The Different Types of Audio Visual Presentation Equipment

If you need help in being productive, the answer is the use of Audio Visual Presentation Equipment. There is a wide selection at most of the online web stores. These sites are user-friendly, and you can easily browse through and select the items you may need. These items range from the simple flip chart, to overhead projectors as well as the more complex LCD/DLP projectors.

Some business companies are yet comfortable using the olden day’s equipment – and these are yet freely available. However, with the advancement of technology there is a wide range of the latest models as well. These websites offer very competitive prices and a personalised service. You can always expect them to help you in choosing the most appropriate equipment depending on your presentation.

Given below is a list of some of the basic Audio Visual Presentation Equipment and its details:

LCD Projectors

There is a range of them with a wide choice of specifications. You can choose a projector based on the capacity of lighting that you will require, the clearness of the image, resolution, zooming power and so much more. The rental charge will depend on the quality and brand of the projector.

Overhead Projectors

An overhead projector is very basic but is one of the most reliable projectors which are widely used today. This projector displays an image to a much larger proportion onto a screen or onto any white surface, making it possible for the audience to view even from a distance. The prime function of this projector is to enlarge images for easy viewing by the participants/audience. These images are made on transparencies.

TV and Video

Televisions and videos are an important part of Audio Visual Presentation Equipment. They are available in a wide range with built-in DVD players.

Projection Screens

A projection screen is a surface and a support structure used to display a projected image so that the audience can conveniently view the image. These screens are available as wall screens and tripods.

AV Trolleys

AV Trolleys are required for overhead projectors, television and any other equipment.

Other Presentation Equipment

These include microphones, CD Radio Cassette players, remote controls, pointers, conference kits and much more.

Computer Based Displays

Computer based displays are also commonly used for audio visual presentations. These can be on the laptop and presented via data projectors. Computer-based presentations are more professional and modern. They are more modern and advanced than the slides that were used in the past; making a smooth transition. These visuals can be enhanced with the use of sounds and videos.

Designing Visuals

Good designs will give you good brand image and help get your marketing message across effectively. The preparation of audio visuals can be handed out to a professional, if you are facing time constraints. Design agencies are very competent in carrying out these types of jobs. A professional will always know how best to design your visual and it is best that they are kept simple and uncluttered.

Today the world expects more visual than audio. Many decades ago visual equipment were not very well known. Television, computers, films now play a vital role in every person’s daily lives.

Presentation Skills & Public Speaking – 10 Tips to How to Design & Prepare for a Presentation

Top 10 Tips to help you Plan and Design and Prepare for your Presentation

Next time you are faced with the daunting prospect of having to write a presentation, try out these tips from Skillstudio and you’ll be surprised at just how effective they can be at helping to design and prepare for a presentation.

  1. Prepare Prepare Prepare – The more time you spend preparing your presentation beforehand the more confident you will be on the day.
  2. Get to know your audience. Put yourself in their shoes. What’s in it for them? What understanding do they currently have? Do they want a detail or strategic level talk from you?
  3. What’s the one key goal you want to achieve by giving this presentation? Make sure that this is clear to your audience at the beginning and end of the presentation.
  4. Split your presentation into a beginning a middle and an end. Use the middle section to develop your ideas.
  5. Remember the power of three. Wherever possible think of things in threes. eg three key points to make at the beginining, three key points to develop further in the middle and three key points to make at the end. Your middle can further expand on the three points with three additional points each. etc
  6. Brainstorm the likely questions you will be asked by your audience. Prepare answers using the Power of three.
  7. Try using a mind map to help you organise your ideas into logical chunks. The clearer your thinking is the easier it should be to understand when you are presenting.
  8. Avoid the trap of preparing for your presentation at the last possible minute. It will only mean you lose a night’s sleep – on the night before you have to present!
  9. Lead your audience through your presentation using sign-posting. Recap on what you’ve just covered and then use rhetorical questions to move onto the next section. Always summarise your main points just prior to the end of your presentation.
  10. Plan to end your presentation with a call to action, a request for a decision to be made, or whatever you believe is the most appropriate means to achieve your overall goal.

Do You Know the Worst Times of the Day For Giving a Presentation?

If you have been invited to speak to a group of people and plan to talk for 30 – 40 minutes or even longer, it is important to understand that different hours of the day will result in different responses from your audience. 2 notoriously bad hours for a lengthy presentation are late morning, the hour preceding lunch, and late afternoon, the final hour before the end of the workday. In both situations, it is not easy to keep your audience’s attention.

Your body definitely goes through time rhythms throughout the day in which there are hours when you are more alert and hours when you are tired or fatigued. Whereas speaking at 7 am is tough because many people are still trying to wake up, the evening hours are usually good, especially for those in business who are accustomed to attending meetings and other organizational events after dinner.

Where your presentation is held is also another consideration. If you are going to be speaking in Las Vegas, for example, the morning hours will probably mean low attendance, so it would be wise to schedule your presentation for sometime in the afternoon in the city that never sleeps. In Atlantic City, on the other hand, morning hours would work well because many of those attending workshops, seminars, and conventions in this coastal city are coming from surrounding states or from within New Jersey. Bear in mind that Las Vegas’ tourists or conventioneers are coming from all over the country or even further and will be staying overnight. Atlantic City’s traffic is different than Las Vegas in that the conventions in this seaside city, because they are more localized, often mean that many in attendance may or may not be staying overnight.

What also must be kept in mind is whether you are the only speaker or whether you are one of many on the roster. Giving a persuasive or informative presentation to a group of people who have just listened to a comedian may not be the smartest move. Speaking before the comedian, for example, would be a better spot for you.

While you may not have the opportunity to choose the time for your presentation, much will also depend on your topic and the type of audience to whom you will be speaking. If you are going to give a presentation on maintaining a healthy heart to a group of retirees, it would be wise to avoid the evening hours. Keeping some of these seniors awake after their dinner with a serious presentation on heart healthcare could prove much more challenging than if you were to speak to them in the morning.

If, for example, you have been invited to speak to a women’s business group that meets the first Monday evening of the month, then your time has been scheduled. If, on the other hand, the hour has some flexibility, ask your host about the audience and discuss with this individual what they feel would be the best time for you to speak.

Planning your presentation at an optimal hour or in a good time slot may not always be possible. Should you be invited to speak at an hour in which your audience may not be as alert as you would like, it is doubly important to speak with enthusiasm, with excitement, and with passion to keep their attention on you. If you know they are going to be tired, wake them up!

The Not-So-Invisible Hand – How The Plunge Protection Team Killed The Free Market

“We’re now no different from any of those Western European semi-socialist welfare states that we love to deride. Italy? Sure, it’s had four governments since last Thursday, but none of them would have allowed this to go on; the Italians know how to rig an economy.”

– Bill Saporito, “How We Became the United States of France,” Time (September 21, 2008)

October 24 marks the 79th anniversary of the October 1929 stock market crash. Heavy selling started on Thursday, October 24, 1929, and accelerated the following week on Black Monday and Black Tuesday, October 28 and 29. Many feared a repeat of this disaster on Friday, October 24, 2008, after Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell nearly 10% during the night, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 8%, and Germany’s and Britain’s fell 5%.

“In a stunning turn of events,” reported Yahoo! Finance, “the futures for the major indices were ‘lock limit’ down before the start of trading Friday, meaning they had hit a 5% threshold that prevented them from trading any lower until the stock market opened Friday.” Traders prepared for the worst, but remarkably, disaster was averted. The U.S. market fell only 3.5%, just another “ordinary” bearish day.

