A memorable classroom experience at IIM Trichy
If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t understand it well enough – Albert Einstein Structured thinking is extremely fundamental to any field of endeavour, in particular, activities involving managers and executives. It is at the heart of industry analysis, generating and evaluating various options, and justifying and communicating choices to others. Upon graduating, I worked as part of a marketing team of a company; therein, during my tenure of 25 months, I delivered several presentations to the senior management. The time allocated, by the management, for each of these presentations was about fifteen to twenty minutes. My approach involved beginning with an extensive analysis of the market, procuring insights from potential customers, estimating the number of competitors in the market, estimating the growth of the industry and then making a definitive recommendation, at the end of the presentation. Further, every five or ten seconds into the presentation, I would share new findings; ergo all the attendees had to keep track of all data, to be able to comprehend the presentation, possibly because of information overload. To add to the complexities, because of telephonic calls for the director, I would have to repeat the slides and reiterate my findings. This almost always extended the duration of the presentation.
At IIM Trichy, during a session on strategy, we were taught “The Minto Pyramid Principle” - developed by McKinsey consultant Barbara Minto. It assists one in restructuring the findings to be able to communicate in an easily assimilable form. The three-key take-aways from the Pyramid principle are - beginning with the answer, summarising the supporting argument and giving a logical order to the supporting ideas.
As the name implies, the idea is that the logic of the presentation resembles a pyramid. The primary recommendation is placed at the top, followed by mid-level recommendations, each of which Is supported by facts, data, etc. This type of presentation is a top-down approach, which is extremely structured. As we are providing recommendations or sharing the conclusion at the start of the presentation, it allows the attendees to focus only on areas of interest. By doing this, we are maximizing our time with the attendees - executives. Executives get impatient if one is not to the point. To utilize the given (limited) span of time properly, it’s better to give recommendations at the start. Most of the senior executives think in a top-down manner - they look at the bigger picture first. So, by sharing recommendations at the beginning, one can align oneself with a senior executive’s way of thinking and allow him/her to process the information quickly.
By using the Pyramid principle, one facilitates the clubbing up of and summarisation of the arguments and ideas, thereby enhancing the retention. At the top of the pyramid lies the answer to an attendee’s question; underneath though one is supposed to group and summarize the next level of supporting arguments or ideas. Further, one needs to support these arguments or ideas by splitting them further into smaller ideas and arguments. It’s very important that the ideas that one brings together are at the same level of importance and follow a logical structure. This principle is immensely valuable when we communicate with executives to try to persuade them with our arguments. I believe this principle will assist me to persuade the senior executives in the future.
Which ABG company would you want to work for and why?
I am interested in working with Grasim Industries Limited. I have done B. Tech. from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and have worked with Champion Commercial Co. Ltd. as a Business Development Executive. I have handled Epoxy systems portfolio for Paint and Construction industry. I have hands-on experience in planning and implementing marketing campaigns and strategy. Also, I am familiar with the B2B marketing and knows the practical requirements involved during business development in this industry. Thus, I believe that my professional experiences will be a good match for this position and will ultimately prove beneficial to Grasim Industries Limited.
This article is written by Avdhut Pure - Class of 2019