MANAGEMENT CONSULTING PRESENTATION - How consulting firms create slide presentations (Ex-McKinsey)

Summary

In this video, Heinrich from Firm Learning shares expert tips to enhance PowerPoint presentations, gleaned from his six-year tenure at McKinsey. He covers essential elements like action titles, date, page numbers, and sources, and delves into advanced chart types, such as waterfall charts, alongside design elements like callouts and stickers for clarity and professionalism. Aiming to help viewers create boardroom-ready presentations, the tutorial also touches on avoiding 'clotheslines' and using structure elements for organized slides.

Takeaways

• 😀 Heinrich shares insights from his six years at McKinsey on creating professional PowerPoint presentations.
• 📅 Always include the current date on slides to maintain document integrity and context.
• 🔢 Incorporate page numbers for easy reference during meetings and discussions.
• 📑 Use a source field to cite data origins and include footnotes for additional remarks or details.
• 🎯 Craft compelling action titles for each slide to effectively convey the main message.
• 📊 Charts and diagrams are central to consulting presentations, often using tools like think-cell for enhanced visuals.
• 💧 Waterfall charts are particularly favored in consulting for showing the bridge between financial figures.
• 🏷 Utilize stickers like 'for discussion' or 'preliminary' to qualify the readiness and certainty of presented data.
• 📝 Introduce 'takeaway boxes' to highlight key insights or conclusions from the data presented.
• 🚫 Avoid 'clotheslines' or long, unstructured lists of bullet points; instead, use structured elements to organize information.
• ⭕ Use circles with numbers to add an extra layer of data or to emphasize specific points outside the main chart.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video by Heinrich from Firm Learning?

The main focus of the video is to share tips and tricks used by top consulting firms to create professional and distinctive presentations.

How many years did Heinrich work in consulting at McKinsey, and what did he create during that time?

Heinrich worked in consulting at McKinsey for six years, during which he created thousands of PowerPoint slides and worked on several client presentations.

What is a waterfall chart, and why is it commonly used in consulting presentations?

A waterfall chart is a type of chart used to show how an initial number is transformed into a final number through a series of intermediate steps. It's commonly used in consulting presentations to break down complex data into understandable components and show the bridge between financial figures.

What is a callout in the context of PowerPoint presentations?

A callout is an element in PowerPoint presentations that provides additional details or remarks about a specific element of a chart or other relevant contributions the presenter wishes to make.

What are stickers in consulting presentations, and what purpose do they serve?

Stickers in consulting presentations are elements that qualify the page or the analysis presented. They are used to protect the presenter by indicating the preliminary or indicative nature of the data, allowing for flexibility in discussions and analyses.

What is the purpose of a takeaway box in a PowerPoint presentation?

A takeaway box is used to include an important overall remark or the main insight that the presenter wants the audience to remember from the chart or presentation.

What is a bubble in a PowerPoint presentation, and how is it different from a takeaway box?

A bubble is an element in a PowerPoint presentation that is used to include limitations to the analysis or data being presented. It is often less formal than a takeaway box and can be used to highlight specific limitations or changes that have not been incorporated into the analysis.

Why should clotheslines be avoided in consulting presentations?

Clotheslines, which are long lists of bullets, should be avoided because they lack structure and do not convey a sense of completeness or organization. They can make the presentation appear unprofessional and random.

What is a structure element, and how does it help to avoid clotheslines in presentations?

A structure element is a method used to organize information in presentations by defining buckets or groups of related elements. It helps to avoid clotheslines by providing a clear and organized way to present information, ensuring that all relevant aspects are addressed systematically.

What is think-cell, and how does it benefit users when creating charts in PowerPoint?

Think-cell is a plugin frequently used by consulting firms to create charts in PowerPoint. It improves workflow by offering advanced charting capabilities that are not available in the standard PowerPoint tools.

How often does Heinrich release new videos on his YouTube channel, and what can viewers expect from his content?

