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The Advanced Guide to McKinsey-style Business Presentations

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McKinsey-style business presentations

Grow a business.

• Flat Design
• Minimalist Design
• Colorful, Bright, and Bold Design
• Infographic-Style Slides in Presentations
• Bold Typography Design

Presentation skills are essential to success in any business. This article explains how to structure a McKinsey-style business presentation, step by step, from a single slide to a complete deck. We discuss how to prepare… ... read more Presentation skills are essential to success in any business. This article explains how to structure a McKinsey-style business presentation, step by step, from a single slide to a complete deck. We discuss how to prepare for a presentation, how to structure the material, and how to deliver the presentation. close

What can we learn about presentations from the most successful management consulting companies like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain?

Prezlab has had the privilege of working with some of the best management consulting firms in the region and has helped a slew of consultants and consulting companies with their presentations. We thought it would be a great idea to jot down what the most successful management consulting companies such as McKinsey, BCG, and Bain do in their presentations to make them such a success. Their presentations are elegant, articulate, well-organized, engaging, and pack a mighty punch.

Great consultants are problem-solvers. In our opinion, this is a must for consultants. When this ability is coupled with the ability to design a great presentation, that’s when the magic happens. Because with the power of effective communication and delivery, they can change minds and convince their audience that their solutions are the most effective. Unfortunately, a lot of management consultants lack this ability. This blog is meant to bring you a little closer to becoming an effective communicator of solutions via presentation design .

Think of a great presentation like a movie; storytelling is the most central aspect. The idea of your presentation as a management consultant is to present and unpack complex ideas in the most simplified and easy-to-understand manner. Apart from storytelling, the other aspects of your presentation would be data and analysis. All of these elements should work in unison and be coherent with each other to make one singular point, the solution. If you want to learn more about this aspect of a presentation then read our blog: Effective remedies to dull and boring presentations .

Before you start, ask yourself the following questions:

01 Who is my target audience and what is their level of understanding of the problems?

02 How long should your presentation be?

03 How much time would your audience like to spend on your presentation?

04 What do they care about?

05 What action would you like them to take after your presentation?

The typical elements of a management consulting presentation

1 – executive summary.

The executive summary is a situational summary of the problem at hand and the gist of your presentation. This is mostly written for top management who don’t have the time to go through the entire presentation and just want a powerful summary.

2 – Table of Content

A table of content helps spark interest and give your audience an idea of what is to come. This is usually shown right at the beginning before you begin presenting your material.

3 – Action Title

The action title is your single point or key idea that you will be proposing in the rest of the presentation. Every point you introduce should connect back to the action title.

4 – Chapters and Body of Slides

The chapters and body of slides are the slides that conform to the narrative. You can split the presentation into chapters to break it into more palatable sections. Use the slides to present your story backed by the data and analysis.

5 – Conclusion and recommendations

The conclusion reinforces and reiterates your final point or your solution. This section summarizes all your main ideas and condenses them into a central theme.

One aspect that makes sides from McKinsey and other top management consulting firms stand out is the use of engaging visuals that go side by side with the data being presented in the slides.

Another aspect of McKinsey slides is the constant and conscious attempt to keep the number of slides to as few as possible. This default instinct is to present as much data as possible. The false impression that most management consultants have is that if they say more, they have a better chance of winning their audience over.

Nothing can be further away from the truth. Once you start thinking this way you would be surprised how you can chop down 20 slides to 2 slides without losing any real impact. Presentation formats such as the PechaKucha or Guy Kawasaki methods limit their slides to a certain number and work within that specific parameter to tell a story.

McKinsey consultancy slides also do not use a lot of bullet points – it is a surefire way of losing your audience’s interest. Studies have shown that people are more likely to remember information presented as images and pictures rather than bullet points. Steve Jobs, one of the greatest presenters of all time, never used bullets in any of his presentations, and we wrote a blog on  5 Presentation Lessons You Can Learn from Steve Jobs  if you are interested in learning more .

Key features from McKinsey slides worth keeping in mind:

01 Choose a professional font like Arial or any other professional font

02 Keep colors to a minimum and keep the color scheme consistent across all the slides

03 Highlight the key points

04 Avoid clutter, give your slides enough breathing space

05 Ensure proper and correct alignment

06 Have a “source” section at the bottom of each slide

07 No fancy graphics or animations

And most importantly: make sure each side has an action title that encapsulates the key idea of that slide in a one-liner (maximum two sentences). The idea is that if someone reads just the action titles of each slide, they should get the gist of your presentation.

