Welcome to the future

Congratulations. You finally won that meeting with the CEO that you’ve been pushing for. So what the heck are you going to talk about?

Products and services? Features and benefits? If you go down that route, the CEO is likely to push that secret button under her desk that tells the assistant to break in with an “important” phone call.

“Sorry, gotta take this,” the CEO whispers, holding the receiver. “But go see George in Engineering. That’s really his area anyway.”

How about return on investment? CEOs do care deeply about ROI but, once again, they’ve got people for that: “Accounting department, second door on the right.”

Try this: Talk about the future. That’s a conversation CEOs are unlikely to delegate. They’re responsible for figuring out (1) where the organization needs to go next and (2) how best to get there. If you can help answer either question, CEOs will listen.

photo credit: eschipul