Too much focus on the pitch and this is a “what? eh?” question that may potentially spark off some interesting conversation or unwind the brain a different way. And also to see how someone react to it may potentially reflect how people handle the “unexpected” scenerio - you always get some unexpected questions in the business world don’t you. Last but no least, the way the answer comes back gives you a hint of the person’s personality…

Personally I like this question.
*******
Hello Jean,

You are right on about “the way the answer comes back gives you a hint of the person’s personality…” I won’t say much more about this but I do have a theory and foundation behind my question and what I may see from the answer. Plus start an interview with a less routine question may bring out more insightful answers than those can be recited from memories without thought thus stale and boring.

Thanks for your feedback and support. I hope you will keep reading this blog and get excited about season 2 of Dragons’ Den. Also wishing your sick maple tree will get well soon.

Cheers,
Kempton

I have never thought that my lead-in question, “If you were a tree …” to be a compelling question, it is more like a fun and silly question to start the interview in a light tone. And I want to get some of the interviewees to practice the line “Thats a dumb question!” to me. After all, I know I will have some stupid questions and I might as well start with one.

I want to jump around quite a lot in the 5 minutes so it is actually quite important for me to ask sharp questions and to get answers that are short and sweet. Letting the interviewees skip bad questions may be a way to save time. Now, please be assured that I will try to ask lots of business-like and insightful questions. At the same time, there has to be some fun in it. (big smile) So the “tree” question serves that purpose.

Now, thank you very much for blog pointing out that I had misspelled Kirstine’s name. Sorry Kirstine. Please accept my deepest apologies.

Next time I will be more careful and fact check Globe and Mail first. A mistake acceptable to Globe and Mail (see the caption under Kirstine’s photo) is not acceptable to me. Especially when I am trying my best to arrange an interview with Kirstine.

Many thanks for your feedback,
Kempton

P.S. Finally, as a photographer and documentarian, I would love to capture a bit of the soul of the interviewees. Asking them a stupid question to start may reveal a bit of that. Don’t know. Ah, I never do things the easy way. Starting up the interview with the “tree question” may backfire on me real bad, but then I do believe I can only find my own path as I am not George S., Charlie Rose, or Ms. Walters. I can only be me.