Archive for the ‘Consultancy’ Category

« Older Entries

Guest Blog – In Response to OSMCs

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

One of the most talked about blogs in recent months was our criticism of Old School Management Consultants (or OSMCs for short).  Much to our delight, the debate rumbled away on LinkedIn for some time with one particular voice, Eamonn Wilcox, catching our attention.

Eamonn kicks off this week of Guest Blogs by sharing his view on the debate based upon his years of experience working alongside OSMCs and reveals that behind the slide clutter, there was some smart thinking…

Once upon a time, creating visuals was time consuming, and very expensive.  It needed rare skills, patience, software and equipment. Because of this, everyone looked long and hard at visual aids before using them. Then people noticed that Microsoft Office not only had Excel and Word, but also this slide thingy PowerPoint and the floodgates opened. Après Mac le deluge.

25 years ago, I worked at a London Mac Dealer. I was the DTP person who became the Presentation Guy. Then someone offered me a job making presentations on-site for a big Old School Management Consulting (OSMC) firm in Germany, starting the next night. I borrowed the manual for Aldus Persuasion, read it on the flight over and the rest as they say is history. I travelled all over Europe, 65-70 hours a week for eight years, making PowerPoint slides, lots and lots of them. Many so packed with information that you had to work on an A3 in Claris Draw and paste it in. Something, which would send today’s experts screaming from the room. But…

For OSMC making presentations was a core skill, not only the software side, but also how to structure an argument, overcome objections and close the deal. Cramming information onto a slide was often deliberate, showing how complex or absurd a situation was, followed by an image implying ‘if you hire us we can make it go away”. Convincing someone that things needed fixing usually meant first showing the mess they were in.

It is not that OSMC didn’t appreciate design principles but business principles were just as important.

Old School Management Consulting took their client’s needs very seriously indeed. They always started by looking carefully at the customer and their industry before taking their money.  However it worked, they gave the client what they wanted and more importantly what they needed. You can’t give an honest answer until you ‘get’ the question, once you really understand, then it’s what you say and the way that you say it ‘that’s what gets results’.

Of course, some of it was pro-forma work, find and replace a logo and off you go. However, there was a real appreciation for the craft of putting stuff together quickly and efficiently. Clients were impressed by how good it looked and quickly it was done. I had a great time working hard with smart people and got paid for it. Eventually a client made me an offer I didn’t refuse and I moved on.

The crime of packing too much into a page, alas, became the new norm for people who didn’t know what they were doing but had seen it done. So before we trash talk the OSMC remember:

  • What the audience need to hear is still more important than what you want to say.
  • Making it clear is still more important than making it pretty.
  • You’re not a really a professional at something until you’re paid to do it.

Tremendous points well made, Eamonn – who knew..?  Thanks again for your contribution – let the (latest) debate rage on!

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, Presentation Design, Presentation Tools | 1 Comment »

Every cloud has a silver lining…or life in the fast lane?

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

Speed cameras are a constant source of debate and grumbling amongst UK drivers – are they a source of revenue or do they improve road safety? Debates aside, this story is about turning a negative into a positive.

Last year UK consultant Paul Newsome received the dreaded letter informing him that he had been photographed exceeding the speed limit whilst driving in Hull. Paul was presented with two options: take the fine and points or pay the fine and attend a road safety awareness course. Of course, Paul opted for the latter and duly signed up to attend the one-day course.

The course, for those careful, law-abiding drivers who don’t know, involves a presentation followed by some practical advice. Now Paul has been a presentation consultant with Eyeful since 2009 and is always spotting opportunities to improve poor slides. By pure chance the Road Safety Partnership had already contacted Eyeful for a quote and it was our Presentation Optimisation methodology that gave us the edge over other companies and helped us to win the contract. Along with Paul’s “experience”.

Cut to a few months down the line and delivery of the new  ‘High Vis’ version of their original presentation.  The process was a familiar one to anyone who has experienced the Presentation Optimisation methodology, as Paul explains:

“It’s a slightly different scenario to most of our customers but the theory is the same. A presentation needs to have a structure that ensures audience engagement – perhaps more so in this case as many attend the course with a very cynical or negative attitude and need convincing that the information being shared is relevant and important.

Most importantly the presentation needs to encourage and facilitate active and positive contribution to the session whilst being memorable so that it is not just about what they see on the day – it’s about adopting it in their day to day life after the course”

The feedback has been fantastic and we’re proud to have made such a positive impact on something as important as road safety.

In some ways we hope that you do see our work… but on the other hand, we understand that you probably hope you don’t.

Either way, Paul is naturally a much better driver thanks to this experience!