Why the more modest drop in the U.S., where the financial debacle originated and should have hit hardest? Suspicious observers saw the covert hand of the Plunge Protection Team (PPT), the group set up under President Reagan to maintain market “stability” by manipulating markets behind the scenes. Bill Murphy commented in LeMetropoleCafe.com:

“Today the Muppets on CNBC were remarking how well our market acted, not falling apart as expected. All day long they spoke of how our market was acting differently today than every other stock market in the world. Well hello, the other countries don’t have a PPT, which is WHY our market is so different.

“There are those who might think what the PPT is doing is right. What they don’t realize is their making ‘Everything is fine’ for so long, and not allowing the market to trade freely . . . like allowing the stock market to fall the way it should, has kept the individual in the market . . . when they might have been SCARED out some time ago.”

In response to Bill Saporito’s comment in Time, it might be countered that Henry Paulson’s Plunge Protection Team is quite adept at rigging an economy. The difference between an acknowledged socialist state and the stealth socialism we have in the U.S. today is that in a socialist state, everyone expects the market to be rigged and operates accordingly. In a rigged pseudo-capitalist economy, investors are easily separated from their money because they expect the market to follow “free market principles” based on “supply and demand.” They are seduced into “pump and dump” schemes – artificial manipulations that allow insiders to unload stock at a high price or buy it at a low price – because they trust in Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” which is supposed to automatically set things right in a market left to its own devices. The market today is indeed controlled by an invisible hand, but it is not necessarily serving the interests of small investors.

PLUNGE PROTECTION FOR SOME, PLUNGE CREATION FOR OTHERS

The most egregious examples of market manipulation have been in gold, silver and oil. The official “spot” (or cash) prices of gold and silver were taken down sharply in the week before October 24, despite the fact that physical demand has been inexorable. Gold is available in the “real” market only at huge markups, and popular types of silver are not available at all.1 We were taught in school that communism does not work because when industry is in the hands of a single owner (the government), competition is eliminated and chronic shortages and black markets develop, since the government does not let prices respond to “supply and demand” but dictates them from the top. Today this is happening with gold and silver, with the true physical price varying radically from the reported paper price.

Gold is known as the “contra-investment,” the “go to” investment which historically has gone up when other stocks were failing. Investors see it as something tangible that will hold its value when everything else is falling apart. For that reason, rigging the market to “maintain stability” means suppressing the price of gold.

The current round of gold manipulations started on Thursday, October 16, at 10 am, when the price of gold suddenly suffered a freefall plunge of $45 within minutes. It continued to drop until it was down by nearly $60 in a little over an hour. Nothing happened on Thursday between 10 and 11 am to warrant this vertical drop. If anything, gold should have been shooting up in the same exponential fashion that it was falling. On Wednesday, the stock market had dropped over 700 points, and Dow futures (bets on which way the market would go) were down by 150 points Wednesday night. During the night, the Japanese stock market fell more than 10%, and all European markets were down.2 Thursday morning, among other very bad economic news, U.S. industrial output was reported to have posted its biggest fall in 34 years, and mid-Atlantic factory activity had crashed unexpectedly from September to October. Yet Dow futures were suddenly 130 points higher; and gold was slammed down right at 10 am, although physical gold was available only by paying huge premiums, and gold prices around the world were shooting up. The day continued in the same counterintuitive way, just one more egregious example of an ongoing pattern of manipulation that has become so blatant that either the manipulators have become supremely confident of their invulnerability or they are so terrified of impending doom that all pretense of plausible denial has been abandoned.

“THE MOST MASSIVE INTERVENTION SINCE ROOSEVELT”

Market manipulation is not generally discussed by the commentators on CNBC, but sense can hardly be made of today’s wildly unpredictable trading patterns unless the plays of powerful men behind the curtain are factored in. One commentator who does talk about this manipulation is Don Coxe, strategist for the Bank of Montreal. In a weekly conference call on September 5, 2008, he described what has been going on in the markets since July as “the most massive intervention of government into the capital markets or the financial system since Roosevelt closed the banks back in 1933.”3

According to the British Globe and Mail, Coxe is “no paranoid conspiracy theorist. As the chairman and chief strategist of Harris Investment Management in Chicago, he is one of the most respected investment authorities in North America.”4 The unprecedented intervention he described went back to when the financial establishment was facing a very banker-unfriendly market in July. Gold was about to break through the psychologically important $1,000 mark, oil was above $140 dollars a barrel, the dollar was breaking down, the bank stock index had dropped in six months from 90 to 50, and the Federal Reserve had a balance sheet to match, after making huge loans to banks on shaky collateral. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were on the verge of collapse, and hundreds of billions of their securities were held abroad. As if by magic, these trends all suddenly reversed, beginning with a dramatic reversal in the swooning dollar.

How was it done? The cat was let out of the bag by the Nikkei English News, which reported in late August that finance officials from the U.S., Japan and Europe had drawn up plans to strengthen the dollar following the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns. The intervention called for the central banks to purchase dollars and sell euros and yen if the dollar’s value dropped significantly, with Japan providing the yen for the currency swap.5

As the dollar strengthened, gold, silver and oil plunged. The pundits read the drop in gold and silver as a reaction to the rise in the dollar, since precious metals rise historically when the dollar falls. But what they failed to explain was why the dollar was rising. As Bill Murphy observed, “the dollar rallies sharply whenever the US stock market comes under pressure. It is almost simultaneous.” He quoted one of his newsletter contributors:

“Since the [stock market] low on 22 SEP we have lost 8.3 trillion bucks worth of asset value within the equities markets and what happens? The US dollar goes up, and up, and up, and up, and up. From what? 72 to 84 now (up 1.14 just today??!!??)? A non-stop rally that is NEVER adversely affected by news or market events. It’s almost been a 45-degree ascent. THAT is pure unmitigated intervention of a huge degree.”6

How to explain the stunning reversal in the dollar’s slide? In Coxe’s September 5 conference call, he candidly laid out how the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, in conjunction with the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), colluded to manipulate this “necessary” bounce in the dollar, along with a corresponding boost to financial stocks and sudden collapse in the commodities markets. Coxe called it “brilliant,” but the play was at a cost of millions of dollars to commodities investors and short sellers who were betting on what a “free” market “should” do. Oil plunged more than 50%, from a high of $145 a barrel in July to a low of about $64 on October 24. The same pattern was seen in silver and gold, with gold falling from a high of over $1,000 an ounce to a low of $700 on October 23. It all added up to a massive “pump and dump” scheme, with insiders pocketing the fortunes lost by unsuspecting investors. It’s a messy business, but somebody has to rake in these obscene profits for the “greater good” of market stability.

“THE MOST SORDID SCHEME IN THE HISTORY OF FINANCE”

Theodore Butler, writing on SilverSeek.com on September 2, reported that there was more than just central bank collusion going on behind the scenes. He tracked an unprecedented wall of short selling of gold and silver – massive “borrowing” of stock to sell it into the market, forcing down the price, then “covering” by buying the stock back at the lower price. Butler wrote:

“In gold, no more than 3 U.S. banks sold short in one month more than 10% of world annual mine production. This was the largest short position in gold and silver ever recorded by U.S. banks. After the massive and concentrated silver and gold short position was established by these U.S. banks, the [gold and silver] markets experienced a historic decline in price. It all took place during the first widespread retail silver shortage in history. It is completely at odds [with] how the law of supply and demand works.”

