Contrast
It was one of my first times of being involved in a meeting with the head of strategy and the CEO of a top 50 ASX company. I had heard that the HOS was not the sharpest spoon in the drawer, while the CEO was 5 grades sharper than a scalpel and unfortunately often used it to take some skin from anyone not meeting his high standards.

So I was going to try to nod at the right times and be a bit of a fly on the wall for what was hopefully going to be an interesting meeting (on whether we should enter the market in Vietnam). I forget why I was there - I wasn't involved in the Vietnam thing.

So imagine my surprise when CEO was mega-relaxed, chuckling and all small talk for the first 20 mins of the half hour meeting. When the HOS finally tried to bring the meeting back on track by asking if CEO wanted him to go through the powerpoint presentation, the answer was no, I have read the presentation and here are the top 5 reasons we are not going into that market (most of which weren't in the presentation). End of meeting.

Absolute legend. If you are going to have to sit through half an hour with someone you might as well do it on your own terms. It just reinforced the contrast between the two.

Turns out the HOS was dumped on us by the parent company, which is why he had that position, and the CEO wanted him gone. So eventually the CEO found a way to give a positive report on the HOS and he soon got promoted elsewhere and out of our hair early. So sometimes the promotion of a useless idiot is done with eyes wide open (by at least someone involved).
(Skippyfillet, Tue 11 Sep 2012, 14:49, Reply)