The Presentations Japan Series

The premise of tonight's theme is how we position ourselves for the client before we even meet them. With the advent of social media, people will know they are going to meet you and will check you out. That wasn't possible before, but it certainly is now. So, how do we put ourselves in the best light, in the best position before we meet the buyer or the client? That's what I'll be looking at tonig...

It is not often that we get a front row seat to watch a group of very senior businesspeople compete with each other when presenting.   If you like blood sports, then this is right up your alley.  This is a zero-sum game for seizing the brass ring and even better, it is conducted in the full glare of the assembled masses.  This is an annual event, which, as a Master Trainer of presentations and pub...

Our presenter was vivacious, sparky, bright and engaging. She works in a cool area of business and has the opportunity to see what works and doesn't work in many industries.  This enables her to pull together terrific insights and back these up with hard evidence based on numerous case studies and who doesn't love a good case study.  A big crowd turned out to hear her talk, so the place was packed...

Foreign companies often want to appoint a Japanese person to be the head of their Japan operation.  This is done on the basis that they will know what is best for the business.  This proclivity has made many washed up, tremendously mediocre Japanese Presidents a lot of money and substantially extended their careers.  At some point the shareholders, or the Board, start to ask why there are no resul...

The Lord Mayor of London covers the whole con-urban spread of greater London and the Lord Mayor of the City of London covers 1.12 square kilometres of the financial district with a population of nearly 11,000 people, so it is a bit confusing.  Alderman Lord Mayor Professor Michael Mainelli gave a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce recently.  I didn't know anything about him, but sitting the...

"Will It Blend" was a genius idea from Blendtec, kicked off with a $50 budget in 2006. The campaign saw Tom Dickson's videos go viral and take a boring blender manufacturer into the pantheon of marketing presentations.  They have 187 videos on YouTube and 845,000 subscribers to their channel. So far, their YouTube channel has had 294 million views. Not bad for a blender maker duking it out in a re...

We are usually asked to speak at events by some hosting organisation and these can be breakfast, lunches or evening occasions.  Each has its challenges.  Not that many people seem to be great in the early mornings and the energy level of the audience can be very low, as they are still sleepy.  This sleepiness is definitely a problem for after lunch presentations too.  Many are ready for a nap afte...

I am terrible.  I procrastinate about starting the assembly of my presentation.  Invariably, by holding off starting, I create time tension, which forces me to elevate the priority of the presentation and lift its urgency above all the other competing demands on my time.  I should start earlier and take some of that tension out of my life.  So, everyone do what I say, don't do what I do!  Start ea...

I was in a recent debate with the Dale Carnegie organisation about approving the publication of my new book "Japan Leadership Mastery".  There were concerns about copyright, because I was drawing on the Dale Carnegie curriculum for the book.  A book is a powerful content marketing tool, so excluding the Dale Carnegie oeuvre defeats the purpose.  One argument I made to them was I could rewrite the...

Almost 100% of presentations that I see in Japan are one directional.  The audience sits there passively and the speaker presents to them.  There is no interaction with the audience.  I was watching an interview with Clint Eastwood in his approach as a movie director.  He was talking about his famous Western "The Unforgiven" and talking about how he shot some key scenes, such that the faces of the...

TikTok, Reels, Shorts, etc., are video snippets training everyone to micro absorb information and stimuli.  If it doesn't grab our attention in three seconds, we are off that screen and scrolling forward to find something more interesting.  The modern instrument of torture for the presenter is the mobile phone. It whips our audience away from our message and us, to the siren calls of the internet....

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a bad idea and yet so many presenters do it.  I was attending an Annual General Meeting event and the organisation President gave a short talk.  The content was appropriate for the occasion. The length was good, not too long and not too short, the voice strength loud enough to be easily heard, and the cadence was easy to follow.  Unfortunately, he manag...

