I recently read Sir Richard Branson’s new book Screw Business as Usual. The book is about a form of capitalism based on the (old) concept of corporate social responsibility. Sir Richard takes it to a new level and calls it Capitalism 24902 (the circumference of the earth is 24,902 miles). This new model for business focuses on putting people and the planet first, and that giving away expertise and opportunity (not just money) to people/groups in need is good for business. In the book he quotes Wafic Saïd (a benefactor of the Saïd Business School at Oxford University) who says “The companies that focus most on profit are not necessarily… Read More
Continue ReadingIs your presentation a futon?
A couple of years ago I was explaining two of our medical imaging products to a hospital administrator. I mentioned that one was a “dedicated” system for specific procedures and the other one was a “multipurpose” system. She immediately commented on the multipurpose system, “Oh I see, it’s like a futon!” I asked her what she meant and she said it’s in-between, like a futon, “Not really a couch and not really a bed.” A lot of presentations visuals that I see are like futons – not really a document (not enough detail) but not really presentation visuals (too much detail); they are caught in-between. While “multipurpose” may work… Read More
Continue ReadingSometimes it’s like climbing Mt. Everest
Sometimes I struggle with designing a presentation. It happened to me last week when I decided I needed to do an “overview” presentation on one of our products. Maybe the problem was that we had initially proposed too many options, so I felt I had to re-explain everything, or maybe it was the fact that I did not know this particular group of customers very well. Regardless, designing this presentation was like climbing Mt. Everest; slogging uphill all the way. I changed the main message 5 or 6 times, going back and forth between a couple of ideas. I also changed the opening visuals more times than I can… Read More
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