My view of the pathetic powerpoints presentations we see day in and day out is also reflected in this article Feld Thoughts: Ban Bullets. A e-book written by Seth Godin has some interesting points on the way to avoid presentations. Four Components to a Great Presentation: First, make yourself cue cards. This feature should be built in to PowerPoint,but it’s not. You should be able to see your cue cards on your laptop’s screen while your audience sees your slides on the wall.

The story of Ron Popeil (great inventor and marketer) is a classic rags to riches story. One of the reasons he attributes to his success is innumberable interactions with the customers. Demonstrating his products in front of real live people who asked silly questions and broached objections, he was able to learn what the silly questions and objections were and build the answers and counter-arguments into his pitch. The same he carried over to television for selling Veg-O-matic which was a great commercial success.

A fantastic article " Journey to the Center of Google takes one through the journey of Google’s success. " Ignoring Conventional wisdom is one aspect which google has done consistently . It has also executed all the unconventional steps with great diligence. What the google founders have done differently: 1.Inventing a search engine when everyone knew search was dead 2.Building a business on Internet advertising when everyone knew it was impossible;

Powerpoint is a tool whose power comes in to being depending on the presentor. If the presentor has cogent thoughts and presents in a concise manner , then ppt is a wonderful tool that complements his task . Alas! thats not the case usually. Pretty bad speakers/ presentors hide under the garb of technical gimmicks in the tool that the entire audience is awestruck by the techy stuff in the presentation OR bored by the whole stuff.

The story of Ron Popeil (great inventor and marketer) is a classic rags to riches story. One of the reasons he attributes to his success is innumberable interactions with the customers. Demonstrating his products in front of real live people who asked silly questions and broached objections, he was able to learn what the silly questions and objections were and build the answers and counter-arguments into his pitch. The same he carried over to television for selling Veg-O-matic which was a great commercial success.