Heinrich releases at least one video every single Saturday, and on many weeks, there are two videos. Viewers can expect content that helps them become successful in the first years of their career by teaching both soft and hard skills to excel in business roles.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Professional Presentation Tips from a McKinsey Consultant

Heinrich, a former McKinsey consultant, shares insights on creating professional presentations used in top consulting firms. He emphasizes the importance of specific design elements and tips that make presentations stand out and appear ready for boardroom presentations. He offers to teach viewers how to identify and emulate the style of MBB (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) presentations and encourages subscribing for more career and business skill development content.

05:00

📊 The Art of Crafting Charts and Action Titles in Consulting Presentations

This section focuses on the creation of charts, which are central to consulting presentations due to their data-driven nature. Heinrich highlights the use of think-cell, a popular plugin in consulting firms, for chart creation and discusses the prevalence of waterfall charts in particular. He also touches on the use of callouts to provide detailed information on specific chart elements, a common practice in consulting presentations.

10:02

🏷️ Utilizing Stickers and Takeaway Boxes for Clarity and Protection

Heinrich introduces 'stickers' as qualifiers for presentation pages, often used to denote the preliminary nature of the analysis or to provoke discussion. Stickers such as 'for discussion' and 'preliminary' serve as protective measures for consultants when presenting potentially controversial analyses. He also explains the use of takeaway boxes and bubbles to highlight key insights or limitations of the presented data, respectively.

15:02

🚫 Avoiding Clotheslines and Structuring Data in Presentations

This paragraph discusses the concept of 'clotheslines,' which are long, unstructured lists of bullet points that are best avoided in professional presentations. Instead, Heinrich recommends using structure elements to organize information into buckets or groups, ensuring comprehensiveness and clarity. The use of circles with numbers and sub-legends is also suggested for adding additional layers of data to presentations.

20:05

📚 Final Tips on Enhancing PowerPoint Presentations and Engagement

In the concluding paragraph, Heinrich summarizes his tips and tricks for improving PowerPoint presentations, stressing the importance of structure and clarity over unorganized lists. He invites viewers to share their own presentation tips and engage in the comment section, and reminds viewers to like, subscribe, and follow him on Instagram for daily content aimed at career success.

Keywords

💡Consulting

Consulting refers to the practice of providing professional services based on specialized knowledge, often in the business sector. In the context of the video, consulting is central as the presenter discusses the presentation styles and techniques used in the industry, particularly by top consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain.

💡PowerPoint Slides

PowerPoint slides are visual aids used in presentations to convey information and support spoken messages. The script emphasizes the creation of thousands of these slides during the presenter's consulting career, highlighting their importance in delivering professional presentations that are boardroom-ready.

💡Presentations

Presentations are the act of presenting information to an audience, often in a formal setting. The video's theme revolves around enhancing presentation skills, particularly in a business context, by using specific design principles and elements that are characteristic of top consulting firms.

💡Professional Look

A professional look in the context of presentations refers to an aesthetic that is clean, polished, and appropriate for a business setting. The video aims to share tips on achieving this look, which is often associated with the high standards of consulting firms.

💡Action Title

An action title is the title of a presentation slide that encapsulates the main point or 'actionable' message of that slide. The script mentions the importance of creating effective action titles as a key element in the professional presentation design process.

💡Charts

Charts in the script refer to graphical representations of data used to support arguments and findings in consulting presentations. The video discusses the frequent use of charts, especially those created with think-cell, a plugin often utilized in the consulting industry.

💡Waterfall Chart

A waterfall chart is a specific type of chart used to illustrate how an initial value is transformed into a final value through a series of intermediate steps. The script highlights the prevalence of waterfall charts in consulting presentations, particularly at McKinsey, to show the bridge between financial figures.

💡Callout

A callout in the context of presentations is an element that draws attention to a specific part of a chart or graphic. The script describes how callouts are used to provide additional details or remarks on particular data points within a chart.

💡Sticker

In the script, a sticker refers to a label or qualifier applied to a presentation slide, often indicating the preliminary nature of the information. Stickers like 'for discussion' or 'preliminary' are used to manage expectations and provide context for the data presented.

💡Takeaway Box

A takeaway box is a presentation element that summarizes the key insight or message intended for the audience to remember from a particular slide. The script mentions the use of takeaway boxes to ensure that the main point of a chart or data set is clearly communicated.