What a double act they were. Two economists giving us some insights into where the markets are going and making sense of the world we face.  Anytime you see an event where there is going to be some crystal ball gazing going on about where we are headed in the global economy, you want to be there.  We are all more risk averse than greedy, and we want to cocoon ourselves from trouble by getting some...

Value is a difficult thing to pin down.  In any audience, there is bound to be a wide range of interests, needs, and wants.  How do we decipher that array into a presentation which meets all expectations?  Well, we can't.  There are too many variables at play, so we have to work on hitting the target for the majority of those who have assembled to hear us speak.  There is a designated theme for th...

We love another acronym, not!  It is a handy memory jogger though, so let's persevere with yet another one.  Whenever you are in a situation where you need to get collaboration,  support, funding or agreement, then the EAR formula is a very effective tool for presenters.  It is simplicity itself in terms of understanding the formula.  The delivery though is the key and this will make all the diffe...

Where is the line between referencing our experiences and insights and just talking about ourselves?  I attended a talk recently where the speaker had a perspective to share with the audience, to add value to their careers and businesses.  What surprised me was how much of the talk was cantered on the speaker rather than the audience.  I was thinking about this later and wondered what the better b...

I was recently reminded of the importance of openings and transitions when presenting watching a new speaker in action. They were using the occasion to establish their business here in Japan.  Like this speaker, most of us face an audience who don't know us when we start speaking.  They may have glanced at the blurb from the organisers listing our accomplishments and background, all proving we are...

When we are planning our talk, we have to decide what is the purpose of this presentation?  In business, typically, we most often deliver the "inform" type.  We will pass over information we have come across in our travels and research for the edification of the audience.  They have turned up to learn something they didn't already know and expect value for the time and money they have invested.  I...

Navigation is critical in presenting.  This is how we keep the audience with us and keep reinforcing our key messages.  Years ago, I attended a speech by a serious VIP.  He had jetted in from the US to visit Japan and made time to give the Chamber of Commerce members the benefits of his insights.  It was a seriously meandering and confusing talk.  I was left befuddled and bemused. Later, speaking...

Does introducing emotion when presenting mean sharing a good weep with the audience?  No, that is way over the top in a business context and would be the death knell of the speaker's credibility.  We are not turning up to your talk to see you burst into tears, carried away with your lack of emotional control.  We are there with you for one of four reasons.  1. Most typically, we aspire to be infor...

I was reading an interesting LinkedIn post about how at the start of your presentation in Japan you need to have slides on your background and credentials to get the trust of the audience. Let me quote from the post, so that you can get the flavour: "Most of the presentations I've seen by Japanese professionals tend to start with a detailed profile of the presenter's career and professional accomp...

 It was a big affair.  Many supporting organisations had promoted this expert dual speaker event and the large audience filed into the prestigious venue.  I was sold on the advertising too.  I was intrigued by the pairing of topics and according to the blurb, the speakers' backgrounds looked the money. The MC kicked things off and handed the baton off to the first speaker.  Things went off the rai...

I hesitated to use this title, because it smacks of click bait, doesn't it?  To hell with it, live dangerously, I say! What flagged this question for me was an article in the Financial Times by Anjli Raval about Wall Street earnings calls.   She mentioned that researchers from the University of Bergen and Said Business School analysed the question-and-answer sections of earnings calls from 2993 Am...

  Pasedena, January 31,1993. Michael Jackson performs at the Super Bowl.  He suddenly pops out of the smoke on to the stage and strikes a dramatic pose facing right.  He holds that pose for one minute and eight seconds, not moving a muscle.  He makes one change and looks left. He holds that same pose for another 20 seconds before he takes off his sunglasses and then starts singing and dancing. Ima...

It is very common to see panel discussions at business events.  There is danger lurking in the shadows, though. The hosts invite a number of experts, usually around three to four, to interact with the MC.  The idea is that a range of views will emerge and a richer resource of information will be provided this way, compared to the single speaker model. Sometimes, there will be a hybrid, where you m...