McDonald’s strategy presentation
We have a strategy presentation due in a few days. It’s 8 pages total, including cover page and any appendix the students want to add. The target company is MCD, which is both easy, fun, and difficult. Easy because it’s a well-known brand; you’ve eaten there. Fun because you can go to the store, go through the drive-through, and look at the company with a Pirot-detective’s eye. Difficult because well – it’s MCD. They’ve done this for a while, and isn’t it going great?
In addition to the PPT, they also need to record the team going through the presentation in 7 min. Perhaps it’s 1 cover page + 4 pages + 2 appendix pages. So it might be 7 min to go through 4 pages = aggressive.
There is a lot of advice in the syllabus, how to scope down the project, use what we learned in class, and ask good questions. For today, I want to share the key takeaways students’ comments in blue with their initials. Winning.
Starting off well – Working together as a team, getting ahead of the work (remember, college students are the busiest people on earth); working smart and lazy. What is the real problem we are solving for MCD? How can we scope this down into something that can be conveyed in 7 min and a few PPT pages?
Be a team
- BE ON TOP OF THE WORK. Don’t wait until the last day, or night before, because everyone has different ways of doing things and putting them together may be harder than you think. (AK)
- It’s okay to not be the leader all of the time, sometimes the best way to lead is not to lead and take that backseat for the sake of the group. (DM)
- Leadership is getting someone else to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. (TM – from Colin Powell)
- Work smart but lazy. Planning with group ahead of time how you want to work together to get this project done. (FS)
scope down
- The content of the presentation can be overwhelming. The presenter’s job is to make it digestible and highlight key data and takeaways. (JA)
- Spend more time on the treatment than the diagnosis, let your passion shine through! (DQ)
- The solution you recommend should match the gravity (or lack of gravity) of the problem (MH)
Creating effective business presentations is a time-intensive process with multiple stages. In addition to the team formation, content review, and audience analysis (whew that’s a lot already), now it’s time to do the work. I am a huge fan of the four hats of writing. TL;DR – you can’t be brainstorming the whole time. TL;DR – you need to be a harsh judge of your final work, ready to pick it apart like your harshest critic. Scenario plan; what questions, might they have?
write with 4 separate hats
- The four hats of the creative process: 1. the mad man 2. the architect 3. the carpenter 4. the judge (AR)
- DO NOT put the mad man hat the day before the presentation! (QA)
be judge-y on yourself, on the work
- Be a harsh critic with slides. Put every slide “on trial” and consider the order of slides, the order of bullets, etc (JL)
Creating great PPT. I could say SO MUCH here. Big point; there are 2 primary types of slides: #1 stand at the front of the auditorium, like a TED talk, and point to the screen with your big ideas and visuals #2 data and analysis-dense slides that you leave behind for the client. Spoiler alert, type #2 is the most common. Of the hundreds of client/ audience facing presentations I have done, 99% of them were #2. You, the client, sitting at a table with 3-4 pages.
Make great PPT
- There are two different kinds of presentations: Stand and present → minimal words on slides. Leave behind deck → presentation stands alone (no need for voice over) (SF)
- This is a leave behind deck, info heavy and can stand alone, but don’t read line by line. (AT)
- Make the Executive Summary slide last, after the entire presentation is done (AA)
- Remember to answer the what, so what, then what. (EB)
Marketing = making it easy to buy. Executives just came from a meeting on a completely different topic (quality, risk, manufacturing, audit), and they are probably thinking about their kid’s upcoming bah mitzvah, and their house re-financing. For a presentation, it’s easy for the audience to start dozing off. Basically, why should they care?
Rule #1: Don’t let anyone (including yourself) get lost in the narrative. The structure of the presentation and the PPT titles tells you what you want to know. Please don’t waste your titles. That would be like watched a 10 part TV series without episode titles. Can you imagine Game of Thrones without episodes? Just a mash-up of palace intrigue, dungeons, castles, and dragons? Pace the discussion, show the audience (and your manager) where you are going
Rule #2: Keep it simple. You are doing the audience a favor by telling them what to focus on. You’ve done the work, you’ve looked at the problem broadly, and have put things into buckets, and now are telling the executives where to look. Storytelling is not some lyrical, narrative, emotional-pitch (although that’s awesome if you can pull it off). Business storytelling is providing a chassis to hang all the analysis, insight, and SO WHAT to. The story is the point:
- The biggest challenge is ________
- Their core competency is ________
- The future will be more like _________
- Their path dependence makes ________ easier that _______
- This will impact their net profits (or EBITDA) by _________
Rule #3: Persuade without misleading. This is a tough one, but one that I am developing increasing conviction on. Think of yourself like a district attorney who is putting the recommendation in jail. You have done the work. You are competent and have confidence. You have strong opinions, loosely held. The audience has trusted you to do a good job; they will not “double-check” your math unless you seem unorganized, overly-casual, or have faulty logic. We want to trust you.