💡Clotheslines

Clotheslines in the context of the video refer to long, unstructured lists of bullet points in a presentation, which are to be avoided. The script advises against using clotheslines as they lack organization and completeness, instead advocating for structured elements to clearly convey information.

Highlights

The presenter shares thousands of PowerPoint tips and tricks learned from six years at McKinsey.

A professional presentation style is identifiable, especially from MBB consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain.

The video aims to help viewers improve their presentations with a professional touch.

Heinrich introduces himself and the purpose of the Firm Learning channel focused on career development.

Excel and PowerPoint skills are emphasized as crucial for business roles.

The presenter encourages engagement with the video through likes, comments, and subscription.

A multi-hour course is offered for those looking to master presentation skills like those used at McKinsey.

Basic elements like date, page number, source, footnotes, and action titles are essential for every slide.

Charts are a staple in consulting presentations, often using tools like think-cell for enhanced visuals.

Waterfall charts are highlighted as a distinctive element in MBB presentations, especially at McKinsey.

Callouts are used to add context or remarks to specific elements within a chart.

Stickers like 'for discussion' and 'preliminary' are used to qualify the page content and protect the presenter.

Takeaway boxes summarize key insights from a chart, ensuring the audience grasps the main point.

Bubbles are used to note limitations or additional context within a chart.

Circles with numbers add an extra layer of data to presentations, enhancing information delivery.

Avoiding clotheslines, or long bullet point lists, is key to maintaining a structured and professional presentation.

Structure elements like buckets and groups organize information more effectively than clotheslines.

The presenter concludes with an invitation for feedback and further discussion on presentation tips.

Transcripts

- During the six years I worked in consulting at McKinsey,

I created literally thousands of PowerPoint slides,

while working on several client presentations.

By doing that, I learned lots of little tips and tricks,

specific elements

that consultants use to give their

presentations the special professional look that makes it

ready for board room and just distinctive.

When I flip through a presentation, I can directly

tell you if this is a presentation from an MBB

consulting firm.

So from McKinsey, BCG or Bain,

or if it's not.

In this video, I'd like to share the little things with you.

The little tips and tricks, the little elements that top

consulting firms use to make their presentations

look like the way they do.

I trust this will really help you improve your presentations

as well, and give them the professional touch

and feel that you're looking for.

Hi guys, my name is Heinrich and welcome to another

coffee break with Firm Learning.

If you're new to this channel, on this channel I try to

help you become successful in the first years of your

career by teaching you both the soft skill

and the hard skill to excel in your first business role.

One of the things I frequently talk about on this channel,

is how you can excel you skills in both

PowerPoint and Excel.

Because, the truth is that especially PowerPoint is one

of the tools you will use most frequently in most

business roles out there.

So, if you're taking any value out of this video at all,

please let's destroy the like button for the

YouTube algorithm and also let's leave a comment below.

And of course, please subscribe to this channel and hit

also the notification bell to stay up-to-date on all the

content I have planned for you.

I will release at least one video for you

every single Saturday,

and on many weeks there are going

to be two videos coming out for you.

If you're not following me on Instagram yet,

my Instagram handle is @firmlearning as well.

On Instagram I'm releasing new content every single day.

Just giving you a bit of a behind the scenes

into my personal life and how

I prepare all this content for you.

And on my Instagram I share even more content that will

help you succeed in the first years of your career.

Today, I am talking to you about lots of little tips

and tricks that I learned as a consultant working

at McKinsey for six years.

I share design principles that consultants apply for

literally every single presentation that they use.

Little elements that typically appear on slides that

almost every consultant use every day,

but that I rarely see on presentations outside of the

consulting world.

So if you're interested to learn lots of little tips

and tricks that you can use for your

slide presentations as well.

Look at this video until the end.

And if you're one of those people that are

really interested to take your slide presentation

game to the next level,

I even released a multi-hour course and all the

tips and tricks that I learned at McKinsey on how you make

top management style presentations.

There are already over 10,000 students

taking the course.

If you're interested in that,

I leave a link to the course in the

description down below.

So, if you'd like to learn more about that

and also read lots of student reviews,

feel free to have a look and check out the course.

But, now let's dive into that.

I prepared a bunch of slides for you that just

illustrate my points.

Let's now switch to my computer to have a look

how this looks like.

