It is worth taking a high-level look at how to set up a presentation. You have probably seen a presentation at school, university or at work that you would describe as ”less than successful”. The presentation was probably unsuccessful because it failed to meet your expectations. You may have found yourself asking one of the following questions:

1. What is this presentation about?
2. How is this presentation relevant to me, my organisation or my industry?
3. I can’t follow, where is this presentation going? What are the main points?
4. I’m giving an hour of my time, how does this presentation benefit me? Why do I care?

Setting up your presentation is important because it will help you take control of the presentation right from the start by managing the expectations of your audience and answering their unspoken questions. The presentation set up has four main parts:

1. What

What are you talking about?  You should make it clear for the audience what subject or topic area the presentation will cover.

2. Why

Why is the presentation relevant to your audience? Put the presentation in the context of recent events or impending events. For example: “you will be able to use the skills you learn in this presentation on the MECE Framework in your next presentation, client meeting or research report.”

3. How

How will the presentation be structured?  Provide a structure for your talk.  Do you have three main points – what are they?  Will you allow questions during the presentation or should people wait until the end?

4. Outcome

What will your audience take away with them at the end of the presentation that they didn’t have at the beginning? Outline what your audience will get out of the presentation. What will they know? How will they feel? What will they do?  For example: “when you walk away from this room, you will be able to structure your thoughts more logically.  Structured thinking will help you give clients clear explanations so that they can easily understand and engage in the consulting process. Being easy to understand is client friendly and will make you a more valuable consultant.”

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There is a term that consultants use which is called “boiling the ocean” (I borrowed this idea from Victor Chang).

If you want one cup of hot water, there are two ways you can do it:

1. go and collect one cup of water, and heat it up; or
2. try and boil the entire ocean.

As a consultant, you could ask a million questions and request all of the information in the client’s database.  Or, you could just ask for the information you need to answer the questions required to confirm your hypothesis.

You don’t have the time or the resources to analyse everything.

Are you able to ask the minimum number of questions to get the information you need to make a recommendation?

You will need to be selective.

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A little while ago, back in May of this year, we discovered that there are a number of benefits to be gained from participating in a forum.

The previous list of benefits was quite general, and so I will take another look at the benefits of participating in a forum.  The new list is created specially for you, the idealistic and hardworking student who will one day change the world, you know who you are.

1. Expand Your Mind: Using a forum will expand your mind, give you an experience which is out of the ordinary, alter your perception of life, and help you access and develop the unused potentials of your mind.
2. Anything Goes, Man: Embrace the free spirited, informal, anything goes nature of participating in a forum.  You can participate and have your say.  Or if you don’t want to participate, that’s cool too man!
3. Set Your Ideas Free: If you love your ideas, set them free.  Share what you know, without any hope of repayment.  You can make the world a better place.
4. Make Peace Not War: Every day you are bombarded by an assault of noise and trivial ideas.  Shallow messages developed by 40 year old marketing executives attempt to influence your decisions. Take action against cheap and meaningless ideas by writing a well structured and thoughtful comment in a forum.  The world is now a more peaceful and coherent place to live.
5. Discover Who You Are: Who are you? What do you believe?  Your personal identity is based on what you believe and by discussing ideas, arguing different positions and testing your thoughts, you can build your own personal beliefs about how the world works and what is important to you.  Establishing a clear personal identity and set of beliefs will help you meet the challenges of life with confidence and certainty.
6. Stand Up For What You Believe: You know who you are and what you stand for. Embrace life and assert your unique personality and perspective.
7. Join a Club or Society: There is a forum for everyone, and if you go through your internet days without ever having been a member of one then you may have missed out on one of the most rewarding experiences that the internet has to offer.  If you don’t like debating then maybe the Drama Club or the Speleological Society. If there’s no forum that caters for your particular interests, you can always start one.
8. Make Friends for Life: On a forum you can meet people from different walks of life.  They may not live in the same city or suburb, have attended the same high school, or come from the same socio-economic background, but you share a common interest.

To help you capitalise on the benefits of participating in a forum, a brand new Consulting Forum will be launched through this blog on 1 August 2010!

Please be sure to join the forum, ask questions, post comments, and participate in the discussion.  Or if you don’t want to participate, that’s cool too man!

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… do you?

