admit to anyone there must have been a moment of reflection, in the hearts of many where this thought must have given a chills as to how the public was left in the cold and the media fooled into reporting the story that was being fed to it. The stage was set for the greatest trap laid for the media by the spin doctors behind the large and mighty organizations, development organizations and our favorite brands. This led to lack of accountability which resultantly produced faulty projects had little or relevance to the development objectives for which the Foreign Assistance was actually set out in development finance case. For the story of the global financial crisis the companies one after another made products fully aware that their borrowers were not creditworthy, knowing that this house of cards would collapse and the common man would bear the brunt of it. The reason these dream merchants could prey on the emotions and dreams of people was the lack of understanding of the media on the real issues in finance which forced them report only what they were told. Partly the media is to blame because it just served one part of its role: to break the news, to create sensation and to have content that sells. The media’s role is much greater than that. Its role is forming opinions, creating awareness, spurring dialogues and ensuring that the big and mighty are held responsible for their actions. Only when this is done will we reach a world free of poverty, hunger and unemployment. 3.1 The information arbitrage: opens doors to a world of deception- It is true that not all development projects are a failure; not all development bodies tell stories to deceive; and not media professionals lack the understanding on economic and financial concept, sadly such cases are not common practice. So how do you deceive a room full of street smart, diplomatic, and intelligent press? The solution: prey on their weakness! This weakness is the lack of knowledge the journalist community has about topics of finance. It’s not an accident; it’s designed that way to keep the power out the reach of the public. Being a subject matter expert or sporting an advanced ability on topic gives the user insights into the tricks of the trade which the novice lacks. In the world of finance, the topics are made especially complex using formulas (understanding that most of us hate to play with numbers, equations and derivations), theories with lots of jargons and clichés and extremely high barriers to entry for the non-professional. These steps combined create fear in the hearts and mind of the public from learning the topics of finance forcing them to stay away, which of course creates room for those with this knowledge to manipulate the reality as they desire. It’s a feeling of awe, admiration and even slight intimidation when one is in the company of a person with an accounting or financial knowledge. Sometimes to the extent, that we as individuals lose all sense of logic and understanding when under the spell of the “guru of finance.” Who can forget Enron’s board and management? The press gave rave reviews to them while the management was cooking its books, lying and deceiving the public. And when the bubble burst, Jeff Skilling, the Enron boss claimed that he does not understand accounting in a Congressional hearing. And he holds an MBA from Harvard Business School! What’s true for the corporate and for-profit world is equally true for the development finance sector. The media’s mistake in not holding the moving and shakers of development finance accountable can have grave consequences: food vanishing from the plates of the hungry, health care becoming so expensive that it gets beyond the reach of poor and middle classes in developing countries and poverty becoming so huge that people are forced to commit suicide. This is a serious matter. The journalist community may have blood on its hands and it needs to act at lightning speed if it wants to makes amends. 3.2 Case for making the transition from powerless to empowerment-The key motivation for making this landmark transition is the economic sense of it. In the world of media where there is immense competition in the traditional topics, the financial topics because of their complexities remain relatively untapped. Less competition translates into bigger pay cheques and hefty bonuses which means more abundance. It is said there is “no stopping to the success for an idea whose time has come.” And a little search on the internet shows that the time is ripe for reporting on financial topics whether that of issues related to poverty, personal finance or development finance. Therefore for those who embrace this knowledge now there is opportunity to create a niche, taking on a leadership role and having an impact! This means a lot more new, interesting and meaningful articles, discussion and programming content on finance. This is especially true in development finance where a lot of oldies as well and youth alike are focused because of the global awareness programs on these topics. These people (old and young) have become knowledgeable and demand that an accountability from the charities, NGOs and INGOs they donate to. Without an understanding of the critical aspects of finance and economics the media cannot put requisite questions to the people in control of huge development budgets, they cannot play the role of watch dogs and bring people to task when mistakes are made and nor could they form the opinion of the public on their point of view. No longer are we living in times where people send a cheque to a charity/ social organization and forget all about it. They want practical results. And this gap could easily and efficiently