Share

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, General information, PowerPoint, Presentation Design | No Comments »

The Curse of The Consultant – Content Cramming

Monday, February 25th, 2013

“A consultant is someone who takes the watch off your wrist and tells you the time”

We’ve all heard the jokes about management consultants.  Depending on your experience, you either nod knowingly and tut quietly to yourself or politely laugh and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Ultimately, the “old school management consultant” (or “OSMC”) style associated with high fee, high profile companies – you know the ones we’re talking about, they specialised in confusing charts, thick reports and having a slightly supercilious air about themselves – became a figure of fun…and thankfully are now few and far between.

Whilst the expensive and ultimately flawed report may well have found it’s way into the shredder, the OSMC’s influence can be felt in companies across the land.  And it’s not good news.

Many OSMC’s were judged on the amount of data they produced.  The thinking was clear – more data shared, the more comprehensive the study…and ultimately the more valuable for the client.  Makes sense in a twisted sort of way…and so ramping up the content became the norm.

The problem is that this profusion of content slowly found it’s way from the OSMC’s usual weapon of choice, the verbose Word document, into other forms of communication including the lowly PowerPoint presentation.   What you end up with is something like this:

And the creation of such horrors is where the rot really sets in*.  Businesses were faced with a dilemma – if management consultants were the clever ones who we should all look to emulate, then shouldn’t we all be creating similar looking complex slides…even though whenever we present them, we’re faced with a sea of confused/unengaged faces?  Tricky.

To make matters worse, many OSMCs made the leap from running big-ticket projects to running the companies.  And cluttered, overly complex slides became the cultural norm in companies across the World.  Need proof?  Look no further:

It’s something we battle with day-in, day-out…and it would seem few companies are immune.  From globe-straddling mega-businesses to fast-growing start ups, they’re all having to fight hard and think harder against creating overly complex slides.  I guess that’s why Eyeful exists…

If you were to take away just one message from this heartfelt rant, this is it – when it comes to OSMCs, everything they tell you about presentations is wrong.

Step away from the content and embrace the message.

* Somewhat alarmingly, this slide was only produced in 2009, thus proving the influence of the OSMC lives on!

Share

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, General information, Presentation Design, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Successful companies don’t create their own advertising…or presentations

Monday, February 18th, 2013

As a child, you got the sense that Christmas was around the corner when the ads for toys came on the TV.  The gawdy ads for plastic rubbish worked a treat as my parents will pay testament to – my toy cupboard was filled to the rafters with toys and games which promised so much in the advert but delivered so little once unwrapped.  Aaah, the power of those clever advertisers…

Now a lot older, greyer and (at a stretch) wiser, advertising still plays an important role in parting me from my cash.  Now the objects of my desire are grown up things like audio equipment, furniture and (shudder) lawnmowers but the effect is the same – aspirational, engaged and willing to nag mercilessly until the product is purchased.  Damn, those advertisers are good…

Great advertising grabs hold of us, no matter how old we are.  It demands attention, pulls on the heartstrings and engages it’s audiences in powerful, almost magical ways.

So who is responsible for these perfectly formed 30 second segments of loveliness?  The short answer – experts (although you might like to call them advertising agencies).  Importantly, an advert is rarely the creation of the company who’s goods it is designed to sell .

Whilst somewhat cliched, let’s take Apple as an example.  Their powerful “Think Different” campaign in the late 90s is often referenced as the turning point for what had previously been a slowly fading business.  “Think Different” was a call to arms for Apple, elevating Steve Jobs from maverick to expert business leader and the arbiter of all things cool.

So who came up with the concept?

  • Steve Jobs?  Nope.
  • The army of marketing experts working within Apple at the time?  Nope.
  • This watershed marketing slogan and associated campaign was the brainchild of an outsider – the creative agency TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Outsiders have the ability to see through the inevitable internal noise of a business and it’s thinking.  They’re in the enviable position of being able to play Devil’s Advocate, point out the Emperor’s New Clothes or simply declutter the whole mix of content, opinion and research to a point where the message is loud, clear…and, most important of all, relevant to the audience.

Steve Jobs and Apple knew that successful companies don’t create their own advertising – they left it to the experts (and continue to do so).

From advertising to presentations…

Think of your next presentation as an opportunity to deliver a rich, multi-layered and hugely focussed advertisement directly to your target audience of 1.

How much would you pay for such an opportunity: a 1-to-1 chat with the person who has the money, authority and need to purchase your goods?

With this in mind, consider Apple.  Just as they recognised that moments like “Think Different” are just too important to leave to chance and that working with the experts is the right thing to do, smart companies are starting to recognise that their presentations deserve the same respect.

Share

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, General information, Sales Presentation, Uncategorized | No Comments »

All hail the weather presenters (pun intended)

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

There’s no doubt us Brits are a little obsessed with the weather.  From slavishly watching reports on impending snow-based gridlock to the fervent prayers for a summer with at least some sun, we’re hooked.