You may be one of thousands of people who finished a vocational university degree (engineering, law, accounting etc.) and thought, “I need to get some professional experience to my name … and then I’ll branch out and do what I love!”  Two years later and you are still an engineer/accountant/lawyer.  You’ve learnt a lot and met some interesting people, but it wasn’t meant to be this way.  You have dreams of success and personal fulfillment!  Is now the right time to switch?  Is the economy strong enough or should you wait? There is no right time to stand up and go after what you’ve always wanted, but just don’t wait too long!

I Love My Job

I love my job, I love the pay.
I love it more and more each day.
I love my boss; he/she is the best.
I love his boss and all the rest.
I love my office and its location.
I hate to have to go on vacation.
I love my furniture, drab and gray,
And the paper that piles up every day.

I love my chair in my padded cell.
There’s nothing else I love so well.
I love to work among my peers.
I love their leers and jeers and sneers.

I love my computer and its software;
I hug it often though it don’t care.
I love each program and every file,
I try to understand once in a while.

I’m happy to be here, I am, I am;
I’m the happiest slave of my Uncle Sam.
I love this work; I love these chores.
I love the meetings with deadly bores.

I love my job-I’ll say it again.
I even love these friendly men,
These men who’ve come to visit today
In lovely white coats to take me away.

(source unknown)

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In a recent post we learnt 12 tips for nailing the Guesstimate Question, which is a usual type of question that you can expect to be asked when interviewing for a position at a consulting firm. We now consider how to approach the Guesstimate Question.

There are at least three ways to answer a guesstimate question:

1. Try to guess the answer;
2. If you can’t guess, break the question down into smaller pieces that you can guess; or
3. If you still can’t guess, establish possible upper and lower bounds within which the answer is likely to fall.

1. Guess the answer

In the case interview the “try and guess” approach is unlikely to be helpful because the guesstimate question is unlikely to be straight forward. For example, you could be asked “How many tennis balls fit in a swimming pool?” There is no way you can guess the answer to this question, and the interviewer will not be impressed if you try. The interviewer wants to assess your logic and creativity in arriving at the answer.  You will need to break the question down into smaller pieces.

2. Break the question down into smaller pieces

You can break the question down into smaller pieces by asking the interviewer questions. And if the interviewer doesn’t have an answer, you can make a series of narrowing assumptions.

a) What is the volume of a tennis ball? “Assume 140 cubic centimeters.”

b) Are we talking about a standard Olympic sized swimming pooling? “Yes.”

c) What is the volume of an Olympic swimming pooling? “What do you think?”  You will need to make a series of narrowing assumptions and might reason as follows:

I know that an Olympic swimming pool is 50 meters long.

An Olympic swimming pool has 8 lanes and, based on my experience, each lane is about 2.5 meters wide. So, I will assume that an Olympic swimming pool is 25 metres wide.

Based on my experience, an Olympic swimming pool is about 2 meters deep at the shallow end and 3 meters deep at the deep end. I will assume that the pool starts getting deeper at the 30 meter mark and hits maximum depth 10 meters from the end of the pool.

d) What is the volume of a tennis ball in cubic metres?

e) How many tennis balls fit in a swimming pool?

3. Establish upper and lower bounds

Establishing possible upper and lower bounds for an answer is a good way to sanity check that the final answer is in the right ball park.

The number of tennis balls that fit inside an Olympic sized swimming pool is almost certainly more than 10,000 and less than 100,000,000. Therefore, our initial estimate is in the right ball park.

4. Take the extra step

Since tennis balls are spherical, there will be small gaps between the tennis balls. This means that the actual number of tennis balls that fit in an Olympic swimming pool will be less than our initial estimate. Let’s assume that 5% of the pool is filled by the empty space between tennis balls.

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The only way to do well in the consulting case interview is to do lots of practice.

Here is the most current list of free online case interview questions:

1. Accenture
2. Ace the Case
3. Bain & Company
4. Booz & Co
5. Boston Consulting Group
6. Capital One
7. Job Search Online
8. Kellogg School of Management
9. MBA Case
10. McKinsey
11. MIT
12. Oliver Wyman
13. Seattle Interview Coach

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People are motivated to succeed in business for different reasons. Some people want to change the world and some just want to make money. If you go to business school or listen to CEOs speak at annual meetings you’ll hear a lot of talk about money: how much money, made by whom, from which activities, and what is the plan to make even more next year.

