The travails of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler before Congress in Washington last week present painful lessons for anyone with a critical presentation.
How often do we get a chance for a “do-over” or make good on a critical business plan or presentation? Pretty rare. Only in extraordinary circumstances such as the possible implosion of the US automakers would the companies get a second chance. In essence, the school teacher (Congress) said that: “You students haven’t done a very good job on your term paper. We’ll give you one more chance. Otherwise, you’ll probably flunk the course.”
In CommCore’s Presentation and Media Training seminars, we would never suggest cutting the preparation this close. What we saw was failure to analyze the audience and know what was expected, lack of preparation of a real plan and no one looking at the optics (flying in on three separate private jets).
Only the current economic situation, especially the unemployment figures, is aiding the auto companies request for financial aid. Very few of us will get such do-overs if we’re not prepared.
What lessons are you learning from the auto companies request for aid?