Organizations are like machines. Ingenious, complex, powerful and capable of achieving objectives we as individuals cannot. But like machines, organizations too suffer from limitations that need to be proactively addressed so they can continue to perform at higher levels. One of the most fundamental of these is the somewhat fixed relation between input and output. Even the most well-oiled of machines will run into their theoretical limits eventually. At which point you need to bring in mechanical advantage. Or leverage.
Leverage is why Savio D’Souza joins us as The Ken’s very first Training Editor.
First, a bit about Savio. He joins us after spending nearly 15 years at Reuters. During his time there, he worked on a range of individual and managerial roles spanning reporting, writing, editing, managing and finally, training. Of these, it was his training experience that we valued most.
The answer to why that is so brings me to my second point, the role of a Training Editor. For the 2.5 years we’ve been around, we’ve drawn our staff writers entirely from the existing pool of business journalists in India. One reason for that was because experienced hires can “hit the ground running”, but an equally important reason was the fact that we were not ready as an organization to hire, train and mentor fresh journalism school graduates. We simply had neither the bandwidth, nor the experience.
With Savio coming on board, The Ken will be ready to accept its first batch of J-school graduates next month. His primary job will be to train them to be the kind of analytical, reportage-driven and ethical long-form writers that you know all our experienced writers to be. With Savio on board, we hope to make The Ken the place for premier j-school graduates to lay the foundations of their business journalism careers with.
In addition, Savio will also consolidate our editorial processes, styles and storytelling techniques under the guidance of Seema, our Editor.
To go back to my starting digressions on machines and leverage, Savio is the new gear The Ken needed to amplify the work we do. Like all of us, he too is available by his [email protected] and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsouzasavio/. (He derives “JOMO” from not being on Facebook and Twitter!)