Alright, let's jump into it.

So let's start with some basics.

Some basic elements that should be included

on every single page.

So let's start here on the bottom.

What you see here is the date.

The current date.

And pretty frequently you put here the date

either when the presentation happened,

where you present your pages,

or when you created a document.

Because what you will also find is that many documents

in professional contexts,

many presentations, many slides,

are not actually created for actual presentation,

but rather as a document that is then circulated,

sent around in a company.

And a date is just important,

because when in retrospect,

you're able to actually know,

to understand when the document was created.

Which of course, is important in many ways.

The second thing that you'll include on

pretty much every page,

is a page number.

This of course, is very useful if you sit

in a meeting and just a colleague wants

to refer to a specific page.

Then to be able to say okay,

this is a page 18 and then everybody knows

what page 18 exactly is,

because there is a page number included on the document.

Then of course, is very important.

Next thing you should look at is the source.

So here you can include a source,

such as Firm Learning.

Of course, you can even then include, just your name

or your department as a source,

but even better would be especially if you refer to a

specific data, then also give the source of the data.

So what date are you using?

Where is the data coming from?

When was the date collected?

Some specific information on what data you're using

is what you can likely include here in the source.

The next element that you can use are footnotes.

So, footnotes, one, two, three, this is just a part where

you can give specific details on certain things.

But maybe just not fit in the

regular text on your page.

Then you would just include it in the footnote

to give you some extra space,

because it's often a smaller font size

than the main page.

Just to show additional remarks.

And of course,

one of the most important elements

of every page is the action title.

The action title is the title of the page.

And creating a good action title is an art form itself.

Now, I will not go into much of detail

in this video, what a good action title looks like,

because, I already created a specific video

only focusing on action titles.

The video even includes an exercise how you can

improve your action title creation skills.

If you're interested in that,

have a look.

I will include a link to the video above

so that you can directly look into it.

So far, so good.

So this was some just really bare basics

that should be included in every page.

Let's jump into something else.

And this is the creation of charts.

So what you will see in consulting,

is that almost every slide that you use,

contains a chart.

So some kind of diagram where you depict data.

The reason is that in consulting,

very frequently, your argumentation will be based on data.

You can just expect from you,

that you will back up your findings

and your recommendations with some date-driven analysis.

And if you do these kind of data analysis,

of course, you will frequently use charts to then

show the results of your analysis.

And these are just the charts that you can create

with the think-cell expansion.

If you do not know think-cell,

it's a plugin that very frequently is used

by consulting firms to create the charts.

So, almost every consulting firm uses it.

Of course, if you do not have it,

you can just also work with the regular

PowerPoint built-in charts.

If you have the opportunity to use think-cell,

I can highly recommend it,

because it really improves your workflow.

If you now go over this chart tiles,

many of them you will already know

and probably frequently use yourself.

Such as, stacked bar charts, or the 100% bar charts,

clustered bar charts, and so on.

Right now, I'd just like to put your attention to

the waterfall chart type.

So the waterfall chart type is a chart type

that in consulting,

especially at McKinsey, you will use all of the time.

So, there's almost no presentation

without a waterfall present.

But, outside of consulting, I really rarely see it.

Just from my observation.

The fact alone that a presentation includes a

waterfall chart, very often is a clear, telltale sign

that a MBB consulting firm worked on it.

And actually, most of the cases, it has been McKinsey,

because, for whatever reason,

waterfall charts are just so commonly used

by McKinsey consultants.

So, let's look at an example.

So, this is just a basic example

of what a waterfall chart looks like.

And I'd just like to use this example to show to you

what I believe the waterfall charts can just be so

helpful in so many business presentations.

So, this of course is just a stylist chart,

an illustrative chart, so let's not

care about the specific numbers.

But, this is now a bridge chart.

Actually, many people, instead of using waterfalls,

they also just call them bridges.

So, bridge chart.

Because, waterfall charts are very helpful

to show a bridge.

To show how one number relates to another number.

One way that this is frequently used

is to show bridges between financial figures.

So, here we compare the EBITDA.

So, the earnings before interest text depreciation

amortization of 2019. To the EBITDA in 2020,

and we like to understand the difference.

