In September, I mentioned some interesting perspectives on PowerPoint in response to an entry by Seth Godin criticizing the popular presentation application.
Kicking off chapter six of this month's Readers' Choice Award winner, Bill Jensen boldly proclaims that PowerPoint is "among mankind's worst inventions, ever" and the "largest single source of useless crap within companies." To balance his virulence, Bill goes on to offer several tips and tactics that -- if you must use PowerPoint -- will help you create a presentation worth sharing.
Personally, I've never used PowerPoint. Not once. But it turns out that Abraham Lincoln did.
Related Stories: | Topics:Leadership, Computer Technology, Presentation Software, Productivity Software, Software, Technology |
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Recent Comments | 5 Total
November 12, 2003 at 5:57pm by Lain Burgos-Lovece
So what do you use instead?
I've tried things like The Brain (TM) with partial success, and old fashioned chats, with paper agendas and a flipchart for backup. Better, but is that all there is?
November 13, 2003 at 6:16pm by Michael Neely
That's mighty harsh criticism for a program that he's never tried. For those of us that remember when the sales training program at some companies was "Go get 'em, tiger," I've found Power Point to be quite effective in the field in the past. However, I remember having sales jobs in which the only presentation consisted of a poorly prepared notebook "slide show." There was no freedom. There was no flexibility to our presentations. There was no room to adapt or personalities to the presentation.
Then I formed my own company and became the sales manager (among all of the other jobs that one acquires when striking out on one's own).
Intimidated as I was from the program, I learned it, used it and am using it now to develop my sales presentations, business plan and other work for my next company that I'm building. I wrote the presentation out first from a presentation guideline, then applied it to Power Point. When I use Power Point, I use it as a tool to get a specific point across. It is not the presentation, it is not the salesperson, it is not the reason that a buying decision is made or should be made.
Power Point does allow us to integrate our own personalities into a sales presentation (providing that's a good thing). A charming personality, enthusiasm for the job, knowledge of industry/product/service and a willingness to serve your clients Power Point can never create.
Power Point, if used responsively, does have some benefit. It's helping me.
Michael Neely
November 14, 2003 at 10:32am by Heath Row
For the record, the criticism is Bill's. As far as what I use for presentations, I almost always speak off of a one sheet distributed to participants. But as a Mac user, I'd probably use Keynote.
November 17, 2003 at 12:18am by Tim
Power Point is a great universal tool use it for all my business presentations
November 18, 2003 at 6:21pm by john
If it wasn't for powerpoint, i wouldn't have a job..
I train people how to use it :)