Presentations impact the bottom line

The economic impact of presentations

www.ToThePointAtWork.com©2014 E. Gruwez & K. Vanseer

Survey info

SurveyPerformed by ‘To The Point’ and ‘De Cijferij’

March 2014Online – via BVIC and Linkedin

Sample273 participants in large organisations

from 18 different countriesevaluated 780 presentations

RepresentativityUnweighted results – Free participation

First preliminary survey as a basis for more advanced scientific enquiry


Time spent on presentations


On average, an employee attends 5 presentations each week

There are 2 clearly distinct groups :Most see 1 to 5 presentations a week

A smaller group sees 10-20 presentations a week

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 15 20 25 30 50

10

20

30

Presentations attended per week (%)


Significant differences per function

Average number of presentations seen per week

Administrative employee

Commercial employee

Specialist

Executive employee

Manager

Board member / (Vice)President

Director

1.38

1.58

3.21

3.57

4.39

5.81

7.74

Average number of presentations attended per week


On average, an employee receives 7 presentations per week through email

1 out of 4 receives at least 10 each week

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14 15 20 25 30 50 60

5

10

15

20

Presentations received per week (%)


Significant differences per function

Commercial employee

Administrative employee

Specialist

Executive employee

Manager

Director

Board member / (Vice)President

3.17

4.38

4.55

5.29

6.48

9.83

9.97

Average number of received presentations per week


On average, an employee spends 5 hours per week preparing presentations

He/she makes an average of 15 slides per week

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 12 15 16 20 24 25 30 40

10

20

30

Weekly number of hours spent preparing slides (%)


On average, an employee does 2 presentations each week

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 10

10

20

30

40

50

Number of presentations done each week (%)


Average presentation duration: 40 minutes

< 15 min 15-30 min 31-60 min > 1 hour

10

20

30

40

Presentation duration (%)


Average number of slides per presentation: 20

Geen 1-10 slides 11-30 slides 31-50 slides >50 slides

10

20

30

40

50

Number of slides (%)


Time spent on presentations - Summary

On average, an employee spends in excess of 9 hours each week preparing, attending or doing presentations


Presentation quality


45% of all presentations is (far) too long

Far too long Too long Good Too short Far too short

20

40

60

What do you think of the length of presentations?


43% of all presentations contain too much or far too much info, only 9% contain too little

Way too much Too much Perfect Too little Way too little0

10

20

30

40

50

60

What do you think of the amount of information?


47% of all presentations teach little or nothing relevant

A lot A fair amount A little Very little Nothing0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Learned anything relevant?


Only 24% of presentations manage really to convince their audience, 34% has no effect at all

Yes A little No Don't know0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Presentation changed opinion/attitude?


19% of all slides is considered (very) bad. 75% is acceptable or good

Excellent Good Acceptable Bad Terrible0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45 How good are the slides?


13% of the speakers are judged to be (very) bad, 81% to be acceptable or good

Excellent Good Acceptable Bad Terrible0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Speaker skills


Presentation quality- Summary

A substantial number of presentations

1. last too long;2. contain too much information;3. do not result in new relevant knowledge or skills; 4. do not result in changed opinions or attitudes.

Whereas…

slide quality and speakers are generally deemed to be good.


What is it that determines whether we learn anything from a presentation?


Multivariate analysisOjectiveTo ascertain which variables significantly impact how much one learns from a presentation.

ConclusionsThe effect of a presentation depends first and foremost on the perceived amount of information: too much of it (or a poor structure) is by far the main reason for failure.

Good slides can partly compensate for a small excess of information.

A good presenter can reinforce an adequate level of information.

But when there’s really too much information, no matter how much you continue tinkering with your slides, no matter how good a speaker you are, you won’t be getting anywhere. 82% of your audience will learn little or nothing through your presentation.


What makes the quality of a presentation?

1. Content Way too much Too much Good Too little

2. Slides Poor Acceptable Fair

3. SpeakerExcellent Not really

excellent

0

20

40

60

80

100“I learned something/a lot”

18% 22%35%

60%

94%

70%

30%


Multivariate analysis within higher level functions

If we look only at the subgroup consisting of higher level individuals (board members, presidents, directors), it appears that the quantity seems to impact less what they learn from a presentation.

This may be explained by the fact that people in higher level functions can deal better with more information.

Slide quality is more important for higher position people: the better the slides, the more they learn.


Contact info

To The PointEdouard Gruwez

+ 32 499 07 69 [email protected]

De CijferijKaat Vanseer

+32 475 96 47 [email protected]

www.decijferij.be


Presentations impact the bottom line

Business

presentations summary

presentations heshe

length of presentations

good slides

slides number of slides

average number of slides

average presentation

employee attends