And if you just look at the numbers,

here it has been 1.59, and here it has been 1.67.

So, at first glance, it could look like the numbers

are pretty similar.

So you could infer,

that actually the company has been quite stable,

there were many things that actually changed.

If you don't break down the difference of these

two numbers, into all the effects,

that actually changed,

from 2019

to 2020.

You'd see that there are quite

some things going on.

So here was one effect that if you use

the EBITDA by 700,

but then this is compensated by another effect

that increased it by 730.

And there's another positive effect,

further increasing it by 450.

And a reduction by 650,

and then another increase in 250.

So what you can see is that the waterfall chart

really enables you to breakdown

something into the different sub components

that were driving it.

And then enable it to make changes visible,

that were just not visible.

Just looking at the total difference

between two numbers.

Let's now look into another

very ambiguous chart element.

This is a so-called, callout.

This is this element right here.

So, this is an element that you can just

include in a chart.

Gives details about this specific element.

So as I wrote here, it can include remarks

on specific elements of a chart or other relevant

contributions that you wanna make.

A callout is something that you can easily use,

just add details,

add information,

add context to one specific element.

This is a frequent way how you can do it.

So, this element just consists of one line,

and then another line with a special ending.

So, if you has never created this yourself.

I just broke down here the elements here,

you see the line and that this is just

another line, then it's you can know in the line settings,

you can just add also such an endpoint to it.

Then if you combine it, this is what it looks like.

So, this is just an easy way to create

this kind of callout elements.

And believe it or not, but, callouts like this

will be used in pretty much every single

consulting presentations that you see.

Another element that might have catched your

attention is something that is called a sticker.

And this is what you see here in the top right.

So, a sticker is a qualification of the

page that you use.

Here, you see the preliminary sticker.

So, let's now just go over some examples of stickers

that are frequently and commonly used.

Then what the context is how you use them,

in the consulting context.

So, for discussion sticker,

the preliminary sticker,

highly preliminary, indicative,

and then illustrative.

So, these are probably the five

most commonly used stickers.

Of course, you could write other things as well.

And stickers are elements that are

pretty much used to protect yourself.

So, why could this be important?

Why would you need to protect yourself?

So, let's imagine you make an analysis,

which might be a bit controversial,

you know that their resides,

will not please everybody.

And what you can do is,

to include such a for discussion sticker,

then if you walk into a meeting,

then you realize that your analysis sparks

some discussion, and then yet you can say,

well, "Yes, of course, this is not the final result."

"This is just for discussion."

As you also wrote here.

"So let's just have a discussion about it."

"I'm interested to hear your opinion."

"What is your view of it?"

"Why do you believe this is true?"

"What is your opinion?"

So, this is how you frequently use

such a for discussion sticker.

Preliminary and highly preliminary,

this is just something to make clear,

that the results that you're showing,

the analysis that you are doing,

are not the final ones.

And here again, this just, is a way to protect yourself,

that then if later it comes out that

maybe your were missing some data.

That there additional information that you

would need to take into consideration.

You can just say, "Yes, of course, this analysis that"

"we did here was only preliminary."

"This was not the final version."

This is also again to protect yourself,

because, otherwise, it could happen,

and these things happen, right?

That there is a hostile client,

that then just points out a page that you created,

maybe in the first weeks of your engagement,

that you were just learning,

trying to understand the data.

And the page you labeled, you just did, was complete BS,

because this analysis that you created,

was just obviously not correct.

Right?

And maybe he was right, maybe it just wasn't correct,

because you didn't have the full picture.

But, then you can say, "Yes, Mister, this is true, you are"

"right, but as you can also read here, this was not a final"

"version of the analysis."

"This was just a preliminary version."

And incidents like that happen.

And this is why you put the preliminary sticker on it.

That's similar, but different is the indicative sticker

and also the illustrative sticker.

So, an indicative sticker, you can use just to make

it clear that a certain analysis that you make,

maybe has some flaws,

maybe has some drawbacks.

So, the numbers that you show,

should not be taken that serious.

But, it gives a good direction,

so that you believe that the analysis,

the results that you show, are at least are

indicatively right,

and these show the right direction,

the right picture,

even thought the specific numbers that you use

might not be accurate.