be filled by the media if they know and understand this industry, report objectively, accurately and in a timely fashion. The downside of not understanding this is that if the media will not play its role, this gap will be filled by the novice social media players as was witnessed in the Mumbai blasts that news from twitter spread across the globe before any major media channel could even break the news. 4.1 A practical model for going from no-where to there: In business it is often quoted that there is no royal road to success. The same is true for the media professional that want to make a transition from being in slumber to world of enlightenment where they are making positive contributions to the world of finance. This seven step model by no-means is a gospel. It is a road map to get us started on path of achieving our goals, the seven steps are listed below: i) Understanding the destination ii) Getting motivated using the pain pleasure model iii) Practical training and how to get it iv) Networking for survival v) Social media and the changing landscape vi) Innovation vii) Monitoring & Evaluation 4.1 (i) Understanding the destination “One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter .” The first step in this model is to make a note of what is it that the media wants to achieve? It involves clearly identifying the goal/ spelling out the destination in clear terms that anyone would be able to tell once s/he sees it. The destination is simple: “To become knowledgeable and empowered in financial topics so that the journalist can move beyond reporting on what is fed to him/her to asking intelligent questions that have an impact and causes the organization/agencies to be mindful of its actions, accountable to the public at large and finally to partner with the positive initiatives of the corporations/development bodies so as to create awareness in the public about new topics to improve their lives and get their attention on the most pressing problems of the world.” 4.1 (ii) Committing to the goal The goals mentioned in step I of the model are indeed a tall order. And it may not be suitable for every reporter in the media to jump on and grab it. However, for those that do the rewards are many and widespread in terms of finances, satisfaction and ability to create an impact. Since this is no easy task, it requires commitment to be a star in this field and to ensure that we do not lose the deal to the direct or indirect competition. To reach the level of commitment required for working in the financial media, one needs to understand how humans behave. There are two basic reasons why humans act: 1) avoidance of pain and 2) the achievement of pleasure. A world watches in horror as every year hundreds of thousands of people vanish from the globe because of extreme poverty, hunger and diseases. The pain of losing so many of our tribe should be a motivator strong enough for the media to let go of their fear of the complexities involved in understanding development finance. In the field of corporate finance, we understand that 97% of the world wealth is in the hands of 3% of the population of the world. The pain of being in the 97% category and being deprived of all the abundance around us should motivate many a journalist to pick up the study of finance. For the pleasure part of it, the knowledge that your contributions could be a source of joy and abundance to billions across the globe should be give this community a new zeal and zest to commit to do their due share. On such best practice comes from CNN that has taken upon itself to end modern day slavery in a land mark project titled “Freedom project”. 4.1 (iii) Practical Training and how to get it The third step is lies in getting the requisite training needed to tackle the reporting issues, opinion formation, and awareness creation. Many in the journalist community could swear on coming across CEOs/ CFOs or financial people who took training/courses or coaching to deal with the press and the media. Some of them may admit with pride to having coached some big name(s) themselves. Yet if a reverse analysis was conducted to see how many journalists took coaching in financial and economic issues the answers would be extremely disappointing. This does not mean taking college courses or a life time commitment to reading financial journals but instead getting comfortable with the numbers, ratios and common sense understanding of what’s going on. For this purpose the media could learn from its counterparts in the corporate world and get this knowledge quickly and easily through: a) Getting coaches from the financial industry- This is same as the media people train the corporate management to deal with the press. Those in the financial media need get coaches from the financial industry to get training in what the numbers mean, how to interpret them, how to deal with the corporate management or development finance professionals. How to cross question these people to get accurate information. b) Enrolling in courses and seminars- Like most other fields of media the background information is what enables media to develop stories, ask questions and hold people accountable for their actions. In finance its gets a bit more complex because of the technicality of the subject. Therefore, a recommended best practice is to refresh the knowledge by re-visiting financial courses one took in the University or even interning at the financial department of an organization to the pick the tricks of the trade. Seminar while being a more costly solution payback in terms of time saving and expertise of the speakers. c) Conferences and Professional Events- Having the media at the financial events is a common