Butler called it the most sordid scheme in the history of finance. “It makes a mockery of financial regulation and the rule of law,” he wrote. “It allows a large financial entity, or entities, to rip off the investing public and gouge them for obscene profits. It is cronyism, back-room dealing, market fixing and inside information at its worst.”7

While gold and silver were being shorted to oblivion, the SEC imposed a ban on the short selling of 19 select financial stocks, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was blatant favoritism for the privileged few, but Coxe said it was necessary to make financial stock look attractive to potential buyers (particularly sovereign wealth funds), in order to allow the banks to sell their stock and raise the capital necessary to start lending again.

At the same time, Treasury Secretary Paulson sought and was granted an unlimited credit line to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac directly from the U.S. Treasury, as well as the authority to buy the mortgage giants’ stock. Fannie and Freddie were put into a form of bankruptcy called a conservatorship; but unlike in the ordinary bankruptcy, in which creditors divide up the debtors’ available assets without government help, in this case the claims of the lenders were guaranteed by the Treasury. Foreign lenders were bailed out while the shareholders were wiped out – including banks, pension funds, and other institutions holding the savings of millions of Americans. In the long run, the “bailout” created more problems than it solved; but according to Coxe, it was a necessary sacrifice to keep the mortgage market functional for the near term.

How near? The Presidential election is now only weeks away. Markets have an uncanny way of looking good before elections.

Rob Kirby, writing in LeMetropoleCafe on September 9, observed that there are laws and stiff penalties against market collusion. The U.S. antitrust laws impose fines of up to $10 million and jail terms of up to 3 years for unfair practices that inhibit competition or monopolize markets in restraint of trade. “I admire [Coxe’s] candor,” said Kirby, “but my take on this is that all the perpetrators should face a firing squad, or worse, for treason.”8

That probably won’t happen, however, because the “perpetrators” can claim governmental immunity. The Plunge Protection Team, officially called the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, was formed by President Reagan in response to a stock market crash in 1987 for the express purpose of “maintaining investor confidence” by manipulating markets with public funds. The PPT includes the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).9 Calling the shots is no doubt Secretary Paulson, who now has a $700 billion fund to use for the purpose, after Congress passed his massive bank rescue plan on October 3.

“SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH”

Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University, wrote on his popular blog Global EconoMonitor:

“Socialism is indeed alive and well in America; but this is socialism for the rich, the well connected and Wall Street. A socialism where profits are privatized and losses are socialized with the US tax-payer being charged the bill . . . .”10

Investment guru Jim Rogers told “Squawk Box Europe”:

“America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich. . . it’s just bailing out financial institutions. . . .

“This is madness, this is insanity, they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I’m not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this.”11

If we are going socialist, we should own up to it and have some transparency in what’s going on. We the people need to know how to plan and to invest for an uncertain future. If we’re nationalizing the banks, let’s nationalize them all the way, with the profits going back to the people along with the losses and risks. Better yet, let’s nationalize the Federal Reserve, so it can issue “the full faith and credit of the United States” directly, without having to back this credit with a multi-trillion dollar federal debt that will never get paid back but just continues to grow. It would actually be less inflationary for the government to print dollars directly than for it to print bonds that are swapped for dollars created on a printing press by a privately-owned central bank, because in the latter case both the bonds and the dollars remain in circulation. U.S. bonds not only serve as money around the world, but they count as the “reserves” for banks to create many times their face value in loans. These bonds never get paid off but just get rolled over from year to year, inflating the money supply just as if dollars were printed directly; but the bonds carry the added burden of perpetual debt and interest payments.

The costly bank bailouts and blatant market manipulations going on today are justified as being necessary to save a private banking system that we think we need to get the credit that keeps the economy running. But we don’t actually need private banks to get credit. Many authorities have attested that, contrary to popular belief, banks don’t lend their own money or their depositors’ money. Every dollar lent by a bank is money created out of thin air on a computer screen. It’s just “credit.” The bank “monetizes” the borrower’s own promise to repay. The government could issue its own credit in the same way. There are a number of successful historical precedents for this, including the publicly-owned central banks of Australia and New Zealand, which saved those countries from the devastating effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s; and the publicly-owned bank of the colony of Pennsylvania, which funded the Pennsylvania provincial government without taxes or debt in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Today’s bankrupt banks dug their own black hole when they loaded up their books with lucrative but highly risky derivative bets that are now backfiring on them. Instead of trying to clean up the banks’ books by throwing taxpayer money at this impossible-to-fill black hole, we would be better off simply letting the banks go bankrupt, as President Reagan did with the savings and loan industry in the 1980s. The banks’ bad debts could then be discharged in bankruptcy, and their assets could be absorbed into a public credit system with a new, untarnished set of books, a system that would serve the interests of the people and return the profits to the people.

SO WHAT IS AN INVESTOR TO DO?

That still leaves the question of how to negotiate today’s very unpredictable markets. The Friday before the white-knuckle October 24 ride, investors were being encouraged to get back into the market. Commentators cheerily announced the best market week in 5-1/2 years, after the Dow climbed from a low of 7,774 on October 10 to a high of 9,924 on October 14. But the week still ended below 9,000, and the market was coming off the most historic plunge since the Great Depression, down from a high of 10,845 on October 3 to below 8,000 a week later. By October 24, the Dow was again hovering near 8,000.

“Frankly, I’m sick of this,” said CNBC market watcher Erin Burnett as she tracked the Dow’s wild gyrations on October 23. “Up and down, up and down. It doesn’t seem to mean anything or be linked to anything.”

Beleaguered investors might well decide it’s time to pull their money out of a stock market that is looking more and more like a rigged and risky Las Vegas casino and put it somewhere else. As one talk show commentator quipped recently, “I’m fully diversified. I’ve got some under the mattress, some under the floor boards, some in the backyard.”

Mentoring Exercises – 12 Scenarios

Mentoring is here to stay. Here are a selection of mentoring exercises that will help your company practise scenario analysis.

Situation 1:

Your HR Department has just deployed a new member to your team. He is very experienced and knowledgeable in your industry. It seems he was laid-off from a competing company and is quite judgmental about your current company’s operations. You have been assigned to be his mentor.

Describe your response.

Situation 2:

In a business plan competition, you have been assigned to be a mentor for a Startup. However, the Startup has not been very cooperative and does not reflect a need to be mentored in the first place. To your own astonishment, the Startup has even approached another mentor to be in their team!

You decide to break away from them and coincidentally, you discover some information that will help them be more persuasive in their business plan presentation.

Will you inform them?

Situation 3:

You have a friend who has just lost his job in senior management position. His retrenchment has thrown a spanner in the works, especially with regards to sending his only child for further studies overseas.

He approaches you and ask for employment within your Startup – preferably as the Managing Director, so that his bank loans will not be affected. However, you are in a dilemma because you feel that there is a wide generational gap.

How will you resolve this problem?

Situation 4:

You chanced on a blog that was set up by your assigned workplace-mentee, that provides much unfavourable remarks about your current company. Your mentee has been careful not to quote specific names but you are definite that the photos that he has uploaded are taken within the workplace.

Should you report to higher management?

Situation 5:

You have been approached to be a mentor/advisory board member for a non- profit organisation. You meet up with the Founder and feel energised – you immediate answer is a resounding “yes”. You are also swayed by the membership of a prominent mentor who is a well recognised figure. You convince yourself that you are in very good company.

However, as time progresses, you discover that you are not regularly updated with the organisation’s progress and your membership does not create much bearing with the organisation’s activities and direction.

Do you stay? Or were you never meant to be part of that organisation? Discuss your decision-making matrix.

