Yes, the jury is still out on my skills as a businessman. I have only been working as country manager for Ringier, a Swiss publishing house, in Vietnam since July 2009. But after six months, I can’t tell you how often I refer back to core journalism techniques (in an attempt) to be a better businessperson. Could it be that going to journalism school made me a better businessperson? My case:

• Pitching (1): If you can’t summarize your business plan or reason to cooperate/partner in one short sentence, then you might as well put your money into a pile on the floor and burn it. The plan, the people, the time line… The end of your “story” had better be crystal clear before you get started.
• Pitching (2): If you’re not passionate about your plan to make money, then why should I be passionate? You’re selling ideas; and instead of editors, you’re convincing investors, partners, staff, etc. Put on your sales hat and be sure to use words that will sell an “editor” like ‘amazing’, ‘limited time’ and ‘exclusive.’
• Don’t bury the nut. If you haven’t got on slide 2, after your fancy .pptx or Keynote intro slide, the reason WHY we are sitting in this room during our busy schedules, then you’ve already wasted everyone’s time. Chances are, if you have more than 10 slides, you’re in trouble. Same goes for a press release. Don’t make me think and show me why I should pay attention right away.
• Show don’t tell. Okay, you’re passionate. You’re convincing. I like you. But I’m running a business. My staff or I won’t eat if I make a bad decision here. Show me in a clear cut business plan how we’re going to make money. Let me see the numbers, the reasoning and/or the evidence that backs up what you’re so convincingly pitching me.
• There is nothing different from a “beat note” and “market research report.” Who are you talking to about this business plan? How diverse is your source list? How do you know that the people you are talking to know what they are talking about? When things change, how do you know about them first? Is your beat note up-to-date?
• Verify your sources. In business, there is a lot of pressure to minimize weakness and maximize advantage(s). Often what is “told” is very different from what is “real.” It’s your job – your bottom line – to check the difference. The easiest way to do this is to talk to people/businesses around this person/business. Same thing in journalism. He said X. Ask Y and Z if true.
• Fact check everything. Again. .5 and .05 are very different numbers. Does the labor contract with the new sales director say, “gross” or “net” under salary? BIG difference.
• What’s new? What’s news? To state the obvious: if someone is already doing it or it’s already been done, then it’s less likely you’ll be successful or noticed if you do it too. If it’s not news, then it’s not worth pitching. Readers want news, not the obvious or apparent. Same for business. Got a new idea to convert a blanket into a jacket, call it a Snuggie and make bank. Shave a decimal place off a kilowatt, call up the CEO or your congressman. If you’re not solving problems or giving kinetic value to an end user, then don’t bother. You’re wasting time. And time is money. Right freelancer?
• Do more with less. A reasonably intelligent and motivated individual can perform multiple tasks at the same time. Got a hot music single from a sexy musician? Don’t sell the album. Sell the single, the album, the merchandise, the branding, the concert ticket, the soundtrack rights, etc. Got a story? No, you have a Twitter newsflash, a Web crawl headline, an above-the-fold photo, a breaking blog article, a newspaper article, a video clip, 24-hour pundit babble, a syndicate wire story, a magazine feature, PR for your news org and a lot more. The person that broke the story… Give them credit. Give them training. They should be able to do everything. Maximize their value. Maximize the story. Take a service or product and split it up and sell it more. Keep costs down by empowering/training fewer people to do more.

Maybe the great irony of the media is dying, is that in the year when business went bad, old-school journalism techniques could save it. I don’t know. Jury is still out.

It seems that since I started taking classes at the J-School last August, I’ve been excited about taking classes at the Columbia’s B (or Business) School this January. In fact, I keep telling people (erroneously) that I’m earning a master’s in new media publishing, as if that existed. To quote George Constanza, “It’s not a lie, if you believe it.” Still, I feel guilty for making up a master’s.

To assuage my guilt and to genuinely learn how to read a spreadsheet, I’ve enrolled in Business and Economics Reporting with Dave Kansas of The Street and Wall Street Journal and cross-registered to enroll in International Media Management at the B-School with Professor Eli Noam this spring. For those paying attention to my Twitter feed, I recently discovered that my plan to take International Financial Management proved to be, uh, overwhelming. Flipping through the first 100 pages or so of the $103 textbook reminded me of my intense aversion to formulas that include things like,  ∾ ∞ ∑ ∫ and other puzzling Greek math symbols. Wasn’t I taking a B-School course so that I could learn how to read a basic spreadsheet? And if so, why wasn’t I just learning accounting basics, like everyone told me to? I put down “International Financial Management” by Geert Bakaert and Robert Hodrick and walked swiftly to Professor Noam’s class, where I was startled to learn…

1. People eat in B-School classes. I mean they eat. This guy had warmed up some pasta and meatballs and was going at it. Another guy munched an entire salad WHILE THE PROFESSOR LECTURED. I couldn’t believe it. We would never do that at the J-School. We just sit there and drink our expensive Cokes and dream of Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches.
2. There are far more students in a B-School class than in a J-School one. There were at least 50-60 students in International Media Management today. So, score 1 J-School. It wouldn’t be so bad if they all weren’t eating or…
3. Crammed into some weird UN-Security-Council-inspired seating arrangement. The space between the tables in the U-shaped seating arrangement is so tight, that when you need to get up for, say a napkin after eating your lasagna, you essentially have to walk out on your tippytoes, effectively raising your waist so that your crotch dangerously brushes past the back of some poor scrunched-over student’s head while your butt wipes the table behind. It’s as if were constantly stuck in the window seat when flying, and the person next to you, instead of politely getting up, motions for you to bowlegged-ly shuffle sideways out into the aisle. That’s you squeezing in and out of seats at the B-School. Weird.
4. They have their own wireless Internet. It’s called WoFI. You can’t even get Columbia University free wireless Internet there. Seemed unnecessarily elitist at the time. To request access there, email consultant@columbia.edu. Send email again, for good measure.
5. Can I just say, Professor Eli Noam taught for a solid 3 hours. Sure there was a very short break, but the man got up there and steadily and persuasively made his case that it was the US film industry’s innovation in content production, financing and risk management that gave them the one-up on every other film producing nation. The longest I’ve ever seen a J-School professor speak uninterrupted is 15 minutes. The rest of class time is spent watching this or reviewing that, or simply discussing something someone brought up. That actually may be for the best, but sitting there listening to a professor lecture in a linear straightforward format, wow, I felt like I was back in school again. Refreshing.
6. They have a cafeteria! They have a cafeteria that sells Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches and more. They have a coffee shop! A real working coffee shop. The J-School only has an empty, brand-new, never-been-used-before-still-glistening-under-the-fluorescent-light coffee shop. There are no Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches. I was jealous.
7. OMG. A Coke costs $1.25 at the B-School???!!! We’ve been paying $1.50 at the J-School. We’re the ones who are broke and with diminishing job prospects. We should get the cheaper Coke. Whoever arranged this injustice at the J-School must suffer.

I guess what I’m saying is, today was a good day. I spent the first half of it reminiscing with my J-School friends, who I’m proud to call classmates, and then started my second semester at Columbia. In 4 months I’ll graduate. Have I told you? I’ll be earning a master’s degree in international new media publishing and management.