A Capital Markets Day presents more than a strategy.

Private Direction brings the practice of professional theatre rehearsal to senior leaders preparing for consequential live events. Working individually, or with a small leadership team, I observe what is happening, identify what the performance needs and rehearse the adjustments. Where confidence becomes effort.

Where detail obscures the argument. Where a pause would carry more weight than another explanation. Where a speaker needs greater authority, more warmth or less visible determination to convince. Where the transition between two leaders changes the audience's perception of the team. And where an important question needs to be received before it is answered.

The aim is not to make the leadership team more theatrical. It is to ensure that the people delivering the strategy are as carefully prepared as the strategy itself.

A Capital Markets Day, Investor Day or Analyst Day asks the audience to assess both the strategy and the leadership team. The individual presentations need to work. So do the connections between them. Rehearsal can address the CEO’s opening, the CFO’s financial framework, divisional presentations and the transitions between speakers. Each leader needs a clear relationship with their own material and with the argument the team is making together.

Investor Q&A changes the conditions. The order is no longer entirely yours. A question may challenge an assumption, return to an earlier answer or move between members of the team. We rehearse receiving the question, finding the answer and delivering it without unnecessary qualification or visible haste. With a team, we also rehearse who takes the question, when another speaker contributes and how the answer ends.

Your Investor Relations team and advisers remain responsible for the investment case, disclosure and approved material. I direct how the people in the room deliver it.

The work begins with the event: its audience, format, running order, material and the people who will speak. Individual rehearsal can sit alongside sessions with the leadership team. We rehearse aloud, observe what happens and make precise adjustments. Where possible, we work with the conditions the speakers will actually encounter: slides, timings, microphones, seating, handovers and questions. A full run reveals things that separate presentation reviews cannot.

The scope depends on what is already prepared and how much time remains. The first conversation establishes where direction will be most useful.

For CEOs, CFOs and leadership teams presenting an investment case to investors and analysts. Rehearsal addresses each speaker’s contribution, the handovers between them and the shared Q&A. Bring the current presentation, running order and questions identified by Investor Relations and your advisers. Tell me who will speak, what is already agreed and which parts are still developing. The audience, format and practical conditions of the event shape the rehearsal.

Tell me when the event is, who will be speaking and what you would like to rehearse.