Here's a lesson for all of you who spend money on media training for trainees - and it's neatly boiled down in one episode of that giant of Australian media, Four Corners, this time with reporter Angus Grigg wrangling the story.
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Trainee one: dressed in school uniform, badge on. Meet Brad Banducci, the CEO of Woolworths. Looks like he's one of the boys. Turns out he is. Has lots of opinions, including (applause deserved) ditching sales of tacky Australia Day merch. Haughty, arrogant. Confident beyond doubt. Attack strong. Defence pretty much non-existent. Admit nothing. Deny everything.
Trainee two: dressed in C-suite corporate attire. Meet Leah Weckert. The Coles CEO looks like she is a typical executive of a listed company (except she's a woman). Haughty, arrogant. Defence strong. Attack non-existent. But today, I can barely remember a thing she said although I remember how I felt when I saw it. Admit nothing. Deny everything.
There are different kinds of media training. One, the kind I did years back where I was taught how to control my nerves before doing any kind of live interview. Main message: be prepared. Deliver short replies. Be warm and cheerful. This was excellent. It stopped me throwing up before radio interviews and helped me when I appeared on the much-loved-but-now-dead-because-of-ABC-pigheadedness The Drum (I love Hard Quiz, in extreme moderation).
The more dangerous kind, at least for the public, is where executives are taught to speak in meaningless sound bites, to deflect where possible, to have no emotion and definitely no snark. (This would be nearly impossible for me to achieve.) To say things in the hope they will never get caught.
The good news for all of us is that the thousands of dollars Woolworths spent on media training for its CEO Brad Banducci did not work. We got to see him appear snarky and smartarse. But I don't think Woolies will get its money back.
What happened to him? Midway through an interview with Grigg, he got up to leave in an apparent fit of pique. Why?
When Grigg brought up criticisms of supermarkets made by Rod Sims, former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Banducci denied everything. Seemingly tried to impugn Sims' knowledge and understanding. Said Sims was "retired". Let me take you back ...
Angus Grigg, Four Corners reporter: I'm sorry, the former head of the competition commission says who says, his words are...
Brad Banducci, Woolworths CEO: Retired by the way...(SNARK ALERT)
Grigg: I don't think you would impugn his integrity and his understanding of competition law.
Banducci: I'm just saying the world has got much more competitive ...
Grigg: He retired 18 months ago.
Banducci: Okay. Can we take that out? Is that okay? I mean he is retired but I shouldn't have said that, are we going to leave it in there? (SNARK REGRET)
Grigg stood his ground. Banducci got up to leave and said "I'm done". I guess the Four Corners team tells its victims that as cameras roll everything is on the record (I was once interviewed for Four Corners about Alan Jones. I was truly terrible. It never went to air). Woolworths PR person was on hand to wrangle Banducci back to his seat. But at that point, the CEO looked gone. Turns out he was. On Wednesday morning, it was announced Banducci would retire later this year. Weckert has survived so far.
But why was the resignation announced on Wednesday morning? I don't think it had a lot to do with the Four Corners fiasco. Perhaps it was to distract from the results Woolies announced that day. Yes, after weeks of saying the supermarkets didn't price gouge, it turns out supermarket profits are up 20 per cent.
It's been just over two weeks since Alan Fels, former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, released his investigation into price gouging and unfair pricing practices, commissioned by the ACTU. His conclusions?
"Australians are paying prices that are too high, too often. The cause is weak and ineffective competition in too many markets," he said.
He urged the government to act, to investigate the nature and causes of high prices. And then he urged the government to strengthen competition policy.
Very straightforward. Unfortunately I don't see government acting any time soon. Just over a month ago, the Prime Minister appointed Craig Emerson to lead a review into the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct. And two months ago the Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Prices announced it would inquire into and report on the price-setting practices and market power of major supermarkets. Submissions closed in early February.
By the time the reports come out, I'm guessing our inflation crisis will have subsided but in the meantime, Australian consumers are going without to exist. Truly we don't need anything more than the Fels report. It sets out the problem, explains the impact on consumers and provides a framework for fixing the many problems. The ACTU responded to the Fels report by endorsing everything it said. Why the government thinks it needs to go further is beyond me. A noted former regulator did the report and the fact it was supported by the peak body for unions is irrelevant. It's done. We know what to do.
Can you fix a duopoly by funding a new competitor? Can you have a regulator that fines, punishes and names supermarkets that lie about prices? I'd love to be able to regulate profits for essential industries (haha. Don't think that would ever happen). Can you actually make competition work in this country?
The government knows what to do. Now it needs to start doing it.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
Banducci's horror interview offers lessons about usefulness of media training
14
0
22.02.2024
Here's a lesson for all of you who spend money on media training for trainees - and it's neatly boiled down in one episode of that giant of Australian media, Four Corners, this time with reporter Angus Grigg wrangling the story.
$0/
(min cost $0)
Login or signup to continue reading
Trainee one: dressed in school uniform, badge on. Meet Brad Banducci, the CEO of Woolworths. Looks like he's one of the boys. Turns out he is. Has lots of opinions, including (applause deserved) ditching sales of tacky Australia Day merch. Haughty, arrogant. Confident beyond doubt. Attack strong. Defence pretty much non-existent. Admit nothing. Deny everything.
Trainee two: dressed in C-suite corporate attire. Meet Leah Weckert. The Coles CEO looks like she is a typical executive of a listed company (except she's a woman). Haughty, arrogant. Defence strong. Attack non-existent. But today, I can barely remember a thing she said although I remember how I felt when I saw it. Admit nothing. Deny everything.
There are different kinds of media training. One, the kind I did years back where I was taught how to control my nerves before doing any kind of live interview. Main message: be prepared. Deliver short replies. Be warm and cheerful. This was excellent. It stopped me throwing up before radio interviews and helped me when I appeared on the much-loved-but-now-dead-because-of-ABC-pigheadedness The Drum (I love Hard Quiz, in extreme moderation).
The more dangerous........
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