The drive by individuals and corporations to make more money seems so normal that few people stop to ask the obvious question, why acquire more money?  What is the purpose?  Why go to so much trouble?

To quote Al Pacino’s character Tony Montana from the 1983 film Scarface:

In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.

If money is merely a means to acquire power then it makes sense to consider power.  Is the acquisition of power a worthwhile goal?  How can power be acquired and maintained?

The 1998 bestselling book written by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers entitled “The 48 Laws of Power“ goes a long way towards answering the second question. The 48 Laws of Power are quite telling, if not a little Machiavellian, and provide a good explanation of the principles by which power can be acquired and maintained:

Law 1 – Never Outshine The Master - Always make those above you feel comfortably superior.

Law 2 – Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends, Learn How To Use Enemies

Law 3 – Conceal Your Intentions - Keep people off-balance by never revealing your purpose. Guide them in the wrong direction and by the time they realise what you’re up to, it will be too late.

Law 4 – Always Say Less Than Necessary - When you are trying to impress people with words, say as little as possible. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Law 5 – Reputation – Guard It With Your Life - Reputation is the cornerstone of power because once it slips you are vulnerable to attack. You can attack your enemies by destroying their reputation and allowing public opinion to hang them.

Law 6 – Seek Attention - Never let yourself get lost in the crowd. Stand out and attract attention.

Law 7 – Use the Good Work of Others – Use the good work of others to your advantage. Their assistance will save you time and energy, and give you an aura of godlike efficiency. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered.

Law 8 – Make Other People Come To You - When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control.

Law 9 – Win Through Actions - Any victory gained through argument is a Pyrrhic victory.  People hate to be defeated and victory through argument means nothing because “a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still”. It is more powerful to win the agreement of others through your actions, without saying a word.

Law 10 – Avoid Infection – Emotional states are infectious. The unfortunate can draw misfortune not only on themselves but also on you. Associate only with happy and fortunate people.

Law 11 – Keep People Dependent On You – If people value you or need what you have then they will be willing to give you more freedom and make exceptions for you.

Law 12 – Use Honesty To Disarm People – One honest action can cover dozens of dishonest ones. You can use selective honesty to bring down people’s guard . Once their defenses are down, you can manipulate them.

Law 13 – Appeal To People’s Self-Interest - If you need help from someone don’t remind the person of your past helpfulness, they will find a way to ignore you. Instead, appeal to the person’s self-interest by finding something in your request that will benefit them.

Law 14 – Pose As A Friend, Work As A Spy – Information is power. Gathering information about rivals allows you to destroy them. Pose as a friend and work as a spy.

Law 15 – Crush Your Enemy Completely - A feared enemy must be crushed completely. If you give your enemy a chance to recover they will seek revenge.

Law 16 – Create Value Through Scarcity – The more you are seen, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporarily withdraw from it. This will  make you more talked about and even more admired.

Law 17 – Cultivate An Air Of Unpredictability - Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control.

Law 18 – Isolation Is Dangerous - The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere so you need to protect yourself. Isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from. Mingling amongst the people gives you access to information and avoids making you a conspicuous target.

Law 19 – Know Who You’re Dealing With - There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive the wrong person and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge.

Law 20 – Do Not Commit To Anyone - Do not commit to any cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence you become the master of others.

Law 21 – Seem Dumber Than You Are - No one likes to feel stupider than the next person. The trick is to make people feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.

Law 22 – Surrender When Weak - When you are weak, choose to surrender. Surrender gives you time to recover, and time to wait for their power to wane. By turning the other cheek you infuriate and unsettle your enemy.

Law 23 – Concentrate Your Forces - Conserve your energies and concentrate them at their strongest point. You gain more by finding one rich client, than by having a dozen poor ones.

Law 24 – Play The Perfect Courtier -The perfect courtier woos people and thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity.

Law 25 – Re-Create Yourself – Do not accept the roles that society chooses for you. Create a new identity and be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you.

Law 26 – Keep Your Hands Clean - You must not be associated with common actions, inefficiency or mistakes.

Law 27 – Play On People’s Need To Believe - People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them something to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking.