Situation 6:

As a mentor, how do you ensure that you make a difference in the business decisions of a Startup or Non-profit organisation? Can you be sure that your views are valued, not just your immediate contacts?

Situation 7:

Your ex-student asks you for a favour. He has a group of friends who are talented in music. You watch their singing on YouTube and am very impressed. You suggest that they compose jingles for ads to get exposure.

Do you have other suggestions?

Situation 8:

You have been approached to be part of a Startup that is involved in creating a business strategy board game. However, your progress in the company is impeded by the lack of trust that the board game’s creator has in revealing to you the complete business idea.

How will you proceed?

Situation 9:

You are the class monitor and have been assigned to be a buddy to a new student who has come from a country where English is the second language. The new student is very motivated in improving his English competency and insists in joining the class debate team to improve. You are the class captain and you need the team to do well to boost your chances of getting into a good secondary school.

What should you do?

Situation 10:

You discover that a subject teacher’s blog provides enough clues for his own students to do well in a Science exam. You are also teaching the same subject.

Should you follow suit?

Situation 11:

You have been asked to be a mentor for a a group of students who want to raise funds for a non-profit organisation. During the course of meeting up with them, you feel that the leader of the group has aspirations of using the fund- raising as an opportunity to get attention and maybe a job in the non-profit organisation.

What should you do?

Situation 12:

You are part of a parents group that is setting up a food stall to support the school’s fun fair. The stall that raises the most will win a prize and get recognition. In the morning of the fun fair, you happen to see a parent buy from a very popular hawker stall, which contradicts the rules of complete food preparation by volunteers.

As a mentor, should you help to improve the quality of your own stall or blow the whistle?

8 Business Plan Mistakes to Avoid

It is hard to get a funding from a business plan, even a very good business plan. You can give yourself a much better chance of raising capital if you avoid eight common business plan mistakes.

Your business plan may be the first thing investors see, and it is important that your business plan be written professionally and excellently. Investors see thousands of business plans each year, and the ones that get funded are less than 1%. You will greatly improve your chance of getting funded if you avoid these mistakes.

1. Mistakes in Overall Content

A well written business plan finds the solutions to problems that customers are looking for and will pay money to solve. The plan dos not need superlatives to say that it is great. If it is great, the readers will come to that conclusion. Also, be sure your plan presents a focused strategy to solve only one problem in the target market.

2. Stating “There is no competition”

Every business has competition, either direct or indirect. A competitor is everybody else that is trying to sell to the same target market. Your plan should show how you differentiate yourself from competitors and show that you are stronger in the market.

3. Too Long and Technical

Your plan must convey your business idea concisely. Any detail that you believe is important can be included in an addendum. Also, your plan should not be too technical or scientific. Keep it simple.

4. Poor Organization

There is a logical way that business plans should be put together, and each section should logically flow into the next section. You can finds hundreds of resources that tell you what the basic sections of a business plan should be, and you or any professional you hire should follow this advice.

5. Incomplete or Inaccurate Financial Statements

You must use the right terminology in describing the financial condition of your business. The financials should contain enough detail to fully support your important assumptions.

6. Unreasonable Financial Projections

All the numbers in your financial projections should be reasonable and similar to financial projections of other companies in your industry. Your financials must include Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statement, and they all must be prepared in compliance with GAAP.

7. Writing Errors

You must use proper spelling and grammar and cannot be redundant. Be sure your plan is attractive, interesting, easy to read, and professional looking.

8. Timing Mistakes

Have your plan in final form long before your presentation to investors. You may not have the 500+ hours required to write a business plan. Then you must hire a business consultant to write your plan. Be sure to have another objective person read the plan thoroughly and give you some feedback on its effectiveness before you show it to investors.

Executive Summary for Business Plans of Franchisees

Writing a business plan for a franchised outlet of a larger company to get funding or find investors is difficult because the franchisor already has a plan which is working, but until you are privy to it upon purchase you actually know relatively few details. The franchisor must keep this information proprietary to insure competitors do not steal the information, but the franchise buyer needs the information to prepare a business plan to get a loan from a bank. Thus a catch 22 exists and is further exacerbated by the fact there are laws against some types of disclosures, which many franchisors due to the litigious nature of franchising do not wish to disclose based on advice from their attorneys. So what do you do? Well, you do the best you can using the UFOC, uniform franchise offering circular or ask the franchisor to send in a business plan directly to your banker who, signs a waiver of non-disclosure and you cannot see it until purchase.

Yet if you are seeking private investors they will want to see a business plan and therefore you will have to try to put one together. I have bought 12 books on how to write a business plan with hundreds of complete business plans inside; none of the samples have anything to do with a franchised business. So, below please find a sample of an executive summary, which is the most important part of any business plan and probably for the most part all a banker will read. Some entrepreneurs accuse bankers of not being able to read and I am in that group. I recommend you read this and use it as a model to develop your own executive summary for your franchised business outlet business plan. This particular example was written for a mobile car wash franchise outlet, but serves as a fairly good example for you.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

The Car Wash Guys of Fairfax, VA is an owner/operator service firm. This will be a franchised business of Car Wash Guys International, Inc. This sole-proprietorship company is in the mobile car wash business.

Our mission is to achieve a minimum of 2.5% and a maximum of 10% market penetration while simultaneously uniting the entire community. To reach this goal we will use unique local and regional marketing tools provided by our franchisor who has much experience in this field.

Our franchisor has over twenty years of experience in the mobile washing industry. We will purchase from Car Wash Guys International, Inc. a turnkey business for $65,380. This purchase will include:

· Truck With Custom Built Truck Body

· Portable Car Washing Equipment

· Computer, Printer, Business Software

· List Of Clientele, Route and Customer Base

· Down Payment of Liability Insurance

· Down Payment of Medical and Health Insurance

· Licensing and Training (80 Hours Total)

· Complete Operations Guide Loaned For Franchise Term

· Start-Up Supplies (Wax, Soap, Etc.)

· Portable Cellular Phone With Credit Card Machine

· Uniform Supply for an Entire Crew

· Personal Planner with Computer Software Backup

· Exclusive Territory

· Initial In Depth Marketing Blitz

There is a $20,000 franchise fee for joining The Car Wash Guys team that is also provided for in the $65,380 cost.

Our target market is anyone owning a dirty car. Our other markets are:

· Aircraft Washing

· Boat Washing

· Fleet Washing

· Graffiti Removal

· Concrete Cleaning

· Industrial High Pressure Washing

We will charge $5.00 for a basic exterior wash, $10.00 for an in and out and $37.50 for a mini-detail on cars. Most of our customers will be office workers. Fifteen percent of our business will be small and medium sized fleets with five to one hundred cars, trucks, vans, etc. Twenty percent of our business will be industrial type cleaning.

We will market with other local businesses in a co-op situation. Other marketing will be by doing car wash fundraisers for kids groups.

Our car wash crews will wear matching yellow uniforms. They will be clean cut, well spoken, knowledgeable and friendly.

We will purchase our products from the franchisor via modem and credit cards for next day U.P.S. delivery.

We plan to eventually expand to up to five mobile car wash trucks, each averaging $6,000-$8,000 of gross revenue per month, in the next five years. Our royalties to the franchisor will be $35.00 per day times 21 working days per month ($735.00 per month). Each additional truck will pay $20.00 per day royalties or $420.00 per month. Car Wash Guys International, Inc. will provide the following on going support:

·Training of Managers for Each Truck

·Regional Directors for Trouble Shooting

·Spare Trucks in Case of Break Downs

·Combating Competition (Intensive Program)

·Assistance in Community Support Events

·Free Advise (On Any Operational Matters)

·Updating of Manuals and Computer Programs

·Periodic Newsletter

·Upkeep on Major Contract Bidder’s Lists

·Sales Leads (From Their Direct Mail Program)

·Compilation of Financial Reports

·Assistance in Finding Funding for Additional Mobile Car Wash Trucks and Personal Items (Homes, Cars, Etc.)