practice. But the idea most conference organizers have is to get exposure and media mileage. The financial reporter should be taking a part in these events not only to merely report them but to really understand the emerging trends and topics in the financial industry. Armed with this knowledge the financial professional is ready and equipped to perform his/her job to have the maximum impact. d) Books, articles and reports- While it is not necessary to read every single published material online and offline for a company/ development finance topic that is published in order to give the competition a run for money the financial reporter will have to bank on these traditional methods for making a mark. 4.1 (iv) Networking for Survival Armed with the knowledge of key financial aspects and the understanding of what to do with it (interviews, articles, television programming, blogging or tweets) the financial media professional is ready to jump into the getting the inside knowledge of the financial industry. In the world of finance if something is critical to your survival it is networking with friends and competitors alike. Another thing that the financial journalist needs to keep in mind is this: the world of finance is a small gathering of bright people who like to think they are gospels of knowledge, love to intimidate others through clichés, jargons and a dress their simplest conversation with a heavy of complexity about ratios, financial terms and numbers. Above all they make no room of outsiders, guard their dens like a tigress, watch the sky and land like a hawk and attack like a lion. They also tend to project a dull boring exterior ward off unwanted attention. The key to getting friendly and building your power network is to know that these people like all others are humans and have the same needs and desires. If you press one of their hot buttons, they could well be in the palm of your hand. Once the ice is broken this lot is one of the most friendly, interesting and professional one. Being so close money and power, they are more likely to forget their limits, consider themselves invincible or even forget to be accountable to the shareholders or public at large. But in a system of checks, accountability and incentives they display their best talents. During the course of his/her journey towards networking and partnering with the of the financial princes whether in the development or the for-profit sector the financial journalist will come across quite some who do not display few of these characteristics if any. They could be the new generation of financial wizards who grew up in the social media age and learnt their etiquettes or got their lessons from the beating in the global financial crisis or even have within their DNA a different kind of financer: the one with a soul. The shining example of which is Warren Buffet who gave $30 Billion of his wealth to Bill and Melinda gates foundation or Arshad Chaudhry, an accountant by profession & the proud owner of a tax consulting empire in the UK, fighting a war against cancer; pushing everyone in his network to live life to the fullest and taking on the challenges that healthy and young people shy away from. Dr. Younis, the noble prize recipient and founder of Grameen bank is another case in point who worked for the last thirty years with the poor in Bangladesh to create a micro-finance bank that became the identity of the country and helped pull out millions of people from poverty. 4.1 (v) Social Media and the Changing Landscape Working with financial experts is not only rewarding but allows the financial journalist to learn about the new innovative and interesting topics that attempts the address the most happening and pressing topics in the world. One thing the financial journalist would need to be mindful of is the fact that social media is changing the playing field. The financial journalist would find the following on social site more than the traditional media. In this arena, they would find the meeting other professionals and novices alike. The interesting dynamics would be content available to global audience, availability of round the clock presence of the material and immediate feedback (meaning that when a reader likes your work they share it with friends and network quickly and some social media sites actually allow them to dislike the material you have online). The other very interesting concept, is the left tail which means that while traditional media is looking to target a certain niche’(s) in print and programming content; here anyone can access the data, which means even if the readership/ market is small someone/ few people would always be interested. 4.1 (vi) Innovation No business discussion is ever considered complete without a great deal of innovation. It’s truly what helps organizations grow, cut costs and reach out the new markets. And how does innovation look like for the Financial Journalist? It’s about new ways of writing/ talking/ reporting as much as it is about reaching the new markets. One such market to consider is the micro-finance market where a lot is happening with the removal of Dr. Younis, the father of Micro finance from his Nobel Prize winner bank Grameen, where SKS the first Indian Microfinance company to have an IPO went bust and the world witnessed the Andhra Crisis is end that threatened to put an end to the micro-finance business in India. All of them are interesting topics that the microfinance experts as well the donors, common public and students are interested in discovering. Sadly however, more often than not when one finds an article on the web or in the magazines on these topics it’s either a narration of what the Microfinance Company fed to the financial journalist or his/her best guess on it the issue. Of course there are other interesting topics to consider from the corporate world as the financial cost of not promoting enough women to the board, or impact of earth quake on the Japanese businesses and the health care reforms and its true price to the average American. 