Law 28 – Act With Boldness - If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. When you act, act with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity.

Law 29 – Think Long Term, Plan Carefully – Take a long term view and plan all the way to the end, taking into account all the possible consequences and obstacles. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.

Law 30 – Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless - When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.

Law 31 – Control the Options – The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose.

Law 32 – Play To People’s Fantasies – Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people are drawn to those who can manufacture romance or fantasy.

Law 33 – Find Each Man’s Achilles Heel - Everyone has a weakness: an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need, or a small secret pleasure. Once found, you can turn it to your advantage.

Law 34 – Beware The Tickets You Put On Yourself - The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated.  In the long run, people will treat you at your self-estimation.

Law 35 – Master The Art of Timing - Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually.

Law 36 – Disdain Things You Cannot Have - If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.

Law 37 – Create Compelling Spectacles - Striking imagery and grand gestures create the aura of power – everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you.

Law 38 – Behave Like Others - If you make a show of going against the times and flaunting your unconventional ideas, people will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with close and tolerant friends.

Law 39 – Be Calm - Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective but if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain the advantage.

Law 40 – There Is No Free Lunch – Anything offered for free is dangerous as it usually involves either a trick or hidden obligation. Anything of value is worth paying for and by paying the full price you stay clear of deception, financial indebtedness and moral indebtedness. Be generous with your money, for generosity is a sign of power.

Law 41 – Avoid Stepping Into A Great Man’s Shoes - What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. Establish your own name and identity and distinguish yourself as unique from the great men who have come before you.

Law 42 – Strike The Shepherd And The Sheep Will Scatter - Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual. Do not wait for the trouble to arise, do not try to negotiate with them. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them.

Law 43 – Work On Hearts And Minds – If you use coercion people will eventually react against you. You need to seduce people so that they willingly move in your direction. The way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses.

Law 44 – Disarm Others With The Mirror Effect – The Mirror Effect involves doing exactly as the other person does.  The Mirror Effect can be used to seduce others by making them believe you share their values. It also means they cannot figure out your strategy.

Law 45 – Preach The Need For Change, But Reform Slowly - Everyone understands the need for change, but people are creatures of habit. If you are new to a position of power, show respect for tradition. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement.

Law 46 – Never Appear Too Perfect - Appearing better than others is dangerous and envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human. Only gods and the dead can appear perfect with impunity.

Law 47 – Learn When To Stop - The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest danger. In the heat of victory you risk pushing past your goal. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

Law 48 – Assume Formlessness - By having a predictable plan, you open yourself to attack. Nothing is certain and the best way to protect yourself is to be flexible and change often.

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There are currently more than 105,000 homeless people in Australia.

Census figures from 2006 indicate that each night 54% of homeless people seeking supported accommodation are turned away, which means around 56,000 people are sleeping on the street each night in Australia.

The problem is that in the wake of the financial crisis the number of homeless people has risen much faster than the supply of homeless and housing services required to support the needs of people experiencing disadvantage.

The St Vincent de Paul Society indicates that the new face of homelessness is families: young families; two-parent families; families with no history of domestic violence.  The sub-prime crisis didn’t only hurt corporate Balance Sheets and Profit & Loss statements, it also hurt families in local communities.  Homelessness is no longer a problem isolated merely to the victims of substance abuse, gambling addiction or mental illness.   The market downturn has forced people on the edges of the labour force into positions of serious disadvantage.

On Thursday 17 June 2010, the Vinnies CEO Sleepout will be taking place in capital cities across Australia.  The event aims to raise funds and increase community awareness about homelessness by challenging business and community leaders to experience homelessness first-hand for one night.

There are already 350 CEOs who have risen to the challenge, some of the people taking part include:

• Catriona Noble, CEO of McDonald’s Australia
• Bruce McKenzie, COO of InterContinental Hotels Group
• Bruce Davidson, CEO of Australian Associated Press
• Brian McCarthy, CEO of Fairfax Media Limited
• David Borger, NSW Minister for Housing
• Tanya Plibersek, Federal Minister for Housing
• Michael Reede, Partner of Allen & Overy
• Andrew Petering, MD of Wolseley Private Equity
• Gary Edstein, Senior Vice President of DHL Express

Please check out the website, and consider supporting the participants by making a donation or rising to the challenge by taking part yourself!

