TJ Walker talks with Nikolai about how German directness clashes with Austrian politeness, and why spokespeople need different prep for each country. Nikolai cites Larry King and Walter Cronkite as influences from his early days in Munich's analog media.
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So you could have done so in Germany. That's the difference between Germany and France. So in Germany we're much more looking for productivity and have a short, just lunch. Just a short lunch. And there it could work with the sandwich, even though most people eat a proper lunch here. But before going to a different culture on the language base, just see two different countries next to each other, like Austria and Germany. There's a huge difference in how journalists or how CEOs talk to other people. So in Germany, you are very directly. We say what we want. We are not very much polite. In Austria, if you do it like this, you won't be successful. I once trained the Austrian head of, of business of an international pharmaceutical company and the training was in Germany because all the, the heads of the, of the different countries were assembled in Munich for this, for this media training. And we did the interview training like a journalist and asking tough questions on the pharmaceutical research and why it's so expensive on all this stuff. And out of a sudden he stopped and said, no, that's not the way we do it in Austria. What happened? No, I've never experienced a journalist so unpolite like you. Okay, what happens if a German journalist goes to Austria? No, I don't do this. I don't do this. And it took maybe 20 minutes for the press officer to persuade him to finish the training. He was so upset. And it was a real new experience for me. I knew that the Austrians are, compared to the Germans are much more polite, but they really refused to work with you if you don't have a certain standard of politeness. And I don't consider myself as an unpolite person, but I can attest to that. You're a paragon. You're tough and you. The tradition in German politics is not to look too much to the rank, even if it's a minister or head of state or company boss. You try to talk to them on eye level and you're tough. And that's completely different in Austria, for example.
So that does raise the question though, of what do you do if you're training someone? The custom of dealing with the media is one way for their country, but they're telling you how, hey, I may have to go on the BBC or CNN or Al Jazeera. So, you know, they, at some level, especially if it's a crisis, they could receive journalistic inquiries from all over the world. I faced that dilemma before, especially if I'm dealing with, let's say, a political figure in the Middle East. They're used to extraordinarily deferential media. You're not going to get that if all of a sudden the London Times or CNN is calling. How do you balance what they're used to with what they might face? Because if you, if you plan for everything they could face, it may jeopardize your relationship. But they think you're too rude.
Yeah. So when going to an unknown territory for them, we have two traders or two ladies who do intercultural training and look specifically into the country's specifics for the normal business language, for the normal international appearance, especially in business programs, in economic reports, there is a certain standard which is not reflected too much on the individual standards of politeness or procedures in these countries. So, so first of all, be smart, always be polite, be decent, but be clear, strong and concise with your message. Don't confront people, especially not in face of their employees in other countries. So there are certain techniques you should consider when going abroad, but in general, the most important is to have a clear message, to know what you want and to listen to your stakeholders.
Nikolai, let's step back a minute. You're younger than I am, but you're old enough to have seen a lot of change in the media landscape in your country and your part of the world and worldwide. Who, growing up, were your role models as communicators and as media personalities. And is that what drove you into an early career as a journalist?
Well, one role model really was Larry King. I watched him a lot, and that's probably the reason I'm wearing a lot of times this vest here. That's always my Larry King style, the vest. And when I do my many years, I usually wear this.
The very. And for many years, he, he wore suspenders.
Yeah, I'm not that old.
Believe it or not. I, I used to host a show on Larry King's first radio show in Miami Beach. It had, it was a thousand watts. If you drove more than 10 blocks away, no one could hear it. But I, 30 years ago, I was in the same chair he had been in 60 years ago. So his broadcast career ended up going a little, a little further than mine did. Who else were your role models?
Well, you know, in German tv, we couldn't see that much from, from, for example, so we, we had local German ones, a lot of, lot of very good ones, but they were never very famous in the US So what I really liked was when I, when I could see it was the, the reports of Walter Cronkite, I can remember. And the, the first experience was really CNN watching in Europe. And it was a very interesting time in the, in the 90s, mid-90s, from starting mid-90s we could watch it. And that was very, very good to see.
And let me just give a quick shameless plug. CNN's first White House correspondent ever will be our guest next week on the program, Bob Berkowitz. So had to get.
Wow, very good, very good.
Had to get that plug in there.
A couple of years ago I could meet Wolf Blitzer in Munich. He was there at the ceremony for the international CNN Journalistic Awards. And I met him, I could talk to him and it was very interest because he was also one of these icons of modern journalism for me.
And then what was your path into journalism yourself?
Well, I started doing at that time it was all analog with a vedge s camera and doing little movies with my co students in school. And the project never finished because it was very difficult to edit. We had to have two VCR recorder and have to simultaneously start them and record. And editing was really hard that time. And later I joined the private radio in Munich when they started and made reports with them. And then I started my career here in Munich with TV White Blue, which was a local radio, a local TV station in Munich, just for the area of Munich.
