A polished résumé and an hour of confident answers may get a candidate through a conventional job interview. For Bupa CEO Iñaki Ereño, that is still too little information to make a senior hiring decision.
Speaking to Fortune, Ereño described a six-hour assessment spread across three meetings. The process moves from a detailed review of a candidate’s career to a restaurant meal, then back to the office for a more personal conversation. Along the way, he pays attention to choices that rarely appear on a résumé—including whether someone feels comfortable ordering wine when he is drinking water.
The approach reflects his belief that leadership qualities become easier to judge when candidates have time to move beyond rehearsed answers.
Why One Hour Was Not Enough
Ereño told Fortune that extending the interview process helped him make fewer hiring mistakes.
“When I was doing an interview of just one hour, that was not enough,” he said. “I reduced my level of mistakes when hiring people by setting up a system that is based on three meetings, two hours each. That’s my secret weapon.”
According to the report, Bupa generated £18.2 billion, approximately $24.5 billion, in revenue in 2025 and employed more than 100,000 people. At that scale, a senior appointment can influence teams, operations and decisions well beyond the individual’s immediate responsibilities.
The first two-hour meeting focuses on the candidate’s CV. It gives Ereño more time to examine their professional experience before shifting the assessment into a less formal setting.
His account describes an improvement in his own hiring decisions, although the supplied report does not quantify that improvement or establish that a six-hour process would produce the same results elsewhere.
The Lunch Interview Tests Initiative
The second meeting takes place over breakfast or lunch. For Ereño, a restaurant creates opportunities to observe how candidates behave when the usual interview structure falls away.
“I tend not to like people that don’t have any initiative,” Ereño told Fortune. “Imagine if my drink is a glass of water. I’m very happy with someone who says, ‘Do you mind if I have a glass of wine?’”
His emphasis is on a candidate expressing a preference rather than automatically copying the person making the hiring decision.
“I don’t like followers, ‘oh I will have a glass of water as well, I don’t want wine.’ These sorts of things are very important,” Ereño said.
The example illustrates his preference for people who feel comfortable making independent choices. It should not, however, be read as a universal rule that ordering alcohol demonstrates leadership. A candidate may choose water for personal, cultural, religious or health reasons while remaining perfectly capable of challenging assumptions at work.
The more useful distinction is whether the person makes a considered choice or simply follows the most powerful person at the table.
Treatment of Restaurant Staff Matters
Ereño also watches how candidates interact with the people serving them.
“How you treat the waiter, for me, is an obsession,” Ereño said. “I want to see how nice you are. You need to be respectful.”
That observation adds another dimension to the assessment. Candidates know they need to impress a prospective employer, but their treatment of restaurant staff can reveal whether their courtesy extends beyond the person controlling the job offer.
For a senior hire, the question has practical relevance. Someone may communicate effectively with executives while behaving very differently toward colleagues with less authority. A meal gives the interviewer another opportunity to observe that behavior, although it remains one encounter rather than a complete picture of someone’s character.
The Final Meeting Goes Beyond the Résumé
The third meeting returns to the office and turns toward the candidate’s interests, motivations and expectations.
“And then there is another two hours after that,” he added. “Asking about your life: What do you like? What do you see in our company? What are you expecting from Bupa? All of those questions.”
This stage broadens the conversation from previous achievements to the relationship the candidate hopes to build with the organization. Professional experience may establish that someone can perform a role; expectations and motivations help clarify whether the opportunity makes sense for both sides.
Together, the three meetings give Ereño several settings in which to assess the same person.
His Leadership Advice Is to Take Initiative
Ereño’s message to aspiring leaders is direct.
“Be more proactive, less passive. Take some risks, take initiatives,” is Ereño’s advice on making it to the top.
His hiring process puts that preference into practice. He wants to see professional competence, independent judgment and respectful behavior before making a senior appointment.
The restaurant order may attract the headline, but the broader test concerns how a candidate thinks and acts when there is no obvious script to follow.
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Disclosure: No material interests to disclose. This article was originally published on Global Market Bulletin.
