It turns out someone who I know to be a keen reader of this esteemed column managed to fail spectacularly in keeping up appearances after one recent pitch.
The senior banker — let’s call him Bill (it's not his name, but it'll do) — has never been a huge fan of pitches even when he thinks he can win, and tends to keep them as short as possible. So when his colleagues overran, meaning his time was truncated, he was unlikely to be concerned.
My sources at the club tell me that on entering the room Bill let the journalists know he had an important client meeting to attend in half an hour. He duly rattled through the pitch document, politely allowing the odd question but keeping a keen eye on the time.
Imagine the journalists' surprise, then, to see Bill preparing to leave the building with his golf bag slung over his shoulder as they were still standing in reception, on his way to his client meeting versus one of the Hong Kong hongs. It's good to have priorities, of course, but in my day at least we knew the proper thing to do — take the service elevator and then the goods delivery exit.