Demonstrate an understanding of underlying organisational issues.
Advice
A very difficult question if you are not used to dealing with managerial speak! This is a question involving the STAR technique of firstly identifying the situation, secondly identifying a specific task, thirdly identifying your action as part of that task and finally confirming what the result was. This technique has been taught for interview training for a long period of time and is very effective as it gives you some structure to your answers. Try to think of examples where you are able to identify an issue and suggest an improvement, or at least discuss the issue from both perspectives.
Examples of Answers
“Recently in my present company we had a managers’ meeting to discuss the projected cash flow shortage due over the next three months as a result of declining sales. We felt strongly that this was something as a company we could all pull together towards minimising the effect and I volunteered to head up a task force aimed at looking at a restructure and managing the shortfall. After a lengthy review, taken in my own time and in addition to my daily tasks I identified five key areas where we could look at both increasing sales and increasing efficiency. These included making sure that appointments were followed through, ensuring a more efficient response to telephone enquiries, and be more proactive with sales, as well as reducing the head count in some departments and identifying tasks that could be either outsourced or undertaken by others. The result is anticipated to be savings of £250,000 in the next 6 months and an increase in sales of around £140,000.”
