The BBC: Great Britain's Source of Soft Power

The BBC's Mission Statement:

"Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK."

If there's one thing that I took away from today's company visits during Business Immersion Week is that business forms the backbone of any successful organisation. I used to think that the BBC was merely the news channel and website I'd been addicted to for the past two weeks as I watched events unfold during the Egyptian Revolution, but it turned out to be much more.

During my visit to BBC Worldwide's headquarters today in West London, I was awed by the breadth of the corporation's scale of operations and evolution over time. From what was a merely a Radio station started in 1923, the BBC has grown into a 1.1 billion GBP business that covers everything from the latest world politics, business, and sports news headlines to bringing entertainment into every household.

This morning, I tubed my way to White City station to make my way to the BBC's Media City, which reminded me of Cairo's Smart Village, but in this case for just one company!

The BBC's Media City

I was so excited about my visit, they I came ready with my camera only to find out that photography was off limits. Likely, I managed to snap this quick shot of my classmates in the headquarter's building.

Colleagues from the MiM Program

As for our visit itself, it was mostly a series of talks by the corporation's different division heads. I respected the speakers' true conviction in their professions. Not only did they find their work entertaining, educational, and insightful, but they believed they were on a mission to enlighten the public with the truth. They believed that the "BBC brand" had much value in shaping the outlook of its program's viewers. In the same vein, they sought to tailor its various programs to viewers around the world. For example, when having a British, Australian, and American version of its most popular entertainment show, Top Gear, the BBC was capitalizing on the principle of market segmentation. Since we were a business school audience, most of their talk was about the corporate side of the BBC. At the end of the day, the only reason the corporation existed was because of the money it generated.

The BBC's TV Center

As I was more interested in the journalistic side of the business, I asked one of the BBC's editors about the corporation's recent coverage of the events in Egypt's uprising. I was under the opinion that the BBC was more impartial towards the whole event than other news agencies, such as Al Jazeera, which obviously supported the protests and at times even seemed to flare things. The editor's response seem to reaffirm my own views. He informed me that, as opposed to interviewing key governmental or opposition figures during the protests, the BBC focused on interviewing the protesters in Tahrir Square themselves because they were at the heart of the action. He also mentioned that the BBC's mission is always to keep a neutral approach, which is why I personally refer to their news, be it in English or Arabic.

Although the visit focused on the corporation's marketing and strategic operations, I was honestly more interested in the journalistic side of things. All in all, it was a true privilege seeing the inner workings of the UK's media powerhouse.