This puts the lowly weather presenter under a lot of pressure.  They need to clearly and succinctly share a lot of potentially technical information with their audience.  Their audience will all have slightly different agendas/interests depending on where they live or their travel plans.  Oh, and they need to do this day in, day out (on the hour in the mornings!) so keeping it fresh and engaging is also important.

A tough gig for any presenter…so how do they do it?

Spookily they rely on the 3 key facets of effective presenting that form the basis of our Presentation Optimisation methodology:

  • A clear message
  • The right content
  • Powerful and valuable visuals

Each and every weather forecast starts and finishes with the big message – it’s either going to be rainy, sunny, changeable…  Whatever the forecast, the message is delivered in such a way that the audience knows how exactly the weather is going to impact them (and whether packing an umbrella will prove to be a good idea).

That message is then supported by a level of content that demonstrates how and why the weather is behaving in a particular way.  As an audience, we nod sagely at talk of high pressures coming in from the east but the truth is that this content is shared to merely back up the important message (in the case of the UK, it’s going to rain).  Adding extraneous content merely gets in the way and runs the risk of confusing the message.

To push it over the line, TV presenters use visuals to demonstrate the key message.

The presentation genius of the weather guys and gals is here for all to see – rather than overly complex graphics of isobars and other meteorological clutter, they use simple icons* to help deliver the overarching message – it’s going to rain, don’t forget your umbrella. Visually, less is more when delivering a simple message.

Now apply this thinking to your business presentation…

Do you have a clear message?  Are you running the risk of confusing or reducing the impact of the message by cluttering up the presentation with content you simply don’t need?  Are your visuals helping you clearly deliver on your message or there to justify your content (hint – it should be the former).

Get this right and you’re on the road to what we call Presentation Optimisation…and a more engaged informed audience.

* It’s interesting to note that the BBC received a lot of grumpy letters and e-mails a few years ago when they moved away from their super simple weather icons to a more animated version.  If the animation is getting in the way of delivering a clear message (a la over engineered PowerPoint, Keynote and Prezi presentations), you run the risk of terminally confusing your audience.

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, PowerPoint, Presentation Design, Presentation Skills, Presentation Technology, Presentation Tools, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Presentation Pressure..?

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

Presenting brings with it all manner of pressure…  Heart palpitations and sweaty palms are commonplace in meeting rooms and conference halls the world over, as presenters wrestle with the fear of stumbling over their words or completely losing the plot as they deliver their slides.

A statistic often dragged out and dusted down at this point is; that more people are terrified at the thought of standing up and presenting to an audience than they are of dying. This is typically followed up with the quip, “So they would rather it be their funeral than give the eulogy at someone elses”.

Funny…but the impact this fear can have on a presentation is deadly serious.

We have recently used our Presentation Optimisation methodology to develop a deck for a lovely customer who is presenting today at Buckingham Palace …to HRH Prince Andrew.  Gulp!  Now that is a high pressure pitch!

Both our Presentation Designer, Nicola, who worked on the deck and Consultant, Paul, who developed the messaging and drew up the initial storyboard are happy to boast that they have created slides for royalty.  But, more importantly, we can take great pride in equipping our customer with a presentation that the presenter has complete confidence in.  Once the confidence kicks in, the pressure ebbs away… our job is done.

So best of luck to our lovely customer and we eagerly await an update on how it all went.  Perhaps we could get our Customer Champions to survey the Palace to get their view on it?  Maybe not…

So, if you need some help dealing with those presentation nerves, start with the basics and get your content and story straight and build from there.

Share

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, General information, PowerPoint, Presentation Design, Presentation Skills, Sales Presentation | No Comments »

Presentation Perestroika

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

We’re very proud of our growing global presence and relish the challenges this poses us everyday. The project management team are well versed in dealing with different time zones, geographic trends and the occasional language barrier…but there’s always room for improvement.

So when we saw that the lovely folk at UK Trade and Investment were running a free workshop on Russian Language for Beginners, we jumped at the chance to skill up!

Project Management Team Leader, Vicki attended the day earlier this month:

“When I heard about the course I was excited and also quite nervous – Russian is a complicated language and it’s not like I could even recognise the letters of the alphabet. I am really glad I went though. I was surprised at how many other businesses in the East Midlands have links to Russia and were on the course.”

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of talking to or working with Vicki, she can be a bit shy.  Worry not, her ever supporting chums in the design team tweaked the photo to ensure you could see her in all her glory:

Over the next few weeks Vicki will be sharing her new found skills and chatting to all of our lovely Russian customers (or indeed anyone who fancies practicing their Russian!)

