The newspapers these days abound with gloomy news on the current economic crisis. As the storm of economic crisis envelops the world, stirring widespread anxiety among the employees about their job security and financial future, appropriate communication strategy has become the need of the hour. Honesty and openness in communicating the escalating risk and perils of the rocking crisis can prove to be more effective in the long run. Venu Gopal Rao's paper on "Communication Strategies in a Downturn", highlights how companies fail to communicate or resort to wrong mode of actions while communicating with employees, causing increasing turmoil and trepidation among employees and leading to unwanted suspicion. Even a well-intended communication can send the wrong message if the communication strategy is not properly designed. Invigorating the corporate communication strategy, especially during extraordinary times like this, with honesty and empathy can take care of the emotional needs of the employees and boost the reliability and reputation of the organization.

After decades of over emphasis on `hard stuff' or technical skills, companies today have started giving importance to individual performance based on both soft and hard skills. In other words, you require both the wings to fly high in the sky. Manishankar Chakraborty in his paper, "Soft Skills: Essential for Shaping Well-Rounded Individuals", says that whether it is manufacturing or services, there is a need for a perfect blend of technical know-how and soft skills. He says that all training establishments and academic institutions have to adopt this as a recipe for success.

Most of the candidates with excellent qualifications and technical skills wait with bated breath for the interview results. They are not so sure whether they impressed the recruiters or not. Many recruiters say, after the interview process, that they could find candidates who possess `hard skills' in good measure to fulfill the tasks, but many of them woefully lack `soft skills' that companies look for. Meenakshi Sharma in her paper entitled, "How Important Are Soft Skills from the Recruiter's Perspective" says that a lot of premium is placed on soft skills during recruitment. No matter what the industry or job is, soft skills are as important as traditional technical skills, and the paper offers profound insights into the indispensability of soft skills during recruitment.

In one's incessant and relentless quest for professional success, communication skills have a crucial role to play. Amidst the ever-increasing communication technology, huge demands are placed on individuals to enhance their communication skills. Binod Mishra in his paper, "Role of Paralanguage in Effective English Communication", emphasizes the importance of communicating effectively through effective use of verbal and non-verbal cues to have an electrifying effect on the audience.

"The most important thing in communication is hearing what is not said," said Peter F Drucker. Unbroken series of non-verbal cues spontaneously uncover the thoughts and feelings our mind deliberately conceals. One can recall countless situations in which listeners either have not responded as anticipated or misinterpreted the message due to improper non-verbal cues. K Subapriya in her paper, "The Importance of Non-Verbal Cues", has emphasized the role of non-verbal cues in making one's communication not only effective but also exceedingly powerful.

"We didn't all come over on the same ship, but we're all in the same boat," says Bernard Baruch, American financier and statesman. As the winds of globalization are blowing across the continents, there is a fusion of cultures in the organizations. The ability to understand and accept the difference in diverse cultures is needed more than ever and can have a widening influence on professional success. Mahesh Kumar and Kalyana Chakravarthi in their paper, "Cross-Cultural Communication", elucidate how to communicate effectively with individuals who come from different cultures and have different cultural traits in their communication styles. Extraordinary skills of decoding the body language, along with the non-verbal cues, are highly instrumental in dispelling any misunderstanding or misinterpretation. 

Technical writing plays a pivotal part in the industry, and many technical writing experts are charged with sound knowledge of the industry, products and systems. D Venkataramanan in the paper, "Technical Writing and Crossing Boundaries", emphasizes the role of written communication in technical writing and suggests effective ways of enhancing technical writing skills for different disciplines. What is of paramount importance for excelling in technical writing is in-depth knowledge of the terminology or technical jargons as well as great command over the language.

Many well-performing businesses have plunged into deep crisis due to the brazen decline in values and blatant violation of business ethics. We are well aware of the shocks of the global crisis, but there is a painful crisis of values too across the globe today. We can have rigid rules, compliance procedures or a lot of checks; however, cases like Satyam happen, which is the result of someone betraying the trust and spirit due to poor ethics. Komarraju Venkata Vinay, in his paper, "The Pursuit of Values", emphasizes the need for values like honesty, and discusses the urgent need for imbibing great business values and virtues in the organizations.

-- M Showry
Consulting Editor