"What does your company do?" If I ask you to make a small presentation to introduce your company, how will you do that? What will be your slide headings? What will you talk about and what will you leave? What does your company's profile presentation contain. If your company does not have a presentation and I ask you to make one, how will you make it? Last week I came across two corporate profile presentations. One presentation was by a new company into the retail business. This presentation is being used to introduce the company to business associates. The other was by a 3 year old company which is looking for a joint venture partner. They are showing this presentation to companies in the same business and looking for possible tie-ups. Depending on the need and the audience, the company profile presentation will change (presenting to shareholders and presenting to customers). Yet most slides which introduce the company will be common. Here are the slide headings of ...

As a communicator the onus is on us to make the audience understand our message. If we are selling something (an idea or a service), it becomes even more important. Confusion will only lead the buyer to go away. While browsing through Picasa I found a simple and good example of how Google is effectively communicating. I went to My Photos in Picasa and clicked on Upgrade Storage .This is where Google sells extra storage space to users. If you want to buy 20GB space you need to pay $5 per year and $20 for 80GB. But the question is, how much storage space do I need?? Google helps us with that. Have a look at the information below the blue button on the right. 20GB translates to 10,000 photos with a 5MP camera and 80GB 40,000 photos. This is a simple example of a good communication. Help the audience know what 20GB means to her in a manner she understands best. I like this example because: 1. Google has not assumed that we know how much usage we need. 2. Google has not assumed we kno...

I am giving away 3 free copies of the new book 'Everyone Communicates Few Connect' by John C. Maxwell (Hard Cover, Amazon Price $17.15). All you have to do is this: Answer 10 simple questions which will take just 45 seconds Fill your email id and full name in the survey The survey is open till July 4 3 winners will be randomly decided by lucky draw (out of all the responses) These 3 winners will get their free copy of the book home delivered anywhere in the world (free of cost) Click here to answer the survey Last date to participate: July 4 (Sunday 11.59PM Indian Standard Time)

"Is this the same super market which my colleague just talked about? It does not seem so. I am on a wrong website." This was my first reaction when I landed at the website of a new chain of super markets which has opened in the city. Just a while back my colleague told me of this new super market chain and asked me to check it out. He said it was good. When I landed on the 'well-designed' website, the first thing which caught my eye were the images of people shopping, which they have put on the home page. The images show people buying stuff at a super market. This was the problem in this communication by the super market guys. If I see 'Indian' faces on this website, my brain will immediately tell me that I am on the correct website. This is my world. I understand it, I connect to it. When I am visiting an Indian website and you show me foreign faces (nothing against foreigners here) the first reaction is: "Am I at the wrong place? Is this some foreign s...

Market Research is a field where presentation skills are very important. The outcome of hours of grueling research is always a presentation. It is not enough to 'conduct' a research properly and 'analyse' the findings, it is equally important to know how to 'present' the findings to the client. Even a small mistake can seed doubts about your credibility and capability in the minds of the client. In this post I share tips on how to make market research presentations better. 3 Essentials of every Market Research Presentation A. Clarity B. Credibility C. Usability A. Clarity of thought Market research is conducted with a specific objective in mind. "How many housewives in Mumbai have seen our new soap ad?" or "How many people like Coke more than Pepsi?" The aim of the research agency is to answer this question. When the presentation is being made, the presenter should have utmost clarity on the all the findings. A research can have as low a...

Dear all I have been on a holiday for the complete last week (May 29 to June 6). While I joined work from June 7 I have been keeping unwell. Mild fever for most of this week has kept me away from writing anything on the blog. I have been going to office and crashing once I am back at home. The good news is... I saw a doc today and all should be well now. See you soon.

I am on a holiday for this entire week. I am writing this post from my home in Kolkata (Calcutta). One more month has gone by. The month of May saw a lot of 'guest posts'. Noteworthy is a special 3 part post by Rangarajan V, a consultant at AT Kearney. The two month running series 'World's Best Presentation Series' also concluded in May. The most read post of the month was the TED talk by Sebastian Wernicke. You can read the post here. Sebastian has analysed 525 TED talks and presents an interesting analysis of what works and does not work at TED. A good read for every presenter. For readers who have joined in in the last few months, I would like to share the most read posts of the blog in the past year. The most read post in the last... 6 months is: Top 10 Presentation Tips The most read post since the inception of the blog is: How to make a sponsorship proposal presentation? Enjoy reading these extremely popular posts which my other readers have lik...