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As we found out in the previous post, the guesstimate question is a usual type of question that you can expect to be asked when interviewing for a position at a consulting firm.

Here are 12 tips to help you nail the guesstimate question:

1. Practice: We live in a world where most of us use a calculator or computer every day and it can be easy to forget how to do basic arithmetic in your head. Practice doing some guesstimate questions before the interview so that you are prepared. It is a good idea to bring a pen and paper to the interview to keep track of your calculations.  The Vault.com has also suggested bringing graph paper to the interview so that you can graph your results.
2. Know some basic facts: It will help to know a few basic facts to give you a starting point from which to make reasonable assumptions. It is a good idea to know some key country and city population estimates.  For example, estimates for the population of the world (7 billion), America (300 million), Australia (20 million), New York (20 million), Sydney (4 million) and Melbourne (4 million).
3. Use round numbers: You are responsible for doing the calculations so pick numbers that are easy to work with. For example, estimate the population of America as 300 million not 309.3 million.
4. Get into character: An easy way to calm your nerves and improve your performance is to role play. You are not a university graduate desperate for a consulting job, you are a professional consultant. Game on!
5. Take a moment: It is important to maintain your composure so before starting to answer the guesstimate question take a moment to consider your approach. You can buy yourself some time by saying, “That’s an interesting question” and then pausing to think.
6. Have a clear approach: It is important to have a clear approach to help you answer the question.
7. Ask questions: Your interviewer may be able to provide you with direction. If the question is “How many ping-pong balls will fit inside a 747?” the first question you might want to ask your interviewer is “What is the volume of a ping-pong ball?”
8. State your assumptions: The interviewer may not know the answer or may not want to give you direction so you’ll have to make assumptions.  It is a good idea to clearly state your assumptions. For example, “let’s assume that the diameter of a ping-pong ball is 4cm. The formula for the volume of a sphere is 4/3.pi-r^3. The volume of a ping-pong ball would therefore be about 11-pi centimetres cubed”.
9. Think out loud: The interviewer is trying to assess your thought process in getting to the answer, not the answer itself. If you don’t think out loud, you make it difficult for the interviewer to give you points.
10. Explain your logic: As you make your way through the problem it is helpful to explain the logic behind each of your assumptions. Instead of saying “a 747 is about 100 metres long” you could say “I know that  an average car is about 5 metres long and based on my experience I would say that 20 cars lined up end to end would be about the same length as a 747. So I will assume that a 747 is 100 metres long”.
11. Answer the question: After doing all of the calculation remember to answer the question that has been asked.
12. Be prepared for the follow-up question: After you answer the guesstimate question, you may be asked “If you had to find the real answer to the question, how would you do it?” This is a test of your creativity and resourcefulness.

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The guesstimate question is a usual type of question that you can expect to be asked when interviewing for a position at a consulting firm.

What will you be asked to do

A typical guesstimate question will require you to estimate a number by doing a rough “back of the beer coaster” calculation. You are supposed to reach a final answer by using a series of narrowing assumptions.

Your assumptions should have a sound basis and you should explain the logic behind your assumptions, however it is not important that your assumptions be 100% accurate.  

What is being assessed

Your response to the guesstimate question will help the interviewer evaluate your strengths in the following areas:

1. professionalism and ability to remain level-headed when placed in a tricky situation;
2. creativity and sound judgement in being able to come up with plausible assumptions;
3. logic and structured thinking; and
4. numerical skills and level of comfort with doing basic arithmetic in your head.

The guesstimate question is quite different from the kind of interview questions that you are probably used to.  For the guesstimate question, it is better to arrive at the wrong answer with good assumptions and clear logic than to know the right answer because you saw it on the Discovery Channel last week.

Examples

Here is a list of example guesstimate questions to give you an idea of the kind of questions to expect:

1. How many births are there in America each day?
2. How many petrol stations are there in Sydney?
3. How many bottles of wine are consumed in France each month?
4. How many cups of tea are drunk in England each day?
5. How far does the average Premiership footballer run in a single game?
6. How much does Mount Kilimanjaro weigh?
7. How many pounds are spent on haircuts in the UK each year?
8. How many ping-pong balls will fit inside a 747?
9. How many weddings are performed in China each year?
10. How many men’s suits were sold in the United States last year?
11. How many tennis balls fit in a swimming pool?
12. What is the annual size of the golf ball market in Japan?
13. Estimate the total revenues obtained from the movie Avatar.
14. What is the size of the market for mobile phones in America?
15. How many white cars are there in Australia?
16. How many people are buried each year in England?
17. What is the annual market for apples in America?
18. What is the annual revenue of Harrods in London?
19. What is the market for bicycles in America?
20. How many taxis are there in New York?

