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Forget about tweaking the color of a product. Businesses need to invest time and money in innovations that can make a meaningful difference, according to Alisa Miller, MBA ’99, MPP ’99, president and CEO of Public Radio International.
“Because part of my job is to raise funds as the head of a not-for-profit, I want to stress that resources should be focused on innovation that is squarely centered on meaningful value,” Miller said. She was keynote speaker at a conference hosted by the student-led Corporate Management & Strategy Group October 27 at Hyde Park Center. PRI is heard by 29 million listeners weekly, produces such programs as The World, and has exclusive rights to air BBC World Service.
PRI tries to make a difference by allowing listeners to “see the world through different eyes,” Miller said. “The story can get us there if we listen. And if we listen, we may ask to make the world a better place. So that is our theory of change; that is how we’re trying to create meaningful value.”
In the 30 years before the September 11 terrorist attacks, foreign news coverage slipped from 10 percent to 2 percent in most newspapers and from 45 percent to “virtually zero” on nightly television newscasts, Miller said. International news tends to focus on crises, presenting the world as a place where bad things continually happen, Miller said, while a lack of comprehensive information leaves people feeling helpless about being able to change the situation. “The market tells us there is a need for global news, different perspectives, and sustained coverage to illuminate the interconnectedness of issues and people worldwide,” Miller said.
PRI started its daily news program, The World, ten years ago. “We’re still the only global news broadcast that’s focused on helping people understand what’s happening in the world.”
New ideas require not only an investment of money but also of time. “Part of risk management is also allowing the innovation to gestate and grow. Sometimes it’s not solely about investment funds, but about giving something time. In our society, which moves faster and faster, we sometimes forget that.”
For example, PRI has developed a new comedy show based on the evening news; the program has been offered to affiliate public radio stations and will be given time to catch on with 20- to 30-year-olds. “At about the two-year mark, we have a better understanding of whether a show is going to be a good performer,” she said.
—Mary Sue Penn