I've recently read two NZZ articles about some ardent topics: the Russian war in Ukraine and the Credit Swiss fall. I know about myself that I don’t have a brain for numbers, therefore I find it somewhat difficult to read long articles with dates, numbers, percentages, financial terms etc. I read them, understand them, and the next minute my brain just washes away all the info I have just read. Anyway, this doesn’t stop me from reading articles about international affairs. I believe it is important to know what happens around you to understand how society works and make informed decisions about your future. But what I read in these two articles struck a chord with me. Both articles were easy to read for a person like me who is not into numbers.
Russian war interactive map
The article about the Russian war had an interactive map that showed the daily or weekly evolution of the war. I could see the red spots progressing/falling back on the map on a timeline and I could finally make sense of all that is happening in Ukraine and of where the actual combat takes place. I could create a general mental image of this dreaded war. Finally…
How to lose trust
The next article I read was about the fall of the CS bank in Switzerland. I’d read articles and opinions about this before. All were about how much it cost UBS to buy CS, how much money was lost, what financial mistakes the bank made, people complaining about the value of bonuses the CEOs of the bank got over the years and so on. This was the first article I read on this issue talking about all the people behind CS and how their personalities impacted the affairs of the bank and the public opinion of it. Reading about how CEOs who are not good communicators, who only think in terms of numbers and profit brought the bank on the edge made so much more sense to me. One by one, the author analysed the behaviour and personality of each CEO from 2011 to 2023 and how they impacted the rise and fall of CS.
Once again I understood the importance of being a good communicator, the importance of using a language that would get to your reader/listener, instead of using cryptic language that could only confuse and decrease the trust of your target audience.
Transparency
Another thing I appreciate about the English version of the NZZ is that at the top of their articles, there is a disclaimer saying that the articles are machine translated. I love honesty and transparency in communication and they have this (something that many CS CEOs didn’t have). By the way, the translation was very good and it didn’t undermine the quality of the articles I read.