There are a couple of small time mobile detailers operating in our exclusive territory. Our service, quality and price are much more attractive to our target market. Our operating methods are far superior to that of our current competition. Generally all of the competition listed in the yellow pages as well as those we’ve talked with and observed admit that they have only been in the business a couple of years are not planning on making it a career. Further observations indicate that there is far more than enough business for everyone.

Our long-term goal is to wash cars for one out of every ten owners in our town. Ten percent market penetration can be achieved if we follow our franchisor’s system perfectly. We want to be the #1 franchise in the entire system. We plan on renewing our Franchise Agreement every five years at no charge to us. We will remain in good standing with our franchisor and follow their proven methods of operations in order to do this.

The Taxonomy of Business Development

What is business development? This is a frequently asked question with as many answers as there are people calling themselves business development professionals. What unifies the discipline of business development is not so much the activities that comprise it, as these are immensely diverse ranging across a myriad of subfields. It is rather the goal or the objective: In one way or another, business development is about implementing business growth opportunities.

Business development involves all tasks and processes concerning both the analytical preparation, monitoring and support of growth opportunities. Of course, growth can be achieved in many ways. There are a plethora of activities, conceptualizations, methodologies, tools, frameworks, models, subfields, and buzzwords employed across industries and geographies when implementing growth opportunities for firms. Thus, it is often difficult to make out what is what with respect to business development.

This paper will discuss and distinguish key concepts of contemporary business development for a more comprehensive and translucent picture of this important yet ambiguous field. A particular interest will be taken into how business development activities differ across company sizes and growth stages, from early-stage startups to fully-grown companies, and the various institutions that can support companies on their paths to growth. Lastly, the value of business development services is discussed from the perspective of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

1. The people of business development

“I do biz dev”, you hear people say frequently. But yes, business development is indeed something that one can do, and the actors of business development are called Business Developers. Business developers can be internal employees hired to identify and expand a company´s business, and their strength lies in their deep insight into the organization they work for. On the other hand, there are external professional service providers, such as management consultants, who leverage their experience from helping other companies develop, identify, and execute growth opportunities. Whether internal or external, individuals of this professional breed are usually generalists by nature with the skills and know-how to collaborate and integrate knowledge and feedback from a company´s functional units such as sales, marketing, R&D, operations, and finance, and in turn synthetize that information into actionable roadmaps, also called business plans. The business plan can be thought of as a formal statement of a set of organizational goals, including the motivations and criteria for why they are attainable, and a plan for reaching the goals. The tools and methods utilized by business developers are countless, yet the objective remains to answer one fundamental question: “How do we make money?”

While business developers work to address how firms can sell more of their products or services and make more money both today and tomorrow, business development activities are typically skewed towards forthcoming business opportunities and strategy. Many sales representatives claim to be business development professionals, but this does not fully capture what business development is. One of the principal activities a business developer does is identify new opportunities. To do so, the business developer must have insight into a range of business related fields, and have access to key information that can allow new parallels to be drawn. First of all, he/she must hold a fundamental understanding of the company in question, stay abreast of industry trends, and monitor the competition. Secondly, but perhaps more importantly, the business developer must be able to take a holistic perspective, use his/her intuition when analyzing results, and show proof of creativity and ingenuity when synthetizing information in order to conclude which next steps the business should take.

Working in business development is an excellent way to develop skills in strategy, negotiations, and managing partner and client relationships. Moreover, the job of a business developer is highly cross functional, as it requires collaboration with various internal and partner-company teams such as sales, engineering, and marketing to ensure that a deal is consummated. Last but not least, if done well, business development can have an incredible impact on the success of a business.

2. The institutions of business development

A common problem facing many firms, regardless of where they are in the company lifecycle, is that they get stuck in the trenches of daily operations, at the cost of conducting business development activities. When strategy and competitive advantage are no longer on top of the agenda, focus is lost and to the detriment of sustainable growth. The balance between running day-to-day operations and continuously developing the business further to hone the competitive advantage a firm holds is indeed difficult to manage. For that reason, there are a multitude of professional service providers in the field of business development. From the birth of ideas to early startups, to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who seek second stage growth, and all they way to strategy implementation for corporate giants, many institutions exist to support firms in their business development efforts.

There are both niche specialists targeting specific business needs and generalists taking a 360° view of the firm and its strategy and objectives. They come in the form of governmental institutions providing funding and support to entrepreneurs, and private institutions in the form of business angels and venture capitalists, business incubators and seed accelerators, second stage business accelerators, boutique consultancy firms, and large management consulting houses. One way or another, these institutions interact with companies on their growth journey and provide all kinds of resources to support them, including funding and physical work spaces (offices), professional support, advice and mentoring, tools and frameworks, strategy development and operations efficiency, and access to important networks in the business ecosystem.

In the table below a classification of business development institutions are plotted out, based on the various stages in the company life cycle. While there of course exist much overlap between of these fields, it gives an idea of who, how, when and for whom various actors interact with firms on their path to growth.

Business Incubator

The idea of the business incubator is to provide support for the successful development of companies by means of an array of support resources and services, offering a nurturing environment where entrepreneurs can bring their ideas to life. Incubator services often include one or several of the following:

  • Shared office space
  • Marketing assistance
  • Accounting/financial management
  • Access to bank loans, loan funds and guarantee programs
  • Help with presentation skills
  • Business networks and links to strategic partners
  • Access to angel investors, venture capital and debt financing
  • Comprehensive business training programs
  • Advisory boards and mentors
  • Management team identification
  • Technology commercialization assistance
  • Help with regulatory compliance
  • Intellectual property management

The idea is to allow entrepreneurs and start-up teams to focus on their core value proposition and leverage key resources that a growing start-up needs. Incubators often employ a selective screening process assessing the feasibility and workability of the business plan of incubatee prospects before letting hem join the program. While many incubator programs are industry agnostic, 39% of incubators in the United States work only with the high-tech sector. A company spends varying amounts of time in an incubation program depending the type of business and the entrepreneur’s level of business expertise. For example, life science and other firms with R&D cycles require more time in an incubation program service companies. On average, incubator clients spend 33 months in a program.1 Oftentimes, graduation requirements are set by development benchmarks rather than time, such as revenues or number of employees. The successful graduation from a business incubation program typically increases the likelihood that a startup company will stay in business for the long term.

Seed Accelerators / Startup Accelerator Programs

The Seed Accelerator derives much of its characteristics from the business incubator; their services often include pre-seed investments (usually in exchange for equity) and the focus is on business model innovation. In contrast to an incubator, the seed accelerator views the startup period as short, and startups are often supported in cohort batches or ‘classes’ during a seed acceleration program. But accelerators are not considered “protected” nurturing environments, like the business incubator. They bring together entrepreneurs, mentors, and advisors and leave it to the entrepreneurs to figure out how to best take advantage of the opportunity that emerges. Being selected by a seed accelerator often brings notoriety to a firm, and it is a way to quickly create momentum in a startup, as long as the participants have the experience and drive necessary. Often, participants in seed accelerator programs are experienced startup professionals who are accustomed to the process.The assets provided by the seed accelerator come in the form of mentoring, funding and a strong network effect, but there are few or no internal resources, such as back office support functions, internal marketing or legal advisory experts or legal. It is a sink or swim environment.

