Leadership

Presentation Groundhog Day

By Jo Owen

Updated on: February 1, 2010 / 7:06 AM EST / MoneyWatch

February 2 is Groundhog Day. And I suspect I have been living in Groundhog Day for the last twenty years or so.

My suspicions were confirmed on the London Underground by a pushy commuter: she got to the last seat before me. She pulled out a presentation and started to read it.

I followed standard commuter practice and read her presentation as she flipped through it.

It was then that I realised that I was living in presentation Groundhog Day. I have been listening to the same corporate presentation every day for decades.

The speaker, firm and setting may be different, but the message never seems to vary. So here are the seven key messages which are at the heart of every presentation and, presumably, at the heart of all management:

Focus on customer value
Improve cost control and accountability
Raise revenues
Segment the market to serve each segment better
Reorganise (around each market segment, in this case)
Communicate clearly
Work even better as a team

They even had a nifty acronym: TEAM means Together Everyone Achieves More. There may be other things managers can do, like suck up to the boss, cover your backside and more. But you can not go too far wrong if you follow the seven rules above.

By mixing these seven messages up, you have a presentation for every occasion. My eternal thanks go to the Emap conferences sales team for sharing their insight and wisdom with commuters on the Piccadilly line from Kings Cross to Earls Court.

I hope I can now finally escape Groundhog day. Failing that, I will settle for getting a seat on the Underground for once.

(Pic: Urville Djasim cc2.0)