If you want to see some of McKinsey’s presentations in action then check out the links below:

Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation

Reinventing Construction

Laying the foundations for a financially sound industry

If you would like to get your McKinsey-style slides designed by Prezlab, get in touch with us .

Let us design your presentation!

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100+ Real Consulting Presentations from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and More

By Paul Moss

We’ve gathered presentations from top consulting firms that you can use to inspire your own slide making.

For this post we’ve gathered 100+ real presentations from top consulting firms around the internet for you to review, analyze, and learn from. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and each provides a different look into how top quality consulting presentations get created and delivered to clients. 

After finishing this article, make sure you check out our advanced courses to see how you can learn to build your own high-quality, consulting-style slides from scratch.

The Internet's Best Slides

Search through our curated library of REAL slides to find inspiration for your next presentation

• Reshaping NYCHA support functions   (BCG)
•   Loose dogs in Dallas: Strategic Recommendations to Improve Public Safety and Animal Welfare   (BCG)
•   Melbourne as a Global Cultural Destination   (BCG)
•   The Open Education Resources ecosystem   (BCG)
•   The True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight (7th Edition) (BCG)
•   Evaluating NYC media sector development and setting the stage for future growth   (BCG)
•   The Electric Car Tipping Point   (BCG)
•   Projecting US Mail volumes to 2020   (BCG)
•   Next Generation Manufacturing (2016)   (BCG)
•   Corporate Ventures in Sweden (2016)   (BCG)
•   Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program – March 2008   (BCG)
•   USPS Future Business Model   (McKinsey)
•   Investment and Industrial Policy: A Perspective on the Future   (McKinsey)
•   Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies and the companies that propel them   (McKinsey)
•   Technology’s role in mineral criticality (World Materials Forum)   (McKinsey)
•   Challenges in Mining: Scarcity or Opportunity?   (McKinsey)
•   Modelling the potential of digitally-enabled processes, transparency and participation in the NHS   (McKinsey)
•   Addressing the Global Affordable Housing Challenge (2016)   (McKinsey)
•   Capturing the Full Electrical Efficiency Potential of the UK (2012)   (McKinsey)
•   Digital Luxury Experience (2017)   (McKinsey)
•   Digitally-Enabled Processes in the NHS (2014)   (McKinsey)
•   How Companies can Capture the Veteran Opportunity (2012)   (McKinsey)
•   Insurance Trends and Growth Opportunities for Poland (2015)   (McKinsey)
•   Laying the Foundations for a Financially Sound Industry (2013)   (McKinsey)
•   From Poverty to Empowerment (2014)   (McKinsey)
•   Consumer privacy in retail   (Deloitte)
•   TMT Outlook 2017: A new wave of advances offer opportunities and challenges   (Deloitte)
• Deloitte SEA CFO Forum Southeast Asia Business Outlook   (Deloitte)
• Deloitte Kenya Budget 2022/23 Webinar   (Deloitte)
• The Shopping Centre Handbook 4.0   (Deloitte)

Bain & Co.

•   2011 China Luxury Market Study   (Bain)
•   Bain & UC Berkley Operational Excellence (2010)   (Bain)
•   Fintech New York: Partnerships, Platforms and Open Innovation   (Accenture)
•   Shaping the Sustainable Organization   (Accenture)
•   The Decade to Deliver: A Call to Business Action   (Accenture)
•   Fueling the Energy Future   (Accenture)
•   Cracking the Code on Consumer Fraud   (Accenture)
•   Right Cloud Mindset: Survey Results Hospitality   (Accenture)
•   Unleashing Competitiveness on the Cloud Continuum   (Accenture)
•   Whole Brain Leadership: New Rules of Engagement for the C-Suite   (Accenture)
•   Federal Technology Vision 2021: Full U.S. Federal Survey Findings   (Accenture)
•   Accenture Consumer Behavior Research: The value shake-up   (Accenture)
•   Tech Adoption and Strategy for Innovation & Growth   (Accenture)
•   Intelligent Operations for Future-Ready Businesses   (Accenture)
•   When, Where & How AI Will Boost Federal Workforce Productivity   (Accenture)
•   How fit is your allocation strategy?   (EY)
•   European Banking Barometer (2015)   (EY)
•   EY Price Point: global oil and gas market outlook, Q2 | April 2022   (EY)
•   IBOR transition: Opportunities and challenges for the asset management industry (EY)
•   Global Capital Confidence Barometer 21st edition   (EY)
•   Power transactions and trends Q2 2019   (EY)
•   MAPS2018 Keynote address on EY report: Life Sciences 4.0 – Securing value through data-driven platforms   (EY)
•   EY Germany FinTech Landscape   (EY)

