Marnie Webb, David Geilhufe, Michelle Murrain and Steve Heye were part of a great breakout session. It was fantastic in that Marnie had the CEO's point of view and David had some excellent examples of situations where he presented to his CEO.
The audience was not huge which allowed for great interaction with real-situation questions and comments.
I filmed Marnie for a few minutes where she explained situations where she has eithe shot something down or chose to move forward with a particular project. She also explained that there are some piece of information that she DOES NOT want to know... for example:
If you need to purchase a new firewall and you present Marnie with all the details of the research you've done and given your recommendation. If you give her details such as the brand of firewall, she may delve deeper into why you chose that one and not the one that he buddy CEO purchased or the one she saw on the magazine in the plane, etc... there are some things that she prefers not to know... but if she's put in the situation that she has to decide on something, she will use her best judgement based on the information she has gathered.
Some of the other take-aways from this session include many concepts I've heard our CEO, Ed Schipul, mention many times:
- Bad news must travel fast - if an approved project is going badly, inform the CEO immediately! This helps them make a decision on where to go from here.
- Research and SoundBytes - be sure to do the appropriate research and be able to present it in a quick manner so it makes sense to your CEO (ROI, bottom line, etc)
- Think risks/security first - Be sure to verify the risk factors of this project and how it can affect the current and future situation of your organization. Even if it's a very risky project, present an objective view of it... your CEO may be willing to move forward in spite of those risks.
- Succinct Communication - CEO's typically have many different things going on so it's important to make sure you present/talk to your CEO in THEIR language and in the least amount of words necessary.
This panel was very informative - the team of individuals were well-informed and had wonderfully natural presentation skills.
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