Professional skills:

Communication – express yourself clearly and be convincing, using the appropriate medium such as
briefing notes and presentation
- Think who you’re speaking to and it must be easily understood by them
- Clear, factual and precise

Commercial acumen – awareness of a wider business environment; does it make sense business wise?
Take advantage of opportunities
- External factors such as technology that could help our business
- Key issues such as high cost, low cost, high quality
Analysis – thorough review of all information and appropriate recommendations

Scepticism – question and challenge information

- Need to have evidence
Evaluate – assess information in a balanced way through everyone’s point of view

Professionalism
- Make the most important points
- Understanding of issues and linking information together
- Make relevant points only (no waffle)
- No repetition
- Answer precise requirements
- Verb used – use briefing notes etc.
- Prioritize issues
- Structured professionally
o CFO role – quantitative
o HR role – qualitative
- Sound knowledge of basics brought forward but not reference to models etc
- Be persuasive

Important tips
 Need to apply the knowledge constantly to the scenario
 Read requirements first
 Don’t always use a model
 Just answer the question
 Know who you’re writing to
 No long paragraphs – 4 sentences max
 Use headers
 Say why it’s important to the question
 Be specific – why it is important for that particular project