The quarterly executive strategy meeting at Calder & Stone Holdings was never a relaxed event. Fourteen department heads sat around the long mahogany table every three months to review performance reports, discuss budgets, and quietly compete for influence within the company. The room itself looked less like an office and more like a courtroom, with tall windows overlooking the city skyline and a polished conference table that reflected the cold white lights hanging above it.
I had spent the entire morning preparing my presentation. As the company’s newest operations director, I knew that every number, every projection, and every slide would be examined closely. Some executives still believed I had been promoted too quickly, and they were waiting for a mistake big enough to confirm their doubts.