Second Stage Business Accelerator

Second stage business accelerator services are very different from those of both incubators and seed accelerators. A second stage business accelerator can be thought of a management consulting firm targeting established SMEs looking to boost performance and ensure a continuous and sustainable growth path. Whether young or old, many companies sooner or later plateau in terms of revenue, and the growth bottlenecks vary greatly between organizations. One classic hold-up is the entrepreneur / founder who insists on having a finger in the pie across all decision and actions taken by the company – a sign that the company since long has outgrown the governance structure still in place.

A second stage business acceleration program typically lasts between 3-6 months and it is aimed to assess and improve the entire “business machinery” that a growing organization needs to have in place to succeed. Strategic focus, institutional strengthening, human resource training and financial strategy, are some of the dimensions that a second stage business accelerator may offer. The business accelerator’s emphasis is on accelerated and sustainable growth, and to eliminate organizational, operational, and strategic bottlenecks that prevent the client firm from growing. In essence, a second stage accelerator bears a strong resemblance to traditional management consulting firms, but adjusted to fulfill the needs of SME’s.

Boutique Consulting Firms

Boutique consulting firms offer organizations highly specialized advice that addresses specific problems or aspects of a business. The overall objective is to improve efficiency and increase profits, and the term “boutique” has more to do with the firm’s focus than with its actual size. One firm may consist of a single advisor, while another may have 200+ consultants employed. More specifically, “boutique” most often refers to the niches in which it offers its services. Examples of niches in which boutique consulting firms operate include human resources and staffing, IT, healthcare, business process outsourcing, and accounting. These firms tend to work with private sector companies but also with governmental institutions and nonprofits.

Overall, boutique consulting firms focus on a limited scope of industries, and resolve business issues quicker than large management consulting firms that require more time for a specific project. The solutions that boutique consultants offer also have more immediate impact.

Large Management Consulting Firms

Large management consulting firms offer a more diverse set of services compared to boutique consulting firms and are often international in scope. They target publicly held or large private companies, international conglomerates, international nonprofits, and governmental bodies. Large management consulting firms are able to draw from massive reservoirs of overlapping knowledge and expertise in contrast to the more narrowly focused boutique consulting firms, and can offer a single client support on IT, strategy, operational, human capital, and financial issues. Moreover, they create industry “best practices” by working across a wide range of industries and firms (though it is debatable to what extent such practices are transferable from one organization to another). Yet, management consulting has long been a booming market with numerous players, both large and small, offering their advice to firms.

3. The value of business development services for SMEs

It might be hard to decide if and when to use various business development services. What is the actual value that these services provide? Is it worth the investment in time and money? Given the growth stage in which your company finds itself it can indeed be worthwhile considering employing business development services in one way or another.

Early Stage

If your company is an early startup, the decision for joining an incubator or seed accelerator comes down to your personal confidence in your business model, the strength of your team, your capacity to execute, and not the least your fundraising skills. If you have a credible story, a business that is nicely progressing on its own and access to both finance and the right talent, you are probably just as well off on your own. In fact, entering any of these programs might just become a distraction. These environments can act to divert your attention by lots of related meetings and events with mentors and investors, getting in the way of focusing on your projects. Moreover they can be confusing, having ten mentors provide their own piece of advice; filtering advice can be a daunting task. But if you need help refining your business model or if you are a first-time CEO seeking guidance from proven peers and entrepreneurs, these types of services can be perfect. The likelihood of raising capital is vastly improved through the tight screening process many of these programs employ and the access to a strong investor network that these programs provide access to.

Second Stage

Similarly, if you run a small or medium sized company the determining factor for seeking external help lies more in the assessment of particular needs and issues facing the business and the overall growth ambition of decision makers / the owner. As is often the case, companies reach a certain size and then plateau for months or years, not sure how boost growth and reach the next level. Other companies achieve growth, but then face challenges to manage it as they run into the hurdles of balancing daily operations with business development. Be it a young company recently graduated from an incubator, or an established firm who seek to renew itself, the transformation of an organization into a solid business organization that can make way for sustained growth, involves many challenges:

1. Ensure relevance in the market place

2. Implement a sound governance structure

3. Identify, operate and deliver according to a core competitive advantage,

4. Build the right institutional capabilities and business processes

5. Continuous innovation

These are some of the most common challenges facing small and medium sized companies who seek to the reach to the next level. At this stage in the company life cycle business risk is beginning to decrease and the opportunity for true value creation presents its self, yet the path to that second level can be a long and tricky walk. Using the help from a second stage business accelerator can be one way to overcome these challenges; to (re)establish the entire “business machinery” required to allow growth to take place.

Later Stage

Firms of all sizes will sometimes find that they lack a particular skill or area of expertise, and seek the advice of a specialist. In such instances boutique consultancy firms come in handy to for example support a particular project or give advice on matters related to a specific topic such as law, finance or HR. Larger corporations often make use of larger management consultancy firms to identify existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement. Management consultants often bring proprietary methodologies or frameworks to guide the identification of problems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing work tasks. While most large organizations have their own business development staff in-house, external advice is thought to bring a more objective perspective to the table. Moreover, no company can house all expertise internally, thus the advice from external business professionals may at times come in handy.

Concluding Remarks

Just as when buying any service, when contracting for professional business development services it is important to have clear deliverables. A common mistake made by many business developers is to guarantee X% increase in sales or revenue. But we all know that growing a business involves a lot of risk, for which one cannot control. The deliverables should instead be based on activity: actions, engagement, meetings, introductions, opportunities, networks, events etc. Make sure to always discuss details of the engagement process and the scope of the services to be delivered. It is equally important that the paying party commits to the engagement and set out deliverables it needs to comply with. One should bear in mind that outsourced business developers put their relationships on the line to help grow your business and their future is dependent on the success of every client interaction. For that reason it is important for you as a contractor to do your part: come prepared, deliver on your end and be service-minded towards any business developer. Moreover, make sure to match your expectations with the price you pay. If not, the results of the service you are buying will most likely be disappointing.

As we can see, business development comes in many forms and is practiced by a broad set of actors. From the birth of firms through incubators and seed accelerators, to boosting growth for small and medium firms by means of second stage business accelerators, to advising corporate giants through management consulting firms, business development constitute an important element any phase of the company life cycle. Undeniably, business development is a crucial component of a firm’s success – the opportunities forged today will define what the company is doing on tomorrow.

[1, 2] 2006 State of the Business Incubation Industry – National Business Incubation Association (NBIA)

3 Secret PPT Design Rules To Killer PowerPoint Presentations

In this post, you will learn simple PPT design rules to help you building powerful presentations people will care about.

This PowerPoint tutorial will introduce three generic rules that will get you on the way to design professional PowerPoint templates and creative presentations! These rules are an introduction, and they are the key to successful PowerPoint presentation design. Let’s get started!

1. Size

Your PowerPoint slides are usually sized 10 inches (width) * 7.5 inches (height). Resize them 12*7.5. Open a PowerPoint document, go to Design > Page Setup. With presentation slides of 12 inches width, or more, you will have more freedom and the ability to better organize the content of the slide.

2. Typography

Fonts can just make or break your PPT presentation.

I recommend you to pick ONE font for all your content slides. The default font I use myself is Calibri, it’s modern and it’s safe. Helvetica and Century Gothic are great options too. You can use ONE additional font for your cover slide or slide headings. Just make sure the extra font you pick is original and readable. Take care of your audience’s visual comfort.

