I was presenting the last three months of performance of the Supply Chain department covering major achievements, Kepi’s, risks and opportunities. As this was the year end as well therefore I was trying to Influence the Head of Business Unit and the CEO of the company. My team had already given me their presentations and I compiled those in to the main powering presentation. All the senior managers and business units heads were present and I was going through the slides one by one and explaining each of hose in detail.
I sounded very confident and was trying to explain the technicalities and calculations related to each of the slides. All the members present were listening carefully and following me. I was not interrupted and there were no questions asked during the presentation. I felt very confident as I was able to explain all the details and as the performance of my department was well up to the set targets therefore I felt very enthusiastic while presenting the slides on the Kepi’s.
I was most aware about the department Kepi’s and their calculations. Reflections: After the presentation was over our CEO asked me questions on the implementation of the ERP/MR. for the Supply Chain function, the time frame in which it is supposed to be implemented and fully running and why was this not part of the challenges or risks as part of my presentation. Initially I tried to ward off the question by saying that as the ERP/MR. Phase-I implementation falls under the IT department therefore this was not part of our presentation.
But he was not convinced so I stated that this was not a part of the previous quarter and therefore not in the presentation which as another failed attempt to not answer the question. Then I stated that this will be covered in the next quarter with IT department and if required a time frame can be set within one month. I was using my core strength ofcommunicationand my knowledge about the ERP/MR. systems. I was trying to end the presentation on a positive note as this was linked to the yearly appraisals for the whole team.
I was avoiding accepting that the point raised was very critical and was a mistake to be missed in the presentation. The impact was not very good; other people were Just mute spectators probably agreeing with the point raised by the CEO. The most challenging was to accept that even after a brilliant performance In the quarter the whole presentation ended showing that an Important challenge/rolls was missed to be addressed.
The important thing I missed was to look at the presentations from the previous three quarters with Q-2 presentation had the MR./ERP Implementation as a challenge for 2013 and a risk in 2014. I think the last point which I did by accepting the mistake straight forward and immediately providing a time frame for solution dominate the whole presentation and why wasn’t I prepared for this or aware that here could be questions which could have been outside the scope of my presentation.