Venture capitalist and all-round wise person, Guy Kawasaki, has always approached doing business with logic and common sense.
I was fortunate enough to see him speak at last year's Convergence conference – the Radio Ink get-together that brings together lots of tech-savvy thinkers and doers. In a recent New York Times "Corner Office" piece, Guy reiterated the importance of brevity in a fast-paced environment.
When asked what business schools should focus on, he replied: "They should teach students how to communicate in five-sentence emails and with 10-slide PowerPoint presentations. IF they just taught every student that, American business would be much better off."
We make that mistake at Jacobs Media from time to time, and I have been guilty of it in this blog. We're increasingly multi-tasking and becoming more ADD – good or bad. We're all trying to do more in less time, so the need for those quick-hitting takeaways is so important.
I frequently ask my staff, programmers, and researchers to try to boil it down to the "elevator speech" (or pitch). Imagine you're with the key exec or decision-maker in an elevator, and you only have the time it takes to travel from the 30th floor to the lobby. Could you synopsize and boil down your idea or strategy in that tight time frame?
If you can't, perhaps your concept isn't as succinct and focused as you think. That's where Guy is headed with his advice to business schools.
We should follow it in our businesses, too.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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I have heard from two different people who enjoyed this blog but reminded me that there are PPM and/or basic on-air communications issues that could have been pointed out in this post. (Hey, I was trying to keep it brief!). The same lessons that Guy Kawasaki teaches about business communication apply to connecting with audiences – on the air, in emails, on Facebook, etc.
I think this is true,all the students should know how to use the Powerpoint correctly, they will perform much better business schools. What kind of businessman doesn’t know how to write an email correctly?