Polish - How important is it to land your next job ?

I had a great person on my team that was pitching to do my role and I have nothing but positive feedback on him.But then the CEO said to me, "will he fit in ?" The bloke had spent a year in the business and was successful in his role so fitting into the company was not a question. The question was whether he would fit into the leadership team ? The CEO was visualizing the rest of his team (minus me) and visualizing this bloke taking my chair at the table. Despite this person's performance, he had reservations about him. When I probed further, I learnt that this bloke's dressing was a little "old" fashioned for my CEO. Now I need not say that no one will formally provide that assessment to anyone unless they really have your best interests at heart. But the honest truth is that all things being equal, how one dresses, how one presents themselves, their ability to be a good conversationalist, know a little about a lot etc are important little factors that can get you your next job or cost you the same. Content and depth and experience are very very important, no doubt, but polish and executive presence are equally important as one climbs up the Corporate Ladder. The great news is that unlike intellect, polish, savvy, appearance can be learnt ! I know so many successful people who observed keenly the role models and senior leaders in their company and learnt to dress and behave like them. For women, that $ 2000 LV bag might just be one of the best career investments you can make. And it helps that there is a life long warranty on those things :-). Seriously, focus on the little things. They are not as little as you think. But dont forget the big things - there is no substitute for intellect and hard work !