WHAT A STRONG CV DOESN'T SHOW

WHAT A STRONG CV DOESN'T SHOW

The CV was strong. No question about it.

Clean C-level layout. The right positions, the right titles. Anyone familiar with the brief would have found every keyword in that document: market development, product positioning, international expansion, P&L responsibility. On paper, this candidate was a better fit than most I had seen throughout the mandate.

Then we sat down to talk.

THIRTY MINUTES

I don't run HR interviews. No questions about leadership style, no five-year plan. I ask about the market. About competitors. About the technology. About the money.

The first question was straightforward: How would you position this company's product in the market? What would you use to differentiate it from the strongest competitors?

Silence.

What followed contained many words and little substance. The market was familiar, yes. But only from a high altitude. He knew the competitors by name. Their product philosophy, their pricing, their technical strengths and weaknesses: unknown territory.

THE MARKET IS NOT A KEYWORD

In the cycling industry, market knowledge is not a matter of interest. It is a prerequisite.

A CEO tasked with positioning a product needs to know how competitors make their margins. He needs to understand where a different drivetrain concept or a different price segment creates genuine differentiation. And where it merely feels that way.

None of that was there. Every concrete question revealed the same picture: the candidate could talk about product positioning. Just not from direct operational experience.

SALES IS NOT A THEORY

Positioning comes with a distribution question. And in the cycling industry, that question is anything but straightforward.

Which target group needs to be reached? Through which channel? B2B means specialist retailers, distributors, ordering processes and margin sharing. D2C means a direct customer relationship, full margin, but also full responsibility for service, returns and retention. The combination of both is achievable – but only when a cooperation model is developed that is profitable and respectful for both sides. That requires knowing how retail works and what drives it.

Anyone without direct experience of this underestimates the consequences of every decision made.

Then there is the question of which phase the brand is in. Is it in development? Market entry? Restructuring? Or stabilisation after a period of difficulty? Each phase places different demands on leadership, sales and resource allocation. What works during the build phase can be the wrong move during restructuring. What stabilises an established brand can paralyse a young one.

That cannot be learned from books. It requires lived experience.

This too was missing. The candidate could name the phases. He could not place himself in them.

WHAT PRODUCTION ACTUALLY MEANS

The conversation moved on to production and supply chain. This is where the gap became most apparent.

A CEO does not need to be a product manager. He doesn't need to calculate frame geometry. But he needs enough understanding to make sound decisions.

That means being able to assess which assembly operations in which countries are suited to which quality tiers. What a wrong location decision actually costs. How logistics, duties and lead times affect the calculation. And whether a facility on the ground genuinely meets the quality requirements expected of it.

It also means a working knowledge of parts, motors and the relevant regulations. Not to specify them personally, but to ask the right questions and make sense of the answers.

And then there is the production model itself. Close Book or Open Book: a strategic decision, not a technical one. It affects quality tier, margin strategy and control over innovation. A CEO should know the difference.

None of this was present.

WHAT TREASURY ACTUALLY MEANS

The next question was about money.

The cycling industry is capital-intensive. Pre-ordering means committing liquidity before a single bike has been sold. Anyone without direct experience of that runs the business blind.

Cash flow, working capital, funding requirements during a growth phase. These terms came up in the conversation. As hollow phrases.

I pressed further. How would you calculate the funding requirement for a model year plan? What happens to working capital when the order deadline falls three months before delivery?

The answers made it clear: treasury was second-hand knowledge. Financial understanding in the areas of investment and funding was not at the level this role demands.

WHAT THE CANDIDATE COULD DO

This is the part many headhunters leave out. I don't.

This candidate had genuine strengths. He was not unsuitable. He was misplaced. My recommendation was clear: not for this mandate. But with a specific view on what kind of role would actually suit him.

That is not failure. That is a match that did not fit.

WHY THIRTY MINUTES IS ENOUGH

A standard HR process would have moved this candidate to the next round. The CV is strong. The keywords are right. The presentation is professional.

What that process does not reveal: whether someone has actually worked in a market or merely read about it. Whether treasury has been lived or only quoted. Whether product positioning reflects operational experience or a set of strategy slides.

I can see that in thirty minutes. Not because I am a better interviewer. But because I ask questions that only someone who knows the position from their own practice can ask.

At Sentinel Sports, we call this the Substance Interview.

No matching of keywords from a CV. No conversation built around a job description. Instead, an interview conducted from direct experience, at eye level – with questions that only someone who knows the position from their own practice can ask. Questions that look behind the curtain. And that reveal in thirty minutes what a classic selection process without an insider perspective does not see in three rounds.