Second stages, panels and presentations
First interviews test whether you can do the job. Second stages test whether people want to work with you.
By second stage the technical question is largely settled. What is being decided is fit with the board, the region or the executive team — and often a presentation is the vehicle for that decision.
If you are given a presentation brief
- Answer the brief they set, not the one you wish they had set.
- Six to eight slides maximum, with your first 90 days on the final one.
- Use their numbers — completions, ASP, margin, stock, arrears, satisfaction scores — not generic market slides.
- Be honest about what you would need to find out. Certainty about a business you have not joined reads as naive.
- Rehearse to time. Overrunning in front of a board is remembered.
Reading a panel
Work out who owns the decision, who owns the budget and who will be your peer. Address answers to the whole room but land the commercial detail with the person carrying the P&L.
Site and scheme visits
If part of the process is on site, wear the right PPE, sign in properly and notice things — sequencing, presentation, snagging, sales set-up. Observations from a site walk are the most quoted thing in the feedback I receive.
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