Presentation skills for Finance managers

Examples of how not to give a quarterly update and what to do instead

Task at hand: Prepare a motivating and well-designed presentation for the Q3 Finance update for a medium sized consultancy – when the results have been less than inspiring...

A typical presentation:

Revenue is down

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q40

1

2

3

4

5

6

RevenueForecastlast year Q1/Q2 pre-merger

Economic downturn• The economy has contracted

• Clients face funding constraints

• There is little money for our services

• The industry is suffering

• Our competitors are facing with cost cuts and redundancies

Changing our services• Our traditional services are not profitable• We have introduced a new range of services

59%23%

10%9%

Service profit contributionTransformation ChangeProject management Training

Client feedback is good• Our clients are happy with our work• We are ahead of competitors• We are pursuing many new prospects• We have launched new service lines

Good effort – well done

Any questions?

How it could have been:

example of a motivating structure and clean slide design

Q3 – tough terrain

AmazingFeedback

Happy Customers

New Prospects

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q40

1

2

3

4

5

(forecast)

Revenue £’m“We are being prudent in the current economic climate”

-8%

-11%

Industry

ClosestCompetitor

UsConsultancy spend:lowest since 1982

6%

Government cuts: Our clients are feeling the pressure

“We are lean and nimble”

Margin

Reve

nue

Focus on high-margins:“We are adapting our service offering to best help our clients”

Transformation

Change

New toolkits ready to goOrganisation

design Process improvement

Cutting bureaucracy Doing more

with less

Ready to win