For all your presentation slides, try to keep your font size BIG. Whether your plan to show your PowerPoint presentation at a public presentation or not. First, you will increase your audience visual comfort. Second, it’s a great exercise to help you develop effective presentation skills, as you will have to learn how to summarize content. I personally use a minimum of 20 for important parts, and 14 to 18 for less important parts. To comment charts or graphics, 12 is the minimum. Even if you have a lot to write, keep in mind that you don’t need to write down everything to communicate important points. Keep it short. People are busy. Less is more.

♥ Font Squirrel is my favorite source of FREE, high-quality and designer-friendly fonts. To install new fonts on your computer: On Window, download the archive > click Start > Control Panel > Font > Paste your font files.

3. Color Scheme

I suggest the use of TWO or THREE colors. For all your content slides, use of black for core text (in that case, your PPT background shall be white or light grey) and use the ONE or TWO additional colors to highlight important keywords, statements or figures. Colors picked must be visible, contrast between each other’s and with your PowerPoint background.

♥ Not inspired or just wondering which colors match well together? Try out Kuler, Adobe’s great color palette generator. It is free and you can choose y from thousands of pre-built schemes.

We hope you liked this article. We value every piece of feedback and if you’d like to let us know something, do it!

I Flopped Badly At The National Finals!(How Not To Prepare For/Deliver An Important Presentation)

Background

In November 1997, while observing my annual leave from work(as a 27 year old brewer in Guinness Benin Brewery), I wrote and presented a paper titled “Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Target Setting” at the 1997 edition of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s Young Manager’s Competition. The paper was based on work I had done(mostly in my free time) in setting up various process control/reports computerisation systems in departments(Production/Brewing and Packaging/Bottling) where I worked.

The paper discussed the use of CUSUM(Cumulative Sum Deviation) charts, Total Waste Unaccounted For(TWUF)(TM) – a concept I developed in the process of carrying out a beer waste investigation on one of the brewery’s product lines – along with other simple SPC tools, based on the real-life projects I had carried out at various times during the course of the year(1997).

Regarding TWUF(TM), I had returned to the brewing department from another secondment as Packaging Shift Manager to the Packaging (bottling) department in February 1997, when I was recalled on the request of the Packaging Manager – Alex Okorodudu – to carry out a beer waste investigation on one of the bottling lines. In the course of that investigation, I developed the concept of TWUF(TM), which through mass balancing made it possible to quantify beer losses that could not be traced to a known waste point.

Eventually, I used TWUF(TM) to identify the startup and shutdown operations at the bottle filler machine as being responsible for creating an apparent(i.e. false) beer waste situation. Modification of the mentioned filler procedures led to an immediate normalisation of waste values recorded.

Deciding To Enter For The Competition/Getting Approval From Management

My decision to enter for the NIM competition was influenced by a need I felt, to share the experiences I had gained in the practical application of statistical tools for useful purposes in a business.

Prior to entering that paper for the competition, I had given out copies of it to senior managers in the company’s Lagos office, like Alistair Reid(then Operations Manager, Lagos), and Abiola Popoola(Head of Human Resources). Apart from seeking their input, I did this to get their consent and be sure it was okay to use the company information I had included.

Important Note. If you plan on using any data from your current workplace in an activity outside the company, it is imperative that you consult competent officers of the company to advise you on how to go about doing it. Play safe by getting the responsible person(s) to give you the go-ahead, before you send out any information or material regarding the company’s activities. That way, you are unlikely to make the mistake of giving out sensitive information that could get you into trouble.

You may not have plans to enter a paper for a competition like I did, but you might want to send out an article for publication in a newspaper or other media. Check with those concerned to be sure that all you have put into your write-up is “safe for public consumption”.

Presenting The Paper At The Zonal Finals

On 15th November 1997, I presented my paper before a packed audience in Kakanfo Inn(Ibadan, Oyo State) where the Western Zonal finals were held. At the end of the day, I was announced as runner up, which meant that I had qualified for the Lagos national finals along with the winner of the zonal competition. Looking back, I recall feeling very confident during the delivery of my paper on that day.

Not long after I resumed work from my annual leave, I informed my boss – Greg Udeh – of my outing at the NIM zonals, and the fact that I would have to travel to attend the National Finals in Lagos. He was naturally pleased to learn of my initial achievement at the zonals and the next day, announced my achievement at the brewery meeting for departmental heads. Not long after, I found myself – midway through conversations – getting asked about the competition and being wished best of luck etc. Maybe all that attention got to me, and made me “forget” to at least mentally rehearse my presentation.

Travelling For The Lagos National Finals

Due to limited number of brewers available that day, I had to cover afternoon shift duty on Friday (2.00pm till 9.00pm) before I could take off on my journey to Lagos. It was nobody’s fault really – just one of those unexpected developments that shift workers have to deal with.

The finals were scheduled to hold from 9.00am prompt on the morning of Saturday December 13th 1997 – so I knew I had to get into Lagos before 7.00am, in order to pick up a cab in time to reach the Victoria Island “Management House” of the NIM – venue of the finals.

Within thirty minutes of arriving at the ever busy Benin city Iyaro motor park, the Peugeot station wagon I boarded took off with six passengers for Lagos. This was at about 10.30pm. Some four hours later, we arrived at Ojota park in Lagos. All the cabs and buses had retired for the day by this time(approx 2.30am Saturday morning), so there was nothing else to do but plead with a taxi driver to let me catch up on some sleep in the passenger front seat of his cab. 🙂

Suddenly I heard the loud chanting of a bus conductor calling passengers for Palmgrove. The time was about 5.45 am. I quickly thanked my “sleeping companion” and picked up a taxi heading towards Pedro/Shomolu. Arriving at my parent’s house in Gbagada Estate, I hurriedly took a shower, changed my clothes, and explaining to my surprised mother that I had little time left, jumped back into the taxi, which sped off towards Victoria Island. At about 7.30 am, we arrived at the NIM Management house on Idowu Taylor street.

Relief written all over my face, I quickly went in and confirmed that start time was 9.00am. That was when it dawned on me that I had not eaten anything since the night before. One of the security men at the gate kindly directed me to a “quick-snacks corner”, where I “quickly” downed some, with a bottle of soft drink.

Returning to the NIM premises, I found a place to sit that enabled me observe preparations being made for commencement, while I opened my folder and began studying the paper copies of my presentation (projector) transparencies.

Presenting At The Lagos Finals – The Unthinkable Happens!

Not long after, following some welcome speeches/opening remarks and introductions, the competition commenced. When the 3rd (of eight) finalists – Mitchell O. Elegbe – finished presenting his paper(titled “Achieving Competitive Advantage Through Information Technology In Emerging Economies“), I heard my name being announced. Minutes later, I was standing in front of the packed auditorium introducing my self and paper.

Based on hindsight, I now realise that the unavailability of a projector at the zonal finals(which caused the organisers to ask us to dispense with our transparencies and speak freely referring to any speaker notes we had) probably blinded me to the need to rehearse for the National finals with a projector.

As “luck” would have it, the projectors had been made available at the National Finals and I found myself having to pause intermittently to slot in the appropriate slide for the next set of points I wanted to make. This went well initially, but since I had not really taken time to rehearse since the zonals, especially following from the fact that I had found no need to use the slides back then, I struggled quite a bit. I cannot be certain, but it is possible that THAT also contributed to my not thinking “clearly” when I later experienced a little setback during the presentation.