PwC / Strategy&

•   Project Management: Improving performance, reducing risk   (PwC)
•   World Economic Forum: The power of analytics for better and faster decisions by Dan DiFilippo   (PwC)
•   Apache Hadoop Summit 2016: The Future of Apache Hadoop an Enterprise Architecture View   (PwC)
•   Turning big data into big revenue   (PwC)
•   Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers 2017   (PwC)
•   PwC’s new Golden Age Index – how well are countries harnessing the power of older workers?   (PwC)
•   PwC’s Global Technology IPO Review — Q1 2015   (PwC)
•   PwC Trends in the workforce   (PwC)
•   18th Annual Global CEO Survey – Technology industry key findings   (PwC)
•   The FDA and industry: A recipe for collaborating in the New Health Economy   (PwC)
•   Making zero-emission trucking a reality   (Strategy&)
•   Sustainability strategies for Oil and Gas   (Strategy&)
•   Driving the sustainability agenda on C-level   (Strategy&)
• The Diversity Imperative: 14th Annual Australian Chief Executive Study   (Strategy&)
•   Creating a Winning Recipe for a Meal Kits Program   (LEK)
•   The 4th Annual New Mobility Study 2019   (LEK)
•   2019 APAC Hospital Priority Study Overview    (LEK)
•   Rail industry cost and revenue sharing (2011)   (LEK)
•   2019 Media and Entertainment Study   (LEK)
•   Navigating a digital-first home furnishings market   (LEK)
•   5 Opportunities in the Nutritional Supplements Industry   (LEK)
•   Infrastructure Victoria – AZ/ZEV International Scan   (LEK)
•   The Rapidly Evolving Landscape of Meal Kits and E-commerce in Food & Beverage   (LEK)
•   Top 8 Insights From the 2018 Beauty, Health & Wellness Survey   (LEK)
•   2018 Brand Owner Packaging Survey   (LEK)
•   2016 Strategic Hospital Priorities Study   (LEK)
•   The Merchandising Evolution (and why NDC Matters)   (LEK)
•   Infrastructure beyond COVID-19   (LEK)
•   China Exit or Co-Investment Opportunities for German PE Investors   (LEK)
•   Strategy Study 2014   ( AT Kearney)
•   Australia: Taking Bigger Steps   ( AT Kearney)
•   Lifting the Barriers to Retail Innovation in ASEAN   ( AT Kearney)
•   The Future of Commercial Vehicle Powertrains (2012)   ( AT Kearney)
•   A.T. Kearney 2017 State of Logistics Report: Accelerating into Uncertainty   ( AT Kearney)
•   Pursuing Customer Inspired Growth   ( AT Kearney)
•   The Accelerating Growth of Frictionless Commerce   ( AT Kearney)
•   Consolidation of the US Banking Industry   ( AT Kearney)
• Covid-19 and Effects on Turkey   ( AT Kearney)

Booz Allen Hamilton, Alvarez & Marsal and others

•   European Distressed Credit Watch List   (Alvarez & Marsal)
•   Corporate Headquarters Study 2018   (Roland Berger)
• The Lithium-Ion (EV) battery market and supply chain   (Roland Berger)
•   IP Theft   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
•   Booz Allen Hamilton and Market Connections: C4ISR Survey Report   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
•   Joining Forces: Interagency Collaboration and “Smart Power”   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
• Booz Allen at a glance   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
• Investor Presentation Deck   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
•   Responding to Covid-19 (2021)   (Oliver Wyman)
•   C ovid-19 Special Primer (2020)   (Oliver Wyman)
• Building Up Immunity of the Financial Sector   (Oliver Wyman)
• Customer Experience: The 14BN Risk Noted for Discussion   (Oliver Wyman)

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Reshaping NYCHA support functions

