Start with the business your recommendation asks you to own

Tell me which service relationship or expansion decision your enterprise is trying to understand. I would like to know what the customer has agreed, which operating obligation the company would accept and what a proposed partnership might prevent it from doing later. A first conversation can use an anonymised outline rather than customer contracts or confidential bid records. For an executive strategy mandate, please explain who owns investment approval and field delivery and whether the recommendation can genuinely change before commitment. For an outside-board discussion, describe the chair’s expectations, the learning required and the proposed annual demands alongside my executive role. I cannot supply customer transfers or privileged equipment access through a personal appointment. I can contribute a disciplined examination of the business being proposed and the choices that remain with other parties.