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Over the last 3 months I’ve had lots of people ask me interesting and relevant questions about consulting and business strategy, which made me realise that people often prefer to learn by asking questions and discussing ideas rather than reading text books or blog posts.

To help you continue learning about consulting and business strategy, a brand new consulting forum will be launched soon!

There are at least 5 clear benefits to be gained from participating in a forum:

1. Learning: Asking questions and getting advice will make it easier to learn the things that you want to know;
2. Credibility: If you know the answer to someone’s question and you post a helpful comment then you are helping to build credibility with other forum users. By establishing a reputation as a trusted expert you can attract attention and generate opportunities for yourself;
3. Networking: Participating in a discussion forum is a good way to meet people who have similar interests;
4. Community: Joining a discussion forum is an easy way to become part of a community of interest. Belonging to a community of interest allows you to help others, get feedback and support, and to build a personal identity; and
5. Popularity: If you have a website, your popularity is measured largely by how many links point to your website. If you create a signature line to use in your forum posts which includes a link to your website then every time you ask a question or post a comment in the forum you get an extra link back to your website.

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A person who wants to work on their leadership ability should work on their self-esteem.

The job of a leader is to persuade and inspire. A leader needs to develop and persuasively convey a clear vision of what their organisation plans to do, and to inspire and empower the people who work for that organisation to contribute towards making that vision become a reality.

A leader with high self-esteem will be able to do that job more effectively. There are at least three reasons for this:

1. A leader with a low self-esteem may feel the need to prove that they are right, or feel the need to take credit for any success achieved by the organisation. This kind of behaviour is unlikely to inspire and will not encourage people to give their best efforts;
2. A leader with low self-esteem is more likely to hire other people with low self-esteem because they are intimidated by people with more confidence than themselves; and
3. High self-esteem contributes to high performance. This view is supported by Nathaniel Branden, author of The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, who has identified six practices that result from (and contribute towards) high self-esteem:
   a.  living consciously;
   b.  self-acceptance;
   c.  self-responsibility;
   d.  self-assertiveness;
   e.  living purposefully; and
   f.  personal integrity.

A leader who operates at a high level of consciousness, self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertiveness, purposefulness, and personal integrity, that would certainly be inspirational.

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World GDP is growing at 4% per year, how long will it take for world GDP to double?

Your company’s revenue is growing at 10% per month, how long will it take for your company’s revenue to double?

There is a simple rule of thumb that you can use to figure out roughly how long it will take for something to double, given an expected growth rate.

The Rule of 70

This rule of 70 can be described by the following equation:

If the world’s GDP is growing at 4% per year then global GDP will double in about 17 years.

If your company’s revenue is growing at 10% per month then revenues will double in about 7 months.

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We all know the old marketing adage, “sex sells”. The marketing approach is quite simple: link sex directly or indirectly with the product or service that you are selling. It may be a certain brand of cola that we end up buying, but it was sex that we were after.

Sex is a base level physiological need on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As a base level need, sex is a desire that people will seek to satisfy even if other low level needs such as employment, shelter or safety have not been met. Quite simply, sex appeals to us all.

Putting sex to one side, people also have higher level desires that we may want to appeal to. As we discovered in the previous post, there are three simple pleasures which people require for a life of happiness (whether they know it or not):

1. Friendship: we want to belong to a community with which we can identify. We want to be cared for and cared about. We want to be missed when we are not around;
2. Freedom: we want independence from the demands of others. We want control over our own lives and the ability to make our own decisions; and
3. Thought: we want to understand the world and the nature of the challenges that we face. Understanding may not remove the challenges themselves, but it will help to remove the anxiety that often accompanies the confusion, displacement or surprise which result from our lack of understanding.

As the examples below demonstrate, marketing firms are well aware of the opportunities presented by being able to effectively target people’s forgotten needs.