Good:  Realistic client presentation, clear slide structure, complete storyline

Not Good:  Outdated, long and dense

Download this Presentation

Loose dogs in Dallas: Strategic Recommendations to Improve Public Safety and Animal Welfare

Good: Realistic client presentation, clear slide structure, insightful and clear charts

Not Good: Outdated, long and dense

Melbourne as a Global Cultural Destination

Good: Realistic client presentation, good structure, slides “guide” audience to insights

Not Good: Outdated design

The Open Education Resources ecosystem

Good: Clearly structured slides, good visuals, good illustrative charts

Not Good: Relatively short, slightly older, incomplete storyline

The True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight (7th Edition)

Good: Recent presentation, nice looking visuals, clear charts

Not Good: Not a client presentation, too much focus on design

Evaluating NYC media sector development and setting the stage for future growth

Good: Complete presentation (intro, exec. summary, etc.), good examples of subtitles

Not Good: Lacks clear recommendations

The Electric Car Tipping Point

Good: Clear and insightful charts, clutter-free slides, good titles

Not Good: Relatively short, not a client presentation

Projecting US Mail volumes to 2020

Good: Easy to understand, good insights and analysis, contrasts with McKinsey presentation on the same topic

Not Good: Old presentation

Next Generation Manufacturing (2016)

Good: Nice clean design, excellent visuals

Not Good: Not a client deliverable

Corporate Ventures in Sweden (2016)

Good: Strong overall flow, good visualization s

Not Good: Relatively short

Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program – March 2008

Good: Realistic slides and presentation, good structure

Not Good: Short

USPS Future Business Model

Good:  Clear structure and analysis, insightful charts

Not Good:  Outdated, lackluster design

Investment and Industrial Policy: A Perspective on the Future

Good: Variety of charts, good titles

Not Good: Over designed, not a client presentation

Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies and the companies that propel them

Good: Variety of charts, qualitative visuals, clear titles

Not Good: Poor use of color, minimal footnotes

Technology’s role in mineral criticality (World Materials Forum)

Good: Clear storyline, well-structured slides, good titles and subtitles

Not Good: Overuse of visuals, relatively short

Challenges in Mining: Scarcity or Opportunity?

Good: Complex explanations made simple, variety of visual types

Not Good: Inconsistent titles, some unprofessional visuals (clipart, etc.)

Modelling the potential of digitally-enabled processes, transparency and participation in the NHS

Good: Realistic client slides, data heavy

Not Good: Cluttered, incomplete storyline

Addressing the Global Affordable Housing Challenge (2016)

Good: Realistic slide structure, good charts, great slide titles

Not Good: Strange slide formatting, mediocre design

Capturing the Full Electrical Efficiency Potential of the UK (2012)

Good: Realistic client deliverable (full deck, dense slides, proper deck structure)

Digital Luxury Experience (2017)

Good: Variety of charts, good use of icons

Not Good: Short presentation, light on content, not a client deliverable

How Companies can Capture the Veteran Opportunity

Good: Examples of text-heavy slides, good action titles

Not Good: Minimal charts, unrealistic structure, repetitive slides

Insurance Trends and Growth Opportunities for Poland

Good: Well organized presentation, clear takeaways

Not Good: Old formatting, short presentation

Laying the Foundations for a Financially Sound Industry

Good: Multiple chart examples (waterfall, line, dot, column)

Not Good: Short presentation, “conference-style” presentation

From Poverty to Empowerment (2014)

Good: Good variety of data visualizations

Not Good: Unattractive formatting and style

Consumer privacy in retail

Good: Clear titles, good use of icons and color to show insights

Not Good: Short, not a client presentation

TMT Outlook 2017: A new wave of advances offer opportunities and challenges

Good: Survey insights highlighted well, good use of color, clear charts and visuals

Not Good: Not a client presentation, heavy focus on survey data

Deloitte SEA CFO Forum Southeast Asia Business Outlook

Good: Line chart examples

Not Good: Poor titles, strange use of black

Deloitte Kenya Budget 2022/23 Webinar

Good: Consistent design, good colors

Not Good: Simple titles, meant for live presentation

The Shopping Centre Handbook 4.0

Good: Some insights

Not Good: Too many graphics, strange design

2011 China Luxury Market Study

Good: Clear titles, good use of color to highlight insights

Not Good: Short presentation, marketing presentation

Bain & UC Berkley Operational Excellence (2010)

