Why Jeff Bezos doesn't Allow PowerPoint at Amazon

If you're ever getting to make a presentation to Jeff Bezos at Amazon, here's a tip--don't make a PowerPoint presentation.

As noted in a piece of writing in Observer about Bezos' approach, "In one episode of The Office, Dwight says of Ryan's flashy PowerPoint slides, "PowerPoints are the peacocks of the business world: all show, no meat."

Bezos is now famous for not permitting PowerPoints, and his approach and demands for substantive meetings is perhaps why he owns one among the few largest global brands within the world.

Staff participating in meetings will write or read six-page memos.

The beginning of the meetings is spent by meeting participants reading these lengthy memos.

Why does Bezos demand this of his team? In his opinion, PowerPoint:

o Fails to supply sufficient information

o Is susceptible to audience interruptions.

A memo communicates well-reasoned thoughts.

Understandably, when you are the CEO of a worldwide brand like Amazon and when your team is meeting and making decisions which will have a considerable impact on the expansion of the corporate and bottom line, it's essential that well-reasoned communication takes place.

Should you and that i , as business owners do it?

That depends.

I'm personally someone that likes to supply and receive information during a condensed and concise fashion because I'm the last word decision-maker on most aspects of my businesses. My businesses aren't on the size of a worldwide brand like Amazon. However, I can see how the Bezos approach is important .

The Devil's within the Details

I think we operate during a world where most of the people have very short attention spans. We're all rushing from one thing to subsequent , and therefore the fact is that the majority of the time if you cannot capture someone's imagination or interest in about 90 seconds, you've lost them.

However, it's an error to think that using the PowerPoint approach is that the right thanks to choose essentially--everything. As a business owner, you are looking to expand and develop your business. one among the foremost important areas for you is your sales team. Let's say, for instance , you would like to know why your sales team has projected a rise in revenue for next financial year of 10 percent. you are going to form assumptions supported those revenue targets, and you will craft an budget that would potentially reflect that 10 percent increase in revenue.

In this situation, a baron would be smart to require the Bezos approach and need a well-thought-out, detailed and reasoned memo explaining the who, what, when, where and the way of the ten percent increase in revenue.

Taking Your Team Through the Paces

There are many other situations when it might be knowing require that your team deliver to you a well-reasoned and thoughtful written presentation on their thinking, which can impact the choices you'll make as its leader. as an example , you would possibly be looking to make a replacement job or department which will be expanded because you have been succeeding and need to reinvest your profit to grow the business. you would possibly also consider making a sale of thousands of dollars of kit , starting a replacement marketing initiative, or be looking to expand the footprint of your business. All of those are excellent opportunities where you ought to require your team to require an interruption and explain their rationale to you as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible.

As Bezos explained consistent with the Observer article, "When you've got to write down your ideas call at complete sentences, complete paragraphs it forces a deeper clarity," Bezos told Conor Neill, a business coach at IESE graduate school in 2012. "If you've got a standard PowerPoint presentation, executives interrupt. If you read the entire six-page memo, on page two you've got an issue but on page four that question is answered."

While I'm unsure all business leaders got to demand that their teams produce evidence-based memos before each of their meetings, and that is not, candidly, the way I operate my businesses, I do see and understand the worth of requiring these sorts of memos for critical decision-making meetings on critical topics.