To cut the long story short, about ten (10) minutes through my presentation, I turned to pick a slide containing charted data depicting the use of the CUSUM concept, but found it was missing. Feeling my heart skip a beat, I lifted the other slides up by the edges to see if the CUSUM chart was there but it was not. Speaking into the microphone, I apologised to the puzzled audience, explaining that I was missing a slide. One of the judges, after some seconds had passed, said “Mr Solagbade, your time is fast running out. “.

I nodded, but kept on looking – convinced I could still find it in enough time to use it and finish the presentation! Unfortunately when it was about 1 minute left(out of the 15 minutes allowed) I still could not find it. I had wanted so badly to impress the judges and audience like I had done at the zonals, that I could not help feeling at this point, that the mishap would have killed any chance I had of getting anything better than last place!

This made me decline to take up an offer from the judges to allow me three(3) extra minutes to do a decent round up of my presentation. Instead, I told the audience – in a very serious tone – that I was convinced the paper had a lot of useful information for companies in the manufacturing industry, and encouraged them to take time to visit the NIM library and read through it in future. Dropping the microphone, I returned to my seat as muffled applause/murmuring from the audience continued.

Surprise! Despite My Blunder, I Still Get Placed 5th Overall

Going by what I said above, you can therefore imagine how shocked I was, when the judges in announcing the final results later in the day pointed out that the verbal presentation(I had flunked) only carried 20% of the total marks available, while the quality of actual paper submitted carried 80%!

However, before they announced the results, they also read out other criteria for rating the contestants, one of which they defined as “the confidence demonstrated by a contestant in his/her paper“. Looking back, I believe it was the confidence with which I had recommended that the audience refer to my paper in the NIM library that led the judges to award me points that resulted in my winning 5th place despite my bungled presentation.

So it happened, that despite an aborted presentation, my paper which was adjudged to be of high standard(with the concept of Total Waste Unaccounted For – TWUF(TM) – being singled out for mention) eventually placed me 5th out of eight(8) finalists. As the results were being announced, my mind went back to what one of the judges had said to me during lunch after the last contestant – Friday E. Eboh – had completed his presentation(titled “Public Relations In Management: Issues and Challenges“).

He had said “Solagbade, you should have simply continued with your presentation when you could not find the slide quickly enough. You were doing well up to that point, and to be honest, I don’t think anyone would have noticed if you did not show THAT particular slide.” I realised he was right. I alone knew the slide existed – they did not! So, if I had chosen to skip it during my presentation, they would not have known better!

I learnt a painful but useful lesson that day, to always rehearse my presentation well ahead of time, no matter how well I think I know it. The experience also impressed upon me, the importance of running through a checklist of all the items I need to take with me for a presentation so as to avoid missing out any important ones – like I did the CUSUM charts slide.

Back At Work – A Senior Manager Tells Me Where I Went Wrong

When I returned to work the following week, I sent a little note about the outcome of the finals to one of the senior executives in Lagos – Ian Hamilton – who had been particularly supportive, telling him how bad I felt for not having done better etc. He sent back a post-it note attached to my note, on which he wrote “Tayo, 5th place overall in NIgeria! You should be proud of yourself” Then regarding the mishap during my presentation, which betrayed inadequate “practice” on my part, he wrote: “Even the members of the (Guinness) board rehearse their presentations many times before they have to deliver them!

I took his correction to heart and used it to drive myself to become proficient in delivering presentations subsequently. I believe an indication of how proficient I had become was evident during a presentation I was invited to deliver at the Center for Management Development, in Lagos. This event took place in September 2002, about 9 months after I had voluntarily resigned my appointment with Guinness to go into business for myself.

(Read my article titled http://ezinearticles.com/?Should-You-Quit-Your-Job-or-Start-Your-Business-Part-time?&id=172008″>”Should You Quit Your Job Or Start Your Business Part-Time?” to learn why I decided to quit my job despite the promise of a bright career future in the company).

On that day, less than 15 minutes after I was introduced/began delivering my paper, the following happened within about 5 minutes of each other:

a. The center’s Training Manager slipped me a note asking that I “Please finish in 1 hour” (instead of the two hours I had been originally told I would be making the presentation in).

b. An electric power cut suddenly occurred!

Both potentially disturbing/unexpected “changes” however did not bother me. When the lights of the PC projector went out that afternoon in the CMD’s main auditorium, I was fully prepared in every way. I simply picked up the printed power point speaker notes I had put on the table while preparing to start my talk, flipped to the page containing the points I was making before the lights went out, and – after making a joke about the loss of power supply – continued, and eventually concluded, my presentation well within the revised one hour time slot.

Useful Lessons You Can Take Away

The most important point I wish to make here is that this activity I chose to engage in (i.e. writing a research paper based on my workplace experiences/entering it for a national level competition) gave me an opportunity to interact with senior managers on an informal level – and get noticed/establish potentially useful relationships.

If nothing else, the fact that I had sought them out in the pursuit of a personal development goal could have made them think of me positively, and probably influenced the positions they would have taken if/when an issue regarding career moves had to be taken. In addition, I got considerable attention across the brewery for getting that far in the competition. All of these would have made me get noticed by a larger number of decision makers – which would NOT have been the case if I had not gone for that competition.

It is possible that the above possibly led them to recommend(or support) that I be given certain career advancement opportunities ahead of my peers in the company. I say the foregoing in light of the fact for instance, that a year later, in 1998, I would be nominated twice – first time for four weeks, and the next time ten weeks – to relieve the substantive
Technical Training & Development Manager(TTDM) – on a management grade one-step above that which I belonged to.

The point I have tried to make above, by referring to my career, is that you can intelligently create opportunities to showcase your unique abilities to decision makers in your company, by engaging in activities that afford you the desired exposure. However, it might be wise not to make impressing your superiors the main objective of venturing into such an activity as the one I took up for instance.

Towards improving your presentation skills, and taking needed actions/precautions, you may find the following lessons I learnt of some use:

1. Get Adequate Pre-Presentation Time: I should have sought the support of my boss/brewery management to get away from work earlier so as to be able to travel for the event and arrive on time. This might have helped to get myself organised and I could have discovered the absence of the slide BEFORE the presentation.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice! I would have fared better if I had made conscious effort to rehearse my presentation well ahead of the finals. The achieved familiarity with my presentation might have made me more confident to carry on despite being unable to find the slide.

3. Coaching Tips From Experienced Others: I could have sought tips about handling hitches or problems during presentations. Experienced speakers – like many of the company’s senior executives may have been able to share their personal ideas about how to prepare with me. Some may have prompted me to be ready for when things go wrong – drawing on their personal experiences. For instance, today, if I have to coach anyone on making presentations, one of the most important topics I would cover is “What Can Go Wrong, And What You Can Do – Inspite Of Setback(s) – To Ensure You Still Deliver A Good Presentation“.

4. Quitters NEVER Win: If I had remained calm, and carried on with my presentation without letting on that something was wrong, I could probably have earned enough additional points to eventually do much better than winning 5th place. Instead I let myself get upset upon discovering that my slide was missing. You will want to avoid making the same mistake if/when you find yourself in a similar situation.

Summary

Overcoming temporary defeat(i.e. failure) or adversity; recovering from setbacks, or correcting and learning from mistakes we make, will ALWAYS make us improve in our abilities to do what we do. It is for this reason that I end this article by saying: even if you DO have a bad presentation outing, know that the experience presents you with a potential learning opportunity to become BETTER at delivering presentations.

Simply make up your mind to identify where you went wrong, and learn what you need to do differently in future, to make your presentation successful. Do this as/when necessary, and you will eventually achieve your desired goal of being able to deliver successful presentations repeatedly and consistently.

Good luck!

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