Presentations impact the bottom line

The
economic
impact of
presentations
www.ToThePointAtWork.com
©2014 E. Gruwez & K. Vanseer

Survey info
Survey
Performed by ‘To The Point’ and ‘De Cijferij’
March 2014
Online – via BVIC and Linkedin
Sample
273 participants in large organisations
from 18 different countries
evaluated 780 presentations
Representativity
Unweighted 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
5
10
15
20
25
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 15 20 25 30 50
Presentations attended per week (%)

Significant differences per function
1.38
1.58
3.21
3.57
4.39
5.81
7.74
Administrative employee
Commercial employee
Specialist
Executive employee
Manager
Board member / (Vice)President
Director
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
5
10
15
20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14 15 20 25 30 50 60
Presentations received per week (%)

Significant differences per function
3.17
4.38
4.55
5.29
6.48
9.83
9.97
Commercial employee
Administrative employee
Specialist
Executive employee
Manager
Director
Board member / (Vice)President
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
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 12 15 16 20 24 25 30 40
Weekly number of hours spent
preparing slides (%)

On average, an employee does 2
presentations each week
10
20
30
40
50
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 10
Number of presentations done each
week (%)

Average presentation duration: 40 minutes
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
< 15 min 15-30 min 31-60 min > 1 hour
Presentation duration (%)

Average number of slides per presentation: 20
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Geen 1-10 slides 11-30 slides 31-50 slides >50 slides
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
10
20
30
40
50
60
Far too long Too long Good Too short Far too short
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
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Way too much Too much Perfect Too little Way too little
What do you think of the amount of information?

47% of all presentations teach little
or nothing relevant
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
A lot A fair amount A little Very little Nothing
Learned anything relevant?

Only 24% of presentations manage really to
convince their audience, 34% has no effect at all
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Yes A little No Don't know
Presentation changed opinion/attitude?

19% of all slides is considered (very) bad. 75%
is acceptable or good
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Excellent Good Acceptable Bad Terrible
How good are the slides?

13% of the speakers are judged to be (very)
bad, 81% to be acceptable or good
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Excellent Good Acceptable Bad Terrible
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 analysis
Ojective
To ascertain which variables significantly impact how much one learns from a
presentation.
Conclusions
The 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. Speaker
Excellent 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 Point
Edouard Gruwez
+ 32 499 07 69 69
Ed@ToThePointAtWork.com
De Cijferij
Kaat Vanseer
+32 475 96 47 01
Kaat.vanseer@decijferij.be
www.decijferij.be

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