Hello again! Welcome back to Scaling Greatness, a newsletter from Integreon focusing on amplifying business excellence and innovation.
📝 By Emily Watkins , Executive Editor
Everyone knows this story – the one that starts with a 70-slide deck (packed with dense content, confusing charts and a firestorm of colors and fonts), and ends with a headache. It’s easy to blame PowerPoint, but the real problem isn’t the tool, it’s the way we use it.
Slide-first thinking: Starting off on the wrong foot
If you open PowerPoint before you know what you want to say, you’re starting off on the wrong foot. Building slides before the story is a sure-fire way to end up with a disjointed, bloated presentation without a clear message. It’s like designing a book cover before writing the plot.
Story-first thinking: A better way to build
The best presentations don’t start with slides, they start with structure. Outline your story first and think about the key messages you want to communicate. Using a storytelling guide like the McKinsey SCR (situation, complication, resolution) framework can help you identify and organize the most important information. Once you have your story defined, then you can think about how it should look.
The Anatomy of a Great Presentation
In his TEDx talk “How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint”, David Phillips, an expert in the art of making presentations and author of a book by the same name, outlines 6 key principles for building impactful presentations. (His talk is 20 minutes, and I highly recommend watching the entire presentation).
- Keep it simple. Make it easier for your audience to digest by sticking to one message per slide.
- Contrast is your friend. Use saturation and opacity to highlight where you want your audience to focus.
- Size matters. Make the most important information the largest.
- PowerPoint is not a word processor. Avoid long sentences and keep text short and sweet.
- Dark is better. White backgrounds can overpower, especially if you are presenting in-person. Remember, you are the presentation, the PowerPoint is the visual aid.
- The rule of 6. The number of slides in your deck doesn’t matter – it’s the number of objects per slide you should keep an eye on. A max of 6 objects (lines of text, images, etc.) per slide ensures that your audience can quickly understand the content.
When outside help can help
The truth is, it takes a lot of time to storyboard, write, design and polish every single deck. And most likely, you (or your team) don’t have the luxury of time, especially when you’re producing lots of slides every week, often on a tight timeline.
That’s when bringing in an outside partner can be a strategic advantage – not just to save time, but to protect the quality of the message. When you hand off the production of your presentations to an experienced team that lives and breathes PowerPoint, you and your internal team can stay focused on what matters most - building the story.
⧉ CEOs, AI and Three Forces for Driving Change
📝 By John Wei , Contributor
Data from the recently released 2025 Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey reveals a pivotal shift in how CEOs are thinking and prioritizing AI. CEOs are moving past vaguely embracing AI to using it as a transformative force to reinvent operating models and talent strategies to drive growth. With this shift comes the need to refit operations and processes to align with the way AI works. However, Gartner reports that only about one-third of CEOs currently have an operating and business model fit for AI.
The evolution of how CEOs are viewing AI holds significant influence - as they set the direction and tempo for harnessing the three powerful forces driving change within organizations.
Force 1: Visionary Leadership
The CEO and their direct reports aim to embrace change and leverage AI to create new value for customers to generate fresh revenue streams. This proactive stance positions companies to lead — not just follow — in shaping the future of their industries.
Force 2: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
SMEs have cultivated a deep understanding of core mental maps and fundamental beliefs, setting them apart with their extensive knowledge. However, their strong convictions may present challenges when embracing change and envisioning innovative solutions. Their hesitance to depart from established methods can complicate the process of adaptation. Achieving success with AI requires everyone, including SMEs and C-level teams, to adapt their thinking and upskill.
Force 3: Middle Management
Middle managers serve as the linchpin for organizational progress and adaptation. Capable middle managers not only embrace change, but also orchestrate the transformation process at a steady pace, fueling momentum and certainty without causing tumult. Conversely, ineffective managers either resist change or burden the process with unnecessary bureaucracy and complexity, leading to sluggish and cumbersome progress. Empowering middle management with the right tools and mindset is essential for translating the vision of AI into action. It's inspiring to see that many CEOs have glimpsed the 'promised land' of AI. According to a study from Gartner last year, 59% of CEOs believe AI will have the most impact on their industry over the next three years.
Although the path ahead is still forming and taking shape, that's completely alright at this early stage. What matters most is the commitment to learning, adapting, and aligning culture with strategy.
Witnessing the remarkable progress of AI/Gen AI, both in the industry and here Integreon, leaves no doubt in my mind that we will resolve the details of the journey ahead. Companies with a strong culture that aligns these three forces are likely to surge ahead faster and more effectively during this time of rapid transformation.
