Comments

Do you mean PowerPoint or Keynote? I find it hard to believe that someone as smart as Tom would still be using a PC with MS Office software. If indeed this is the case, somebody please buy him a MacBook Pro for the holidays. It'll change his life!

Posted by Timothy Post at October 30, 2007 12:00 AM

Tom,

Its high time you schedule a "power-talk" session on "Excellence in Governance" at Merrill Lynch...They indeed need to hear you LOUD & CLEAR!

Posted by K.Sriram at October 30, 2007 10:33 AM

I came to your London gig this morning. I'll start by saying I am just Dave Punter - an aspirant at best - not a player.

I took notes as you talked, but I must admit that the overheard conversation as I left resonated initially:
'what was that about?'
'I agree, where was he going?

However as I made sense of my brief notes this afternoon I thought how you'd undersold the material.

Even today - and especially to relative youngsters like myself - ok, I'm 36 - your espousal of 'doing things' over strategy is heretical. But whereas I rewrote my notes, finding a narrative that was triumpant and incendiary, the way it played this morning was at times shabolic and at best spontaneous.

Man, that whole goofy font thing played well when we all got word and powerpoint out of the box, but...

I'm the fool who carries a pack of multi-coloured Staedler (Mittelstand success number 724). I love fun, don't get me wrong. But massive quotes in goofy text is an obstacle to communication.

Sure, I re-read and re-wrote your lines and then it made sense, but a lot of the people left thinking you were so-so.

You were clearly 'good' today but we can all learn and I seriously think you were unimpressive. It's sad, there's a brilliant story in there and it didn't come out.

Posted by Bruce Daisley at October 31, 2007 5:11 AM

I haven't seen Tom ever, sadly, I have only seen the movies a few times. I can't think of anyone else I would rather hear deliver a speech (well, ok, if Churchill was still kicking...).

If the goal is to give it away, then it's a pity this set of slides is not the video of the talk. I don't care about the fonts (my 8th grader loves them, tho, so maybe I have fossilized) - but it's Tom's amazing, incredible delivery (passion, personal connection, etc) that makes his speeches an extraordinary experience. And I have only seen the DVDs, I would guess it is even more extraordinary live.

Oh, we did not want to give those away? :) As a capitalist, I understand, but it amuses me to read that giving stuff away is a mantra.

Posted by Matt Dwyer at October 31, 2007 3:31 PM

Well I was at the talk on the 30th and slides what slides the content was what mattered! The ideas were provocative and practical, not forgetting the passion of the delivery.

Having worked in a mainly "professional services" background I have felt that powerpoint is often used as a tool of repression, so it was a pleasure to see slides used in support of views rather than leading the speaker/meeting.

It was a pleasure to see a man who loves business articulate a call for common sense and action. Sorry to sound so Gung-ho but I am inspired and have "scared myself today" by putting my head over the parapet.

Posted by Nick Morris at November 1, 2007 12:52 PM