1. Friendship

It may be a certain brand of alcoholic beverage that we end up buying, but it was friendship that we were after.

2. Freedom

It may be a certain brand of luxury car that we end up buying, but it was freedom from the demands of our daily lives that we were after.

3. Thought

It may be a certain brand of personal computer that we end up buying, but it was a desire to think differently and understand the world that we were after.

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Seems fairly straight forward doesn’t it.

The purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure, and the quest for those objects and experiences that will make our life more enjoyable.

As I recently discovered while reading “The Consolations of Philosophy” by Alain de Botton, this was exactly the philosophy held by Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher born on the island of Samos in 341 BC.

To summarise his philosophy in a single sentence, Epicurus believed that:

Pleasure is the beginning and the goal of a happy life.

What are the first images that spring to mind when you think of pleasure? You might think of a fast car, an opulent villa overlooking the ocean, or limitless money.

Imagine you had all three. Would you be happy? Maybe you would. However, it is possible to imagine that a fast car without a friend to show-it-off to would not make you happy, an opulent villa without the time to enjoy it would not make you happy, and limitless money accompanied by high levels of anxiety and no time to relax or contemplate the good life would also not make you happy.

Not every type of pleasure will lead to happiness (or be sufficient for happiness) in the same way that not every type of medicine will lead to good health.

If we assume that Epicurus is right, and that pleasure is indeed the goal of the happy life, then it would seem important to develop a clear understanding of the types of pleasure that will actually lead to happiness.

In his book, Alain de Botton outlines the three simple pleasures that we need to pursue and acquire if we are to enjoy a life of Epicurean happiness:

1. Friendship;
2. Freedom; and
3. Thought.

Although sometimes difficult to acquire, it turns out that the three essential pleasures of life are goals that we can all afford to pursue.

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Stand up and dance like nobody’s watching. We are watching though, everyone is, and that’s why being the initiator feels so scary. You are afraid of looking like a fool, we all are. So we wait and watch you dance.

Genuine passion is contagious, and as you dance freely and passionately one person sees the genius in what you are doing and has the courage to join you.

Simple dancing, nothing fancy. You dance because you love to dance and you embrace your friend in the dance. We continue to watch you dance, the two of you. It is still a novelty and still too early and much too risky to join you.

You dance openly and eagerly and another person is infected by the brilliance of what you are doing and comes to join you.

You dance wildly and keenly and as passionately as ever, the energy levels race higher, the tension grows, and the attraction of the dance becomes so compelling that people are wonderfully and inescapably drawn towards the dance. A few people begin to walk and others start to run.

The movement has started.

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As we discovered in the previous post, an elevator pitch is a high-level overview of whatever it is that you are selling and is designed to just get the conversation started (Elevator Pitch Essentials, Chris O’Leary).

As a high level overview, an elevator pitch will need to be kept fairly short and to the point.  The irony is that creating a short pitch is likely to be a fairly long process because you will have to decide what information your listeners need to hear and what are just details. To mis-quote Mark Twain:

I didn’t have time to write a short elevator pitch, so I wrote a long one instead.

There is a lot to think about when preparing an elevator pitch, so to speed up the process I have identified 12 tips for creating an effective pitch.

1. Structure and Content

1. Be clear – you want people to understand. You need to explain your idea in a way that your mother would understand. You want your audience to do the least amount of work possible.
2. Be concise – people are busy. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people’s attention starts to waiver after 30 seconds. An elevator pitch should be no longer than 60 seconds.  Too much information will scare people away. Give them just enough information, and make them want to know more.
3. Provide a solution – people want you to solve their problems. Focus specifically on the problem that you are solving for your audience. If you merely provide a shopping list of skills or services you may leave your audience thinking “So what? How does that help me?” After you have presented the problem, provide an outline of your solution.
4. Tailor your pitch – different people have different problems. A pitch should address the specific concerns of your audience.
5. Be credible – who are you? why are you qualified to provide your solution? Explain why you are able to identify and solve the problem.
6. Give the big picture – the details are confusing. People are unlikely to understand your idea in the same way that you do, so the details will confuse or bore them. Give a high-level overview of your idea.
7. Be unique – there are many ideas competing for attention.  What makes your idea different?
8. Set the hook – you need to generate interest. A hook is a statement designed to generate interest and make your audience want to know more. For example, “I am a consultant in the city” compared with “I am a McKinsey strategy consultant looking at the new media and high tech space. I’m currently looking at cloud computing and how it is changing the computer industry forever.” As a second example, borrowed from Anna Rose, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition has a very short elevator pitch: “The AYCC aims to build a generation wide movement to solve climate change before it is too late.”  The last 5 words are the hook, “before it’s too late”!
9. Call to action – what do you want? An elevator pitch is not designed the close the deal, it is designed to just get the conversation started.  It would be a good idea however to decide what you would like to achieve out of the interaction. You can then give people an opportunity to help you by asking for what you want: a business card, honest feedback, a referral, legal advice, seed capital, an opportunity to give a full presentation.

