ANATOMY OF AN EXCELLENT PRESENTATION
for Strategy Case Presentations
by Dr. Philip Rothschild
1. Presentation system is up and ready to go
prior to starting.
2. Presenters are positioned
strategically throughout room.
3. Presentation seems
"seamless" (rehearsal is critical).
Every one knows what the other person is doing and at what time.
4.
Team members fill in the gap when another team member is struggling.
5.
There is little redundancy in the presentation. When there is, the latter
presenter acknowledges the previous presenters point.
6.
Clear introduction, body, and conclusion
7. Introduction includes a
thumbnail overview of what will happen in the next 30 minutes.
8. Use internal previews and
summaries and transitions.
9.
Take a position in your presentation, but present both sides of the issue.
10. Remind your listeners of
the tools you’ve used to analyze the data.
11.
Use a provocative question, sample product, illustration or quote to start your
presentation
12. Use "emphasis"
by vocal inflection, repetition, pausing, or varied pace. (esp.
#s, %, etc.)
13.
Engage the audience through eye contact.
14.
Involve the audience by asking if anything needs to be clarified up to this
point.
15.
Give audience time to respond if you do ask a question.
16.
Acknowledge audience for giving a good response; correct response not person.
17. Seldom use all caps.
18. Use contrast in your
presentation (be aware some colors don't show up clearly in classrooms).
19. Hide and reveal elements
of slide show systematically.
20. Make headings and
subheadings descriptive.
21. Points should be
substantive, but not lengthy sentences.
22. Spell check and
proofread your slides.
23. Remember “a picture is
worth a thousand words” – use graphs and charts.
Improving
the substance of your presentation (and paper)
24.
Write (and speak) with an objective tone, without inflammatory language or
indignant tone.
25.
When defending one’s view, do not sound close-minded.
26.
When presenting information/evidence, your position is often strengthened when
you discuss the other point of view or the other alternative.
27.
Be careful not to misrepresent someone else's view.
28.
When arguing for a point of view, offer reasons that an unbiased clear-thinking
person would find persuasive.
29. Use credible resources
and cite these sources when establishing a point (be careful of web sources).
30.
Cite your sources and provide a bibliography in proper format.
31. Be
sure your data (as presented in charts and graphs) is meaningful to us. Compare
your data to previous “years”, competitor data, industry averages.
Keys
to Success
Due
to time constraints, it’s important you are well rehearsed and that you focus
your presentation on the following information.
1.
Welcome and thumbnail overview of what will take place in the next thirty
minutes.
2.
Tell us about our Company (location(s), # employees, product line(s), our
generic competitive strategy,
what we are “known” for) our Competitors (and how we rank against
our competitors), and our Industry (outstanding characteristics of that
industry – not all)
3.
Our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, and other pertinent
observations.
4.
Given SWOT and other analysis, here are the Critical Issues your company MUST
address.
5.
Issue 1, Briefly ID Alternatives, Recommendation (and why), Chosen Alternative
(what, who, where, when),
Implementation steps for that alternative. Then repeat: Issue 2,
etc. Issue 3, etc.
Note:
While you won’t be able to reveal all the research you’ve gathered, you should
provide us with charts, graphs, and other data that support your issues,
alternatives, recommendations, and implementation findings.
(Estimated
time use for above. Items 1, 2: five
minutes. Item 3: five minutes. Item 4, 5: twenty minutes)
Caution:
1.
If you find time is fleeting, reduce content, do not speed.
2.
Distribute your eye contact across the audience, not just your professor.
3.
If technical difficulties arise, acknowledge slight problem, and have a plan to
do something to fill the gap.
Important
notables:
Lack
of organization – minus 5-10 points (inconsistent pattern Issue 1 lots of
detail, Issue 2 none, Issue 3 limited) – Cedar Fair example
Missing
section – minus 5-10 points (e.g. implementation steps, why reject)
Lack
of detail bullets – minus 5-10 points (points on slide are simply outline of
subsections with no examples or evidence for main point)
Lack
of working knowledge – minus 3-15 points (one person –3, all –15)
Gross
errors on slide – 2 for each occurrence
Observation
and Q/A
One
team NOT presenting will serve as chief antagonists and must ask thoughtful questions (based on
notes taken during presentation.)
One
team NOT presenting will observe strengths and weaknesses (based on notes taken
during presentation.)