Book promises to rescue presentations from missing the point completely

With presentations commonly used today to convey important information, manage projects, and for planning, it is not surprising that a significant proportion of the work week is spent on presentations. Yet presentations often end up being a total waste of time and resources for all concerned. 

Belgian communications expert Ed Gruwez, CEO of Ogilvy Internal Communications and Founder of presentation design company To The Point at Work, says most presentations are “simply appalling: unclear, bloated and boring exercises that completely miss their objectives and lead nowhere despite the long hours of preparation.” 

Gruwez said: “It's hard to imagine our daily, professional lives without presentations. Yet money and many hours of useless work are lost in presentations that lead nowhere. There has been far too little research in this field but the little that is available indicates that presentations are not only often a waste of time but they also impact the quality of corporate decisions, and even the general employee job satisfaction. 

“Managers and organisations would therefore be well inspired to stop and think about the quality of their presentations and how to handle them better.” 

Gruwez has created a simple, effective method to get the message across. Concerned that organisations are losing “handfuls of cash and man-hours” through bad presentations, at a time when reducing expenditures has never been more important, he has penned the first step-by-step guide of its kind to getting presentations right. 

Presentation, Thinking & Design: Create better presentations, quicker – newly released by Pearson, a major education publisher, through their FT Publishing International imprint – is an easy-to-follow, pinpointed manual to mastering the content, structure and logic behind the presentation, and sharing a message with impact. It also covers the theory underpinning good practice, explaining how the human mind works in terms of receiving, processing and storing information, and how to harness it. 

Across 240 pages, this highly-visual, full-colour book reveals how to: 

• Prepare an excellent presentation in limited time 
• Structure ideas to make them clear for those less familiar with the subject 
• Make a presentation as short as possible, yet still complete 
• Make ideas attractive to an audience  
• Get the audience to remember the key points 

Although aimed primarily at those who typically do a lot of presentations, the book is relevant to anyone interested in improving their communication skills and will help sharpen up reports, important emails and keynote speeches. 

The book costs S$45.95 inclusive of GST in Singapore, and can be purchased at major retail outlets such as MPH, Times and Times Newslink. It is also available online here.

*Image from Pearson.