CAREERS: Q&A with ... James Ross, Bloomberg Asia-Pacific

Name: James Ross Job title: Marketing, media and syndication director, Bloomberg Asia-Pacific What is your greatest achievement? Helping to launch Bloomberg Television in Asia-Pacific four-and-a-half years ago and taking it from having no programming to 10 to 12 hours of local content a day. I was a programme manager back then. What would be your dream brand to work on and why? I'd have to say Bloomberg. It's a great brand because it's international yet there's still a lot of scope to develop it. What would you do if you weren't in television? I'd be involved in the travel industry. I used to work for BBC radio and made travel programmes that examined destinations in the UK, as well as far-flung places such as the Caribbean. I worked as a reporter and a producer. Doing radio on the road was a lot of fun. The main difficulty was finding interviewees because when you're in far-flung places not many people speak English. What was your big break? Getting a job 15 years ago as a sound engineer with BBC. If I hadn't got that job I wouldn't have got all the jobs that followed. Who was your mentor and how did this person influence you? Strangely enough my mentor - in terms of the person who had the greatest impact on my career - was someone I hated. When I was in high school the head master asked me what I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to work in broadcasting and he told me to get a real job. It's a funny reversal of things; if he hadn't said that I wouldn't have been so determined to get into broadcasting. Is there a secret to your success? You need to believe in yourself and have the determination to achieve. How do you handle difficult people? Be reasonable. Try not to get angry or overly excited because that can just backfire. But don't give up because there's always a way to get around a problem. What advice would you give to the next person to do your current job? Be prepared to compromise. Be patient and try and understand other's needs. Who is the person you most admire? It would have to be an entrepreneur. Someone who started a business and built it up into something large. Michael Bloomberg is one person who has done that. Another is Richard Branson. Virgin started as a small university enterprise and now it's a billion dollar group.

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