 

 

 

 

Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, General information | No Comments »

Panic Over – Eyeful Arrives in Europe

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

The EU has had a tough time of it over the last few years.  Economies wobbling, internal squabbles among member states and the perennial debate over how bendy a banana should be (no, really – see here).

No fun for anyone…

However 2013 looks like all of this cross continent tension could be a thing of the past.  The reason?  EyefulPresentations.EU has landed.

You see, we have a sneaking suspicion that much of the recent turmoil is down to poor communication and a dearth of engaging visuals.  Granted, this might be over simplifying the internal workings of one of the World’s most complex and powerful economic entities…but we feel it’s worth a punt.

Either way, we believe the launch of our new EU website is good news for all European businesses.  With us supporting your business through our Presentation Optimisation methodology, you can at least tick of “clearly communicate with prospects and customers” off your to-do list.*

* We know it works because it’s going down a treat with the Dutch, Irish and Eastern European customers.

To learn more about our ability to support companies across Europe, simply visit the website or give us a call.

Merci/Vielen Dank etc etc

 

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, General information, PowerPoint, Presentation Design, Press Release | No Comments »

Modern presenting – why designing for interaction matters

Monday, January 21st, 2013

It is an indisputable truth that technology is always changing.

Take the gaming industry as an example. From the beautiful simplicity of Pong, the first computer game to grab our attention, through to beautifully detailed role-play adventures available online and through incredibly powerful games consoles, the march towards immersive technologies goes on.

Underpinning all this fast paced evolution is the programmers’ drive to provide true interactivity between the technology and it’s users.  What was once seen as the madcap dream of a few is now commonplace as children, their parents, and their grandparents interact with smartphones, tablets and other interactive technologies with ease.

Being able to interact with a technology is no longer a nice to have – it is the way that we engage with technology at home and at work.

So if interactivity plays such an important part in our everyday life, why is this so remarkably absent in most business presentations? And what is the impact of presenters refusing to embrace this new interactive thinking?

We believe that the cause of the issue lies with a lack of forethought and planning at the initial development stage of the presentation (let’s face it – a lack of investment, consideration and planning at this early stage of development is to blame for all manner of presentation ills, most notably the scourge of death by PowerPoint).

Developing an interactive presentation that allows you to fully engage and inspire your audience, demands a different way of thinking.  It’s on this premise that the Presentation Optimisation methodology, employed by Eyeful consultants across the world, was developed to ensure that a full understanding of the audience and the best method by which to engage them underpins the process.

We’ve always maintained that taking the time to understand these requirements in detail is time well spent – without it, your presentation is built on a very fragile and shortsighted foundation. So it was with glee that we stumbled across the following short film that examines the importance of understanding and planning in interaction design.

Hats off to the team at Bassett & Partners for a job well done…

Understanding the importance and the method by which presenters interact with their audiences also underpins our Blended Presenting approach – the flexibility and increased level of engagement provided by this approach are only possible as a result of careful planning and the creation of a strong message and story early on in the process.

So in summary,

Poor planning = lack of understanding

Lack of understanding = low levels of interactivity

Low levels of interactivity = poor customer audience engagement

One final question – doesn’t your audience and your presentation deserve better?

Share

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, General information, Presentation Design, Presentation Skills, Presentation Technology, Video | No Comments »

Russian Presentation Revolution

Friday, November 30th, 2012

It’s been a while since I personally blogged (the high quality of the blogs for the last 9 months or so is testament to this!) but, having just returned from another fulfilling trip to Russia, I’m inspired to do so…

I was privileged to be asked over by our Eyeful Russia team to speak at a large seminar in Kaliningrad where the entire 4 hours were dedicated to presentations and the changes that are afoot in terms of technology, approach and technique.

This immediately struck a chord with me.

The Russian business community has grasped the importance of getting presentations right.  They understand the issues thrown up day after day in the West as a result of The Presentation Paradox and Death by PowerPoint…and don’t want to fall into the same trap.

There were a series of media interviews afterwards and a common question from all was “how can we ensure Russia catches up with the West in terms of presentations?“.  The simple answer is that they need not worry.

Whilst Russian presenters are focussing their energies on building compelling and engaging stories to support their message, the vast majority of their Western counterparts are wrestling with which whacky animation to build into their next huge PowerPoint deck.

Possibly the most inspiring fact I learned was that Russians do not yet have a phrase that conveys “Death by PowerPoint”.  Long may this be the case.

Without wanting to sound too dramatic, the presentation revolution has started…and that’s great news for audiences across Russia.

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Consultancy, Customer Stories, General information, Presentation Skills, Presentation Technology, Presentation Tools, Sales Presentation | No Comments »

« Older Entries