Page 107 - You're Hired! Interview Answers

thought-BaSed QueStionS examPLe inteRview anSweRS interviewer: tell me about a business opportunity that you
became aware of and what you did to capitalise on it.

7 Poor answer:

“One of my key clients called one day to speak to me about a need that he

had. Basically, he needed some support with advice around a redundancy
situation that he potentially had to deal with. This is an area of specialism for
us, and we were able to support him in both the legal aspects of this to ensure
that he did it right, as well as providing some training interventions to support
managers who might be losing some of their staff. Finally, there was scope to
provide support on the outplacement work. I wrote a proposal outlining our

approaches to all three and sent this to him.”

For a middle management level, this is a very basic response. In any business
development situation, you would expect a response that might include a
written proposal. The example does not demonstrate any originality of thought,
proactive action or any lasting change. In short it does not demonstrate
sufficient thought leadership.

3 Better answer:

“I took a call from a client one day with whom I had a really good relationship.

We had been working with them for a number of years and providing them
with HR services. This was our area of specialism, and he respected our
responsiveness and integrity. He also mentioned to me that what he missed
was some of the technology that he knew that some of the bigger players in
the market were providing, although at much higher cost than us. This led to
a discussion around his technology needs. Given that we were not a software
house, I started to explore the market to see if there was a potential small IT
firm that we could partner with so as to meet the needs of this long-standing
client. I sourced a potential partner and worked with them to put together a
profit-share model. Armed with this, we were able to meet with my client and
discuss how we might be able to support them. This was the first time we had
done something like this and the result was that it allowed us to start offering

more sophisticated solutions to our clients.”

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