Newly Corporate

Twice a year Apple CEO Steve Jobs graces the stage with his presence. He does it once for Macworld in January, then again in June for the World Wide Developers conference. These are highly anticipated events because Apple uses these occasstions to launch new products. They are also anticipated because Jobs is a superb speaker. He is so effective that they refer to the nearby area as a “reality distortion field”. Basically, he has everyone eating out of the palm of his hand - even if only for a little while. Essentially, he is the master of presentations. He is the king of Powerpoint Keynote.

If you’ve never seen one, I suggest you subscribe to the Apple Keynote Podcast. While none of us will be making keynote speeches in the near future, we can still incorporate pieces of his stagecraft into our presentations. I recently re-watched the 2008 World Wide Developers conference and took notes on things I could try to emulate in my next pitch.

1. Minimalism

Although the presentation was over an hour, there were only about two dozen slides. And each slide only had a few words. This is a pretty good implementation of Guy Kowasaki’s 10/20/30 rule for Powerpoint. It is a bit long, but Jobs isn’t pitching his company to a venture capitalist so its OK if he bends the rules a bit. Also, the first slide is just plain black. This keeps the focus on him as he takes the stage.

Also, Jobs just doesn’t say that much. There are a lot of details that he leaves out, probably by design. He just hits the highlights. If this were a board room, it would be a great way to elicit questions from the audience. You intentially leave some details out so that the audience has a reason to participate. He also makes sure that every point is memorable. If you read a report on the speech, it can be effectively summarized in a paragraph or two. He doesn’t blast information from a fire-hose. He keeps it short. He keeps it simple.

2. Eye candy

Apple is a design company, so it is no surprise that the slides are sharp (recall the iPhone 2.0 highway sign). It is shameful, but aestetics matter. The right icon or graphic can make the difference. I’m going to start using istockphoto.com in my presentations at work. If I ever pitch a new business idea, I will definitely hire a freelance designer to make my message visually appealing.

3. Wordsmithing and spin

The presentation is essentially an hour-long commercial, but it seems to work. People lovingly call it the “reality distortion field”; nobody seems to criticize his approach. Jobs never gets defensive. When highlighting the new $199 price for the iPhone 3G, he didn’t say “we were idiots for charging so much for the original phone and nobody in the international market was willing to pay the rediculous premium”. Instead he looks like a hero for effectively responding to customer demand, and offering the new one for half the price. He phrases the whole thing like he was totally unaware that it was originally overpriced. He gets to act like he learned that fact from customers and then responded promptly. He makes you think he’s doing you a favor – and the crowd cheers. This, my friends, is spin. Learn it. Use it.

4. General to specific drill-down

The key to the presentation’s effectiveness is that Jobs makes it engaging. He starts at a level that everyone can comprehend. You don’t have to be an insider, or an Apple employee to comprehend what’s going on. The first thing he said was how the company had three components (three-legged stool analogy). He briefly discusses each and then states that today will be focussed on the iPhone. This is a very slick way to show the day’s agenda. Then he repeats the emphasis every time he makes a slight topic shift, driving home the point that the iPhone is the focus but the different parts of the presentation are a component of the larger iPhone strategy. He constantly ties the specifics back the general, and this keeps every portion of the pitch relevant.

5. Cameos

When it is time to drill into the details, Jobs takes cover and introduces someone from his team. This shields him from potential mis-haps (although he does some live demos by himself) and also allows him to take a break. When the detailed demo is complete, a rejuivenated Jobs takes the stage and refocusses the conversation on the big picture and then sets up another drill-down with another presenter.

6. Fans in the front row

It is no accident that those sitting closest to the stage are the ones cheering the loudest. This sets the tone for the whole room, and it gets displayed on the video so those not in the room get the same feeling. My next presentation isn’t going to have any “fans”, but I should be able to pull some strings to look more impressive. Maybe I could seed a question to a peer to get the Q&A session going. Or maybe I could have my team members sitting next to me so they can jump to assist if necessary. The logistics matter; so I’ll take 10 minutes prior to my next speech to apply a little strategy and move the pieces into the right place.