If we walk into a clean restaurant, with a see-through kitchen, with an organized menu with no typos, good Yelp reviews, and a knowledgeable and friendly server, you have a lot of good momentum. Does a good server have an opinion? Yes? Is it the servers responsibility to explain everything on the menu in the same level of detail? No.
Everything is persuasion. A marriage proposal. A syllabus. A website. A conference call.
Reverse-engineer the Audience
- Think of the Powerpoint as if we are creating a deliverable for a company paying 300 thousand dollars. (AL)
- You must provide the audience a SO WHAT. Do not just say empty words; hold an opinion and persuade your audience that what you are saying might as well be fact. (KS)
- John is going to ask: So what? (JM)
- Make sure presentation is directed to the appropriate audience. Franchisers and McDonalds HQ care about different things. (CW)
- Clients want to get to the point quickly, and effectively. Being forward is more effective. (LH).
Use flow
- What’s in it for me? What value is a company getting by you telling them information? (HW)
- Break down topics into buckets, and follow a logical flow (GD)
- Like a good movie, each scene is working together to make it cohesive. (SW)
- Business storytelling & storytelling are different. Both important but you need to decide which is appropriate for the setting & audience. (VM, ME)
- HAVE A STORY. Know what you’re saying and why you’re saying it and the success will follow. (AB)
- Have an angle and story to tell throughout the whole presentation. (BW)
- Present in a storytelling manner to engage your audience with pauses and confidence in your work (AH)
- Story-telling is a million-dollar skill. Let your audience know what it has to do with THEM (AK)
- There should always be a story flow in our presentation. (CL)
use titles
- That title slides are very important and in some circumstances your boss will only review the title slides. So it’s important to make sure the titles are clear and cover the slide. (BK)
- In order to create an effective, efficient presentation you must make your headings (prime real estate!) PERFECT AND DIRECT. (SB)
- You don’t always need pictures, good titles are important (JC)
- Your presentation slide titles should tell a story. (SC)
Simplify
- Persuade aggressively without misleading (RM)
- Great presentations require structure, socialization, and effective delivery. (JG)
- It’s okay to scope things down, just make sure to explain why and persuade the audience (AD)
- Simplicity is the key when you do presentations. You don’t want to confuse your audience. (SR)
- Less is more. Be concise, get your point across, answer the “so what.” (NS)
There are entire books and course on presentation skills. A few thoughts: 1) prepare. if you know the content cold, you will be fine. If you are faking it, well, that’s low probability gambling. not good. 2) practice. That’s the only way you know if you are “on time” and if you content works well with that of others. 3) If your slides are not working, change them
Practice
- Be yourself on your best day. Prepare, practice, practice, practice (MSS)
- In order to present well, memorize first 30 seconds. This will get you in momentum. (RJ)
- You are the star. The PPT is just for support (PJ, LL, SS)
- Know yourself well to be confident (RF)
- Don’t read off the slide, speak from your mind. (AG)
- Speaking to one person at a time, even with a large audience, makes the presentation feel more personable and experienced. (AG)
- Start your presentation well and end it well. Most people remember this, so rely on recency bias and have a strong start and a finish to the presentation to make it memorable. (RD)
Pause
- It’s ok to pause. Pausing prevents filler words and lets yourself catch up momentarily. (MO)
- It’s okay to pause during presentations & interviews (TL)
- When presenting it is so important to PAUSE! Prevent filler words, breathe, silence focuses attention. (NG)
Finally, have fun in learning. This is one of many presentations you will do. Enjoy the challenge, craft of being a professional, not a technician. Sure, this is for a grade, but bigger picture, this is for your career strategy.