If you’re ever going to present to Jeff Bezos on Amazon, here’s a tip: don’t make a PowerPoint presentation.

As noted in an Observer article on Bezos’s approach, “In an episode of The office, Dwight says of Ryan’s eye-catching PowerPoint slides, “PowerPoints are the peacocks of the business world – all show, no meat.”

Bezos is now famous for not allowing PowerPoints, and his focus and substantive meeting demands are likely the reason he owns one of the few largest global brands in the world.

• Staff participating in the meetings will write or read six-page memos.

• The beginning of the meetings is dedicated to having the meeting participants read these lengthy memos.

• Why is Bezos demanding this of his team? In your opinion, PowerPoint:

o Does not provide enough information

o You are prone to hearing interruptions.

• A memo communicates well-reasoned thoughts.

It is understandable that when you are the CEO of a global brand like Amazon and when your team comes together and makes decisions that can have a substantial impact on the growth of the company and the bottom line, it is essential that communication takes place. well reasoned.

Should you and me, as business owners?

It depends.

Personally, I am someone who likes to provide and receive information in a condensed and concise way because I am the ultimate decision maker in almost every aspect of my business. My businesses are not on the scale of a global brand like Amazon. However, I can see how Bezos’s approach is essential.

The devil is in the details

I believe we operate in a world where most people have very short attention spans. We all rush from one thing to another, and the fact is, most of the time, if you can’t capture someone’s imagination or interest in about 90 seconds, you’ve lost it.

However, it is a misconception that using PowerPoint’s approach is essentially the right way to go: everything. As a business owner, you are looking to expand and develop your business. One of the most important areas for you is your sales team. Say, for example, you want to understand why your sales team has projected an increase in revenue for the next fiscal year of 10 percent. You’ll make assumptions based on those revenue targets and build an operating budget that could reflect that 10 percent increase in revenue.

In this situation, a business leader would be wise to take Bezos’s approach and would require a well thought out, detailed, and reasoned memo explaining the who, what, when, where, and how of the 10 percent increase in revenue.

Taking his team through the beats

There are many other situations where it would be wise to require your team to give you a well-reasoned and thoughtful written presentation of your thinking, which will affect the decisions you make as a leader. For example, you may be looking to create a new job or department that will expand because you have been successful and want to reinvest your earnings to grow the business. You may also consider making an equipment purchase for thousands of dollars, starting a new marketing initiative, or looking to expand your business footprint. These are all great opportunities when you should ask your team to pause and explain their rationale as fully and thoughtfully as possible.

As Bezos explained in the Observer article, “When you have to write your ideas in full sentences, full paragraphs, it forces deeper clarity,” Bezos told Conor Neill, a business coach at IESE Business School in 2012. “Yes. you’ve done a traditional PowerPoint presentation, executives interrupt. If you read the entire six-page memo, on page two you have a question, but on page four that question is answered. “

While I’m not sure all business leaders need to require their teams to produce evidence-based memos before each of their meetings, and honestly, that’s not the way I run my business, I see and understand the courage to demand them. types of memoranda for critical decision-making meetings on critical issues.