Amazon’s Innovation on Conducting Strategic Meetings [video]

Good People,  PowerPoint ate the world of business even as  it saved it in a way. But when you listen to the full interview where Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, explained why he banned the use of PowerPoint presentations in senior leadership meetings of his company, you will praise that boldness. Yes, how many times did you begin a presentation for someone to pause you on Slide 1 for something that Slide 3 has answered? You just get frustrated because they will not even allow you to tell your story!

Then imagine if they have read through. That is what Amazon does – he forces those executives to read a document which the presenter has written, and by doing that, the whole idea becomes self-evident.

I confess that our Investment Brief style in Tekedia Mini-MBA was inspired by Amazon. In that style, we ask our learners to articulate a product or service or company vision, not via a PowerPoint, but via a written document. Then, after that process, in a subsequent homework, we now ask the learner to condense the Brief into a page! Over time, we have received good reports where some Learners have adopted the same in their offices, making everyone informed and eliminating needless interruptions during meetings.

Remember: innovation does not only happen with tech. Even how you conduct meetings can play a role in your business process innovations.

Good People,  PowerPoint ate the world of business even as it saved it in a way. But when you listen to the full interview where Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, explained why he banned the use of PowerPoint presentations in senior leadership meetings of his company, you will… pic.twitter.com/7JgwhuKn25

— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) August 26, 2023

Comment on Feed

Comment: This is brilliant! I’m definitely going to adopt this with my clients right away. It’s a bit challenging when I send them a report to read before our weekly sessions, but 90% of the time they don’t have time to go through it.

Starting our meetings by going over the report for the first 15-20 minutes will definitely be a game-changer. Thanks so much for sharing!

My Response: Indeed. Also, you can also politely ask clients to wait for you to finish your presentation, making sure you are well paced, to give them enough time, before they can ask questions. When I present before clients, I do ask for that favour. Most times, those raising their hands up will drop them by the time you are done.

Comment 2: This is very true.

Having prepared for, and been in many executive meetings in the course of my career, I know for a fact that executives hardly read materials sent to them beforehand.

This rubs off wrongly if you are the memo or document author, as I have been on many occasions. The evidence of this is in the type of questions asked during those meetings.

This is not the case with most Board meetings though, and I believe the reason for that is that shareholders are more “invested”, but this is a topic for another day.

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