A question of questions

India recently saw a slew of visits by global executives of multinational technology companies and, predictably perhaps, the communications teams of these companies worked overtime to outdo each other in managing the public interface. If the communications head of one technology firm tried to provide journalists with clues of what to ask, the team of a rival firm pre-selected the journalists who would get the opportunity to ask questions during the press meet. Not only were the questions pre-approved, so was the seating arrangement. But this is India, where the press is uniquely immune to such management, so when the time came to ask questions, journalists leapt up from all corners and yelled questions at the visiting executive without even waiting for the mikes to arrive. So much for planning and micro-management!