A presentation that engages

Six leaders explain how they get their message across in the
conference room
Pooja Singh

Google CEO Sundar Pichais presentation at the annual developer

conference in May in the US was all about simple, clutter-free slides.
Photo: AFP

Stories, Googles chief executive officer Sundar Pichai says, are best told with
pictures. During the companys annual developer conference in San Francisco
in May, the Indian-American presented clutter-free slides, dissecting Big Data
in pictures and simple words. His first slide, for instance, had only the logos
for Googles primary productsGmail, Android, Chrome, Maps, Search,
YouTube and the Google Play Storealong with the text 1 Billion+ Users.
His message: Each of the seven products has over a billion monthly-users.

Office presentations can be boring, especially when they are crammed with
words. It is actually more difficult to process information if it comes
simultaneously in both verbal and written forms, according to a study
published in 2013 in the International Journal Of Engineering Education.
Visuals tend to have a greater impact, it says.

We asked six leaders across sectors to tell us how they create their
presentations and what, according to them, is an ideal presentation.
Less is more

Chaayos co-founder Raghav Verma likes to limit his presentations to 10

slides. I prefer more images and video content. For example, when
addressing our caf leads (managers), cricket and Bollywood examples
resonate best when delivering even a sales or growth aspect, says the Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, alumnus who co-founded the start-up,
which offers customized tea, with fellow IITian Nitin Saluja in 2012.

US-based slide design guru Nancy Duarte says each slide should pass the
glance test: People should be able to understand it in 3 seconds. If they
cannot, then the slide is too complex, she says.

Agrees Anil Kothuri, CEO at Edelweiss Retail Finance Ltd: The presentation
should be as concise as possible, definitely not more than 10 slides. Mine
normally has a few tables or visual aids to help reinforce what I want to say.

Udit Sheth, founder and managing director of SE TransStadia, a sports

infrastructure firm, keeps his brief to 10 minutes.

Sunanda K. Malik, the global talent marketing and communication leader at

professional services firm Genpact, too believes less is more. In todays
instant gratification-obsessed world, if you dont make your point quickly,
youve lost your audience. And the presentation needs to be interactive; the
feedback will show how youve performed. That is also the case with Vighnesh
Shahane, the CEO and whole-time director of IDBI Federal Life Insurance,
who likes to keep his presentations to the minimum, and Santhosh Babu,
founder-chair of Organization Development Alternatives, who tries to get the
audience glued to me, which facilitates the exchange of dialogue, even ideas,
with the audience. Their participation indicates how your presentation was. If
one is not a great speaker and cannot remember data, then it is always useful
to have more slides and text.

Technology matters

To create an engaging presentation with a wow factor, one needs to look

beyond PowerPoint, especially if the plan is to illustrate ideas with flair.
Verma prefers Prezi for its animated, non-linear presentations. iMovie works
great for video content, says Verma, though he, like Sheth, still has a soft
corner for PowerPoint. Malik banks on SlideShare: It has a bunch of great
presentations to browse through if youre facing a creative block and are
seeking inspiration.

Shahane has no specific go-to app or tool. Technology is only a facilitator. I

may use anything, whether it be slides, images or videos or any other
technological advancement; it has to do just one thing, help me get across a
powerful story, he says. Babu, on the other hand, likes to keep things simple:
If I use visuals, I would like to use the photographs I have taken. Kothuri
uses text, tables, graphs and, sometimes, a link to YouTube.

Following guidelines

The people we spoke to talked about a set of specific guidelines they follow to
ensure their message is being heard across the board or meeting room.

Babu says what is important is the overall storyline. Think about the
presentation as a story that can grip your audience. What is the beginning?
How do you create curiosity? How do you engage your audience, interact with
them and exchange ideas? What kind of questions do you ask? How do you
add a slice of humour? What is the end like? Once the storyline is clear, then
you could think what format will best fit the story, he says.

TED Talks author Chris Anderson made a similar point in his 2013 article in
the Harvard Business Review. We all know that humans are wired to listen
to stories, and metaphors abound for the narrative structures that work best to
engage people. When I think about compelling presentations, I think about
taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miraclepeople
see the world differently afterward, he wrote.

Verma too believes in the power of storytelling. Keeping the audience in mind
is essentialhumour/drama in between acts as a great hook to keep people
actively involved. Maliks advice: Avoid clichs (unless youre making fun of
them), be confident while talking, dont stuff everything that comes to your
mind on a slide, and humour is best when least expected (never be predictable
and start with those standard Dilbert joke slides!).

Sheth has a set rule: Never write what you are going to speak. Let the
PowerPoint give sublime messages while one is presenting.

For Shahane, starting strong is most important. You need to grab your
audiences attention and hold it. Another important guideline I follow is to
vary the speed at which I talk and make changes in pitch and tone to avoid
making it sound monotonous. I believe body language is crucial in getting
your message across. Confident and positive body language is an integral
element of a powerful presentation, he says.

Kothuri says a presentation should be used to emphasize the salient points

one wants to communicate. Each slide should be visually appealing; the font
size and style should be uniform. I believe there should be only four lines on a
slide, as it helps people focus and understand what I am trying to convey, he
says.

Getting help

Creating a blockbuster presentation needs large doses of brainstorming and

creativity. How do leaders manage this along with everyday work?

Vermas presentations are made in-house. Good graphics obviously make

presentations engaging, so we actively use our in-house design team to give
the right imagery to the brand, he says. Sheth normally provides the content
and asks one of his colleagues to execute it. Malik believes that if youre
making the presentation yourself, you should create the presentation,
otherwise you wont come across as authentic. But yes, its always nice to get
creative folks to add some magic, she admits. Babu spends more of his time
in creating the storyline and adding content to the slides. For formatting,
cleaning it up and beautifying, I usually send the slide deck to my colleague,
he says.

Shahane involves his teams, because that helps strengthen the content with
an all-round perspective on the subject. Kothuri typically has someone
(generally the head of strategy) put together the data and the first draft of the
presentation. The final edit is always mine, he insists.

The final word

The common thread, then: less text, more visuals, an engaging storyline,
keeping it interactive, and ensuring the right body language. Kothuri sums it
up best: We are living in an over-communicated society. The corporate
environment has numbed our ability to process new information. We need to
cut through the clutter.