Name: Ginni Rometty, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Distribution, IBM Corporation

Speech title: Value creation: fulfilling the vision of a smarter planet

Delivered: CIO leadership exchange in Shanghai, June 2010

Strengths: structure, posts

Areas to improve: Support points

Speech duration: Less than 12 minutes

Here is my breakdown of the speech. the things that are excellent about the speech are:

• Report creation from scratch
• framing the presentation
• Let the audience know the purpose.
• connection questions
• Vocal Rhythm
• Use slogans to deliver clear messages
• Use statistics and anecdotes to support the message.
• Gestures add energy and impact to key messages
• rule of three

The areas that could be improved include:

• Stretch supporting points to fit an idea
• Fluency

Here is my breakdown of the speech. the things that are excellentabout the speech are:

Report creation from scratch

It started with a relationship builder about traveling in bad weather and the color purple. Good reaction from the public. Great icebreaker. Ginni also uses people’s names from time to time, which is part of her personal style. It works to bring the audience closer to the speaker.

09:40 Ginni also employs a callback technique that many comedians use. She makes her point by citing the study mentioned in the opening.

09:55 Bring back the Drucker quote mentioned above. “The best way to predict the future is to create the future.”

Applications’us throughout the pitch to include yourself in the challenges facing the CIO audience [Ginni was IBM CIO at the time of this speech]

framing the presentation

This is a good technique that Steve Jobs would employ. Summary of the talk in 30 seconds:

00:50 Smarter Planet is a business strategy, why is it resonating?, a decade of smart

Let the audience know the purpose.

03:10 How can you think differently when implementing? He uses examples to add credibility to what lies ahead with the Eindhoven pilot launch, 70% of the pilot traffic, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest utility, and Shell.

connection questions

A higher level skill that involves using a question to connect or interact with the audience. [without waiting for interaction] and then deliver a key message or point.

02:25 And you can say, what’s so interesting about that? Except it connects…

06:00 But what do you think is the number one growth inhibitor? Lack of integrated information

06:15 As growth returns, what kind of growth? And that’s what I meant by pushing the limits

07:05 How are you going to make a market? This is where I really say…

Vocal Rhythm

Clear and easy to understand at all times. Shows how to deliver to an international audience.

Use slogans to deliver clear messages

03:10 3 Observations

1. The new normal “productivity while you grow”

2. Pushing the “via data” limit

3. New leadership for the “compliance” of the new economy

Use statistics and anecdotes to support the message.

Ginni uses a combination of data to support his point. She cites EIU reports, IBM studies, anecdotes, statistics on CEO turnover, and also historical data referring to past recessions. She does not use slides and instead gives short, to the point anecdotes to back up her points.

Example of the section on the new normal

05:20 Stats: EIU reports on 90% of CEOs? focus on productivity. IBM CFO study 70% contribution to growth agenda BUT lack of integrated information

07:15 Example of a health insurer using data

08:00 Statistics on 2,700 CEO positions change

Gestures add energy and impact to key messages

Ginni uses gestures actively and throughout the presentation. Some gestures include:

00:50 – count to three with your fingers [although the third point was forgotten!]

01:00 risk and efficiencies through the gesture ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’

02:00 ‘base’ ‘launch’

03:20 Three sightings

03:35 ‘pushing the limit’

Like all forceful speakers, Ginni tends to gesticulate excessively. In other words, many gestures are not tied to a clear point. In my opinion, this isn’t too distracting and doesn’t detract from his message.

Warwick Training Tip:

Note the way Ginni tied specific gestures to his key message, such as “push the limit.” This is intentional and more as previously planned. Once you’ve identified the key message of your presentation, see how you can create a simple gesture to add impact.

rule of three

The structure is clarified at the beginning:

1. The new normal “productivity while you grow”

2. Pushing the “via data” limit

3. New leadership for the “compliance” of the new economy

08:00 New leadership for that new environment and that new economy [repetition of ‘new’] adds more impact

08:40″Bold, open-minded and persuasive” is a good example of rule of three in a message

11:30 for the conclusion wrapped with three main messages

The areas that could be improved include:

Stretch supporting points to fit an idea

Ginni used an example of Kraft introducing a product just after the Great Depression to support his point that leaders need to be bold, open-minded, and persuasive in tough times. Kraft’s example worked, but the others felt too forced.

2001, while Apple released the iPod on October 23, 2011 after the 9/11 event Ginni alludes to; this release would have been planned for months or years. In 1954, Texas Instrument introduced the transistor radio, but it had been in development for many years, and the bottleneck was finding a suitable manufacturer.

Warwick Training Tip:

It is a good technique to find supporting evidence to back up your message. Make sure the points you choose are believable and realistic for the audience. Avoid stretching an example to fit your point. Try to find a point that matches the message. Ginni’s message here was for leaders to be “bold, open-minded and persuasive.” Perhaps it would have been better to find examples of individual leaders making bold decisions in these difficult times. Like Steve Jobs saying that we’re going to go ahead with the launch of the iPod even though the country and the economy were in shock. Getting a personal view here would fit the point better.

Fluency

Having seen other Ginni performances, this one seemed a bit below his usual high standard in terms of flow. Sometimes it seemed like Ginni was trying to remember key messages and this made certain parts seem a bit unconnected. But not so much as to get in the way of her clear message from her.

Conclusion

A very well structured presentation with clear messages and energetic delivery. Ginni is a great presenter and you should definitely watch this video and her other presentations. This one was a bit off in terms of smoothness, but that’s just a minor quibble. If everyone presented themselves in a clear and engaging style, business presentations around the world would be so much better. A solid 8 out of 10.