2. Delivery

1. Be prepared – people respond to confidence. First impressions are important and to deliver a strong performance you should practice and get feedback. Prepare answers to any tough questions that you may get in response to your pitch. You need to be comfortable enough to adapt to the conversation as it progresses.
2. Be genuinely passionate – people tune out the ordinary. If you are genuinely passionate, people are likely to stop and listen. Investors normally expect passion from entrepreneurs as a pre-requisite, a good idea does not compensate for lack of passion.
3. Have integrity – your story needs to ring true. You need to believe in your own story because the first step is to convince yourself, only then can you convince your audience. Avoid clichés and platitudes.

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The Situation

You are an entrepreneur with a big idea for a new product. You stand to make millions, but investors are hard to find. You take a flight to Fiji for some well earned rest and as your take your seat on the plane you notice a man in a floral Hawaiian shirt sitting across the aisle from you, he is the world’s leading venture capitalist. What do you say?

You are a consultant wooing a major prospective client. If you are successful this will put you in the big time. Middle management plan to interview a dozen consultants, and won’t give you access to the CEO. Your chances of winning the contract are slim. As you step into the elevator to leave the building you notice that the only other person in the elevator is the company’s CEO. What do you say?

You are a university student seeking a job at a big consulting firm. You attend your school’s on-campus careers fair where you meet the head recruitment partner for the firm of your choice. What do you say?

The Problem

You have something valuable to offer: a big idea, a quality product, a superior service, a first-class education, extensive experience, niche skills, profound wisdom. In short, you hold the solution to someone else’s problem.

The problem is that, when you finally meet the person who can help you sell your solution, you have not prepared anything to say.

People are busy with their own affairs, and those people who are most likely to be able to help you are even busier. There are lots of ideas competing for attention, and people don’t understand what you have to offer. It is much easier for people to simply tune you out than to give you a chance to explain.

The Pitch

In order to overcome this problem, you need to prepare what you are going to say in advance. You need to create an “elevator pitch”.

An elevator pitch is a high-level overview of whatever it is that you are selling and is designed to just get the conversation started (Elevator Pitch Essentials, Chris O’Leary). It is a communication tool which you can use to quickly and clearly explain your idea with the aim of generating interest and helping you sell the idea.

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Productivity is important.  Every organisation wants to produce more with less.

The difficulty is though, that “productivity” is a nebulous term.  Who is responsible for this “productivity” you speak of?

Assigning direct responsibility for productivity improvement to a specific individual or team makes it much more likely that initiatives to measure productivity and strategies for improving productivity will be undertaken.

Telstra’s recently released productivity report, which is based on a survey of 300 private sector and government enterprises, provides clear evidence to support this view.  The graph below shows that there is a clear link between assigning personal responsibility for productivity improvement and the likelihood that steps will be taken to measure productivity and set a specific target.

Productivity, make it personal.

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I recently listened to a talk by Alan Weiss, and it got me thinking.

The people in your organisation are your assets. Each person has unique talents that can be put to work to make your organisation a more successful one.

The question is though, where is that talent focused?  Is it focused on your products, your services, your relationship with the customer? Or is it focused internally: people are unhappy with the compensation system, you got that job and I didn’t.

If you take 100% of your people’s talents, what’s the percentage?  What’s the breakdown?

If 30% of your people’s effort is focused on internal affairs and you can redirect it so that only 10% of people’s effort is focused internally, then that is a major boost in productivity.

Focus on what matters.  Focus on the customer.

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