Optimizing Your Presentation

Building Top Consulting Company Style Presentation Deck

Build & Presented by: Pebrian Ricky Sahal | IT Business Partner Head

Jum’at, 10 November 2023

For Internal Use Only

 Do we really need a stand out presentation deck?
In short, yes! In the corporate world, presentation-building skills are a must-have.
It’ll help you to bring your message across, make your presentation more engaging &
help you convince the audience about your message
Top consulting company like McKinsey & BCG are known for their deck’s.
What make them so special?
They’re often used these deck style to communicate: strategy, research & insight, rich data and complex ideas

Let’s find out 👉

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This is what their presentation deck structure looks like.
Their deck structure contain 5 section, with a solid message for each slide

Section Explanation

Section 1: Front Page Designed to make a powerful first impression. It includes essential elements like a concise title, a
sub-headline for elaboration, the company's name, and the date and time. Depending on whether
the work is positioned as internal or external

Section 2: Executive Summary Serving as a concise overview of the entire slide deck's main points, narrative, and supporting
evidence. It usually follows the Situation-Complication-Resolution (SCR) framework, presenting
the initial context (Situation), the specific challenge (Complication), and the proposed solution
(Resolution)

Section 3: Body of Slide The body of the presentation constitutes the central section, containing multiple slides filled with
quantitative and qualitative content. To prevent overwhelming the audience, structure individual
slides in a clear and engaging manner (one message/key focus per slide). Each slide consists of
three main parts: an Action Title, Subheadings, and Slide Body.

Section 4: Recomendation Outlines the actions required to address the problem or challenge discussed earlier. To create
effective recommendations, it is beneficial to group them into categories for clarity, label or
number the groups and individual recommendations, and use an active voice starting with action
words (verbs) to make the recommendations actionable and compelling.

Section 5: Appendix Contains supplementary details and supporting evidence that goes beyond the main storyline. It
is essential to keep the main deck's storyline crisp and clear and move all additional information
to the appendix for easy reference.
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Section 1: Front Page
Designed to make a powerful first impression

Title, a sub-headline for elaboration

Company Name

Date & Time

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Section 2: Executive Summary
Serving as a concise overview of the entire slide deck's main points, narrative, and supporting evidence.

Situatuion

Challenge

Resolution

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Section 3: Body of Slide
Each slide consists of three main parts: an Action Title, Subheadings, and Slide Body.

Action Tittle:
Articulates the key takeaway or main
message.
Remove label, instead you can use
Headlines to summarize clear
conclusion and actions.

Sub-Heading:
Provide a clear summary of the data
used to prove the insight stated in the
action title, or they add nuance to the
main takeaway.

Slide Body:
Allocated for content and exhibits that
support the leads or headlines. These
exhibits can take the form of graphs,
tables, text, maps, or other forms of
data visualization.

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Section 4: Recomendation
Use an active voice starting with action words (verbs) to make the recommendations actionable and compelling. We need
to provide clear guidance on what actions need to be taken to address the problem or challenge

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Tips and Trick: Support with Evidence
Headlines are supported with key points and facts written in concise phrase

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Tips and Trick: Leverage Clear Diagrams
Don’t get too creative with charts, diagrams and data. The best ones are usually the simplest.

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Tips and Trick: Align to Pyramid Principle
Start with key message, categorise, arguments and include supporting points.

Core Message

Category/ Category/ Category/

Theme Theme Theme

Evidence Evidence Evidence

Evidence Evidence Evidence

Evidence Evidence Evidence

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Tips and Trick: Logical Infotmation Hierarchy
Sub-headlines can help to group information clearly and guide audience in the right sequence

2 3 4

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Tips and Trick: Add Images & Icons
Break the monotony of walls-of-text by adding images and icons to increase visual interest

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Tips and Trick: Remove Unnecessary Chart Junk
Remove elements that add no value and make charts easy to decipher and consume

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Tips and Trick: Format Your Deck
Top consulting firms have mastered the art of formatting and designing presentations to make them stand out and
captivate the audience, here are some tips:

Colors: Keep the color palette simple and use bright colors selectively to draw attention to critical data or insights.

Fonts: Stick to one or two font types for consistency throughout the presentation. McKinsey typically uses the font
"Trebuchet MS" or "Arial" for slide body content and "Georgia" for titles and select visual elements.

Margins: Stay within the slide margins and use PowerPoint guides to ensure alignment.

Lists: Use bullets instead of numbers unless ranking items is necessary.

Icons: Utilize icons strategically to enhance the visual appeal and clarity of your slides.

Alignment: Ensure all content, including titles, subheadings, and visuals, is aligned consistently.

Animations: Avoid using fancy graphics and animations that might distract from the main message.

Slide Number and Source: Each slide should include a slide number and a source in the bottom section to provide context and credibility.

Text: Keep text clear, concise, and well-structured, eliminating unnecessary words and sentences.

Visual: Use high-quality visuals that add value and maintain consistency in colors, fonts, and layout.
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This Source will Save Your Time
Looking for suitable background, images, icons and illustration could take too much efforts and time consuming. Here’s
some online source that can help you to find those things:

Icons

illustrations

Images

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“Focus & simplicity.. once you get there, you can move mountain”
Steve Jobs -
Thank You