4.1 (vi) Monitoring & Evaluation Like all great models that point that the end is not really the end but the new beginning. The same is true for this model as well. This is the reflection point for the financial journalist where she/he sits down with to see how good or bad the performance was. This is time to take stock how many fellow journalists got envious! That was of course a light hearted comment but the idea is to see that the goal which was set out as a first step to this method, what results did it yield? How was the performance compared with the past years? And how was the performance compared to the peers? In order to perform this step effectively an objective framework is needed to monitor the performance of the financial journalist, assign scores and put on a graph to identify weaknesses. These weaknesses should be addressed in the next plan. One such Monitoring framework for the financial journalist is shown in the table below: Monitoring Frame Work for the Financial Journalist Sr No % Wt Indicators Max Points Scored 1 20% Number of Assignments 5 2 10% Quality of Reporting 5 3 10% Innovation 5 4 10% Increased Credibility 5 5 25% Financial Compensation 5 6 05% Impact 5 7 20% Increase in Network 5 100% 35 For purposes of analysis, we will consider Hanif Kazmi, an Asian Journalist residing in New York who moved from reporting current affairs to financial reporting over the last year and uses the Monitoring Frame Work table to measure his performance. We are considering Hanif got 100 assignments for Development Reporter magazine on topics of social businesses, micro-finance and economic development. He took a course on economics and development finance online, asked a friend working created innovation in the reporting style by writing short crisp articles on development topics, asking feedback for it online through tweets, linkedin and facebook status updates and putting the articles on Digg. In the course of a year 200 executives from development agencies connected with him on Linkedin and other networking sites. His credibility as a journalist improved because his articles got lot of comments that began showing in google search results and apart from articles Hanif got invites to speak at local conventions and events on these topics improving his income as well as outreach. Hanif fills out the table above to gauage his performance: Monitoring Frame Work for the Financial Journalist No % Wt Indicators Max Pts Score Wt Avg Total 1 20% Number of Assignments 5 3.5 1.00 0.70 2 10% Quality of Report 5 3.0 0.50 0.30 3 10% Innovation 5 3.0 0.50 0.30 4 10% Increased Credibility 5 3.0 0.50 0.30 5 25% Financial Compensation 5 3.5 1.25 0.88 6 05% Impact 5 3.0 0.25 0.15 7 20% Increase in Network 5 3.5 1.00 0.70 100% 35 22.50 5.00 3.33 Hanif considers 4 a target where he wants to reach in the next 3-5 years on all areas. He defines a performance of 3.5 as good, 3 as average and below that requiring serious attention. According to the monitoring framework table he has performed well in the areas of financial compensation the causes of which could be increased network as well as increased number of assignments. Of these he considers the network more valuable and draws a future strategy of building smaller high quality assignments with greater impact and outreach than more volume reporting with little impact or innovation. What was considered using the case of a fictitious reporter Hanif Kazmi could well be applied in real time to by the financial journalist to improve performance, chalk out future plans and strategy. Regarding how often one should use this framework the answer is often enough to be motivated and keep track of performance without losing sight of the big picture. It’s a good idea to use it every quarter as that when most corporations across the world give out their quarter reports. Four months is long enough time to make some impact and short enough to make amends in the annual plan. Another milestone period could be six month or at the very least an annual review is recommeneded. 5 Next Steps More often than not, entrepreneurs ask coaches, what does one do to get the business started. While there are many different answers to it, the smart coaches always tell them “do it now!” It is said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And that step is doing it now and making amends along the way. The world of finance is full of ratios. This percent of profit, that percent of sales, this much ROI, ROE and EPS are all examples of it. One very fine ratio discussed in a magazine was the 70% rule meant to help overcome any procrastination or analysis paralysis that may occur when starting something new. The 70% rule states that plan, work and design 70% of your product, idea or service and any improvement that needs to be made can be done so post implementation. The world of financial journalism is interesting, exciting and reward. It can open up various income streams for the financial journalist including consulting, talks and seminars. The first step is often the most difficult but once it is done the rest is all possible. Armed with the knowledge of finance and an understanding of industry the financial journalist can ensure that no one would be able to fool them or keep the public in dark. The financial journalist has lost too much already and cannot afford to lose any more.