And, this of course can happen in any situation.

You need to work with the incomplete data sets,

where you're lacking certain information

that you just were not able to use.

Then, you might want to make it clear that the

analysis that you're showing is just indicative.

Illustrative goes kind of even further than indicative.

And, it's sometimes also used a bit, in a dirty way,

in the sense that you can show a whole chart of very

specific information, very specific graphs,

then you can put an illustrative sticker on it.

You can make it clear that actually

the numbers are not true.

That you just made up the whole chart, right?

Maybe, the whole chart doesn't contain

any real numbers at all.

But, you just wanted to show a certain relationship,

how you believe that it is from your experience,

or maybe from other information that you have.

So, you're just drawing this chart,

which maybe not even contains any real numbers at all,

but illustratively, this is the chart you believe

it looks like.

So, this is how you put the illustrative sticker on it.

So, if you see the illustrative sticker on a presentation,

pretty frequently, you can assume that actually,

the numbers are not real.

The numbers are not actual numbers.

But, this chart pretty much just was made up

by the consultant who used it.

So, now another element that you can frequently use,

is something that is called a takeaway box.

So, takeaway boxes are something

like this that you include below your chart.

It includes an important overall remark.

So, while the callout you saw earlier,

usually is used for just given information on

a specific element of the chart.

If you ever have genuine information,

that is relevant to the whole chart,

you can just include such a takeaway box,

below the chart that you are showing.

In the takeaway box, you can just include the main insight,

the main piece of information,

that you want the reader, the viewer, the listener,

to takeaway from the chart that you are showing.

Another element that you can use that looks similar,

but is often used in a slightly different way.

It is something that you would call a bubble.

So bubble is sometimes also called a sticker,

and it's included in a chart in some way like that,

so you purposely make it look like this,

just included in front of something else.

It looks a bit less informal, than for instance,

a takeaway box.

And, a bubble you often use to include

some kind of limitation

to the analysis that you are showing a

limitation to the data that you are showing.

And, a bubble is called a bubble,

because sometimes, instead of a rectangular form,

you can also use a circular form of the text that

you are showing.

So, that the text is included in a circle,

instead of a rectangular form.

From the standpoint, bubbles are so important,

you need to put yourself into the shoes

of a consultant.

Because, very frequently, you receive certain data sets,

certain informations from your clients.

And then you take several days,

or maybe even weeks to then conduct the analysis,

and then to come up with some kind of a result.

Then very often, what happens, is that then,

the last days, some anxious hours before

the big presentation,

where you then want to show the results,

you receive some new information,

maybe you realize that now some new data came out,

maybe now, the next month's finished,

and now you put, re-do all the analysis,

with all the data from the new time period,

from the new month.

In these situations, you're very frequently faced with

the decision to whether you want to re-do now,

all the analysis,

to incorporate this new information, or whether,

will you leave all the analysis as-is?

And, then just include a bubble on the page,

stating the limitation, or stating what has not

yet been included in the analysis.

Bubbles are so important, because very frequently,

instead of re-doing the whole thing, re-doing analysis,

re-creating all kinds of pages.

Problems like that, you can frequently use with the bubble.

And, this is why there is a magic saying in consulting,

and this goes like, "If in trouble use a bubble!"

So, if you are struggling with something,

something just isn't right.

You just need to use this statement,

just need to make some corrections,

in the end, if you're in trouble,

most of the problems you can just use with a bubble.

Just stating the specific things that you want to change.

Now, some other frequently used elements

are circles with numbers.

This, again, is something that I very frequently

see in consulting presentations,

but I rarely see lines of circles with numbers like that in

presentations that are being done by non-consulting people.

So, how do you use these things.

So, you can use these kinds of number circles, whenever,

you want to include another layer of data.

Another dimension of numbers,

which is not directly part of the chart.

So, let's look at this stylized chart.

So, what do we see here?

So, these are the revenue figures of a business.

But, not the absolute figures,

but the difference to the previous year.

So, we look into these calendar weeks,

and we look into how the business performed

against the previous years.

So, here, so this would mean that in the calendar

week seven of the year,

the business had revenues that were by a 100 million higher

than in the previous year.

