The “Business Biscuit Survey” deemed that cookies are the next most important aspect of the boardroom after tables and chairs.
Courtesy of Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, more than 1,000 business professionals across Britain were surveyed with 80 percent of them saying biscuits improve the quality and outcome of a meeting.
It found that legal professionals are most likely to be positively influenced by a good quality biscuit, followed by sales, media or marketing professionals.
Chocolate digestives were top of the list of biscuits most-wanted in the boardroom, followed by shortbread, oat biscuits, jam rings and Bourbon chocolate creams.
“It’s incredible to think that important decisions might be made based on a biscuit,” the Holiday Inn said.
“Key players in the business world are clearly being influenced by the quality of boardroom biscuits.”
Biscuits were prioritised over lighting, technology and artwork in a boardroom, with 64 percent of respondents confessing that the quality of biscuits on offer was a matter of discussion.
Cookies also helped highlight the agenda of a meeting, with 42 percent of those surveyed said they would not serve them if they were about to fire an employee.
But, if biscuits had to accompany bad news, 18 percent said they would resort to chocolate digestives to soften the blow.
The survey also revealed boardroom snacking was not lacking in etiquette, with 50 percent saying they would take only two biscuits at most during a meeting.
Cookies were largely off limits if they looked too crumbly or if someone was making a presentation during the meeting. And nearly a quarter of respondents said they would wait until someone more senior had a biscuit before taking one.