You have 200 million higher, 250 million higher,

here a 100 million less, and so on.

Of course, in this context, if you look at this,

it would be interesting and important to us,

to include what the absolute amount,

what the revenue was in the current year 2020.

In situations like that, where you just want to include as

a second point of data, second point of information,

circles of numbers like that are just very commonly used.

So, here you would now include information,

that in the calendar week seven,

you make now the revenues of 900 million,

and this was 100 million more

than you made in the previous year.

Then, regarding the legend, what you do is,

the main legend that you state in the chart title,

the main legend always refers to the

numbers in the main chart.

And, for the circles, you can include a sub-legend,

then explain what is shown and depicted in these circles.

And, if you're interested to learn more about how to set up

consulting style charts, like that.

I created a whole other video just discussing

how you should set up the chart title,

then also the subtitle, and things like that.

So, if you haven't seen that yet,

I believe this is also highly relevant,

and something that you need to know,

if you work in consulting,

or want to create presentations that meet the

standards of consulting firms.

I will leave it above here for you,

check it out if you'd like to see it as well.

Next concept I would like to talk about is also a

very, very important one.

And, it's the concept of clotheslines.

More specifically, of avoiding clotheslines.

So, what do we call clotheslines in consulting?

Clotheslines are referred to as just long lists of things,

and specifically in the context

of creating PowerPoint presentations,

just long lists of bullets.

So, what you will always never see in

consulting style presentations,

is just the list of bullets like that,

where you just randomly list all kinds of thoughts,

or other explanations that you want to.

So, why is this bad?

So, if you just use a list of thoughts like this,

what you're missing, what you're not showing,

what you're not doing, is giving it some kind of structure.

If you present things like that,

it looks completely random.

The person looking at it,

can have no trust at all that actually the things

that are mentioned here are complete,

that all the relevant aspects

have been discussed and addressed by you.

But, it just seems like a completely random

unstructured list of points.

In such an unstructured list of points,

is what you would call a clothesline.

And, you want to avoid clotheslines.

So, what is now used in consulting to avoid

clotheslines like that?

And, very frequently,

what you do is to use structure elements.

So, here again, just in the illustrative page,

this could be out of, for instance, an M&A transaction,

a merger's and acquisition transaction.

Where one company aims to buy another company.

Another company is showing how the purchasing price

that they want to offer for a company splits down

to the different assets that the company has,

and that the company is selling.

Here again, this is now,

another frequent use of a waterfall chart,

that you now have the total purchasing price.

Now you show how this breaks down into the different

subelements of the company.

Now, here you have the different assets that the company

has to offer us, so here, property, plant and equipment.

Then, of course, there could be a whole lot of other

assets that the company offers,

for instance, inventory, and so on.

Now, a clothesline would be just to state all these assets,

just in a random list of bullets.

Now, to avoid clotheslines,

what you often use is structure elements.

So, what you try, is to define buckets,

to define groups of elements,

then you can use to organize the different subelements,

that are from bullet points that you have.

Now, here just a simple example is to use gray bars,

that you include in front of the elements,

then the company you will often distinguish the

fixed assets from the current assets.

This is now a structure that I defined,

in that, in this structure,

now I can use a different bullet points.

And, I hope you now understand, that this is superior

to other ways of structuring the points.

Because, now, by having to use the structure,

fixed assets, and current assets,

I already have some kind of guarantee,

that if I now look at these two types of assets,

I will catch all the assets

that are included in the company.

Because, this way, now I have covered

the whole balance sheet of the company.

And, I can be sure that I will have covered all

the assets within these two groups.

So, always use structure elements,

avoid at all costs, using clotheslines,

because, this is just completely unprofessional.

This is probably one of the first points of feedback

that you will get as a young consultant.

If you created a page just using

a list of bullet points like this.

So, this concludes my little list of tips and tricks

of elements that you can use to

improve your PowerPoint pages as well.

I hope you found this was useful.

If you have any questions about that,

feel free to leave me a comment below

in the comment section.

I will answer every single comment,

and I also like to hear from you,

what are your little tips?

What are the things that you've frequently use

to improve your presentations?

Let's have a conversation here from which

everybody can benefit.

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I'm Heinrich from Firm Learning.

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