Good: Realistic presentation, lots of slides

Not Good: Outdated content, ugly design

Fintech New York: Partnerships, Platforms and Open Innovation

Good: Simple and clear slide design, good structure, insightful charts

Not Good: Short presentation, only a few “consulting style” slides

Shaping the Sustainable Organization

Good: Well structured slides, clear takeaways

Not Good: Rounded chart bars

The Decade to Deliver: A Call to Business Action

Good: Variety of charts, good design

Not Good: Not a client presentation

Fueling the Energy Future

Good: Illustrative charts and matrices

Not Good: Curved line charts

Cracking the Code on Consumer Fraud

Good: Mix of charts and numbers

Right Cloud Mindset: Survey Results Hospitality

Good: Nice slide titles and charts

Not Good: Text heavy sections

Unleashing Competitiveness on the Cloud Continuum

Good: Focus on takeaways, clear charts

Not Good: Ugly backgrounds, overuse of pictures

Whole Brain Leadership: New Rules of Engagement for the C-Suite

Good: Formatting, use of numbers

Not Good: Unnecessary graphics

Federal Technology Vision 2021: Full U.S. Federal Survey Findings

Good: Clear survey results, nice bar charts

Accenture Consumer Behavior Research: The value shake-up

Good: Color design, focus on insights

Not Good: Marketing focused

Tech Adoption and Strategy for Innovation & Growth

Good: Color contrast, text structure

Not Good: 3D charts

Intelligent Operations for Future-Ready Businesses

Good: Sankey chart, tables, presentation structure

When, Where & How AI Will Boost Federal Workforce Productivity

How fit is your allocation strategy?

Good: Some good charts, good use of color

Not Good: Light on content, short presentation, inconsistent slide structure

European Banking Barometer (2015)

Good: Nice titles and takeaways, good variety of charts

Not Good: Survey-focused presentation (i.e. not client deliverable)

EY Price Point: global oil and gas market outlook, Q2 | April 2022

Good: Insightful charts and tables

Not Good: Report style, text heavy

IBOR transition: Opportunities and challenges for the asset management industry

Good: Formatting

Not Good: Meant for live presentation

Global Capital Confidence Barometer 21st edition

Good: Formatting and structure, interesting charts

Power transactions and trends Q2 2019

Good: Insightful charts

Not Good: Meant as appendix or “leave behind”

MAPS2018 Keynote address on EY report: Life Sciences 4.0 – Securing value through data-driven platforms

Good: Realistic slides, clear titles, good formatting

EY Germany FinTech Landscape

Good: Formatting and structure, insightful charts

Not Good: Data heavy, appendix style slides

Project Management: Improving performance, reducing risk

Good: Variety of qualitative visuals, good use of icons, nice design

Not Good: B ad titles, light on content

World Economic Forum: The power of analytics for better and faster decisions by Dan DiFilippo

Good: Scatter plot examples

Apache Hadoop Summit 2016: The Future of Apache Hadoop an Enterprise Architecture View

Good: Qualtative visuals

Not Good: Short and marketing focused

Turning big data into big revenue

Good: Text heavy slide examples

Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers 2017

PwC’s new Golden Age Index – how well are countries harnessing the power of older workers?

Good: Mix of charts and tables, clean formatting

Not Good: Inconsistent titles

PwC’s Global Technology IPO Review — Q1 2015

Good: Combination and column charts

Not Good: Report style presentation

18th Annual Global CEO Survey – Technology industry key findings

Good: Visualized data

Not Good: Incomplete titles

The FDA and industry: A recipe for collaborating in the New Health Economy

Good: Simple and clear titles

Not Good: Inconsistent structure

Making zero-emission trucking a reality

Good: Very realistic slides, overall great presentation

Not Good: Text heavy transition slides

Driving the sustainability agenda on C-level

Not Good: Short, some cluttered slides

The Diversity Imperative: 14th Annual Australian Chief Executive Study

Good: Chart heavy, realistic slides

Not Good: Short presentation

Creating a Winning Recipe for a Meal Kits Program

Good: Clear titles, good charts

Not Good: Dense, too many pictures/logos

The 4th Annual New Mobility Study 2019

Good: Variety of charts, good amount of content

Not Good: Lots of filler slides, inconsistent titles

2019 APAC Hospital Priority Study Overview

Good: Very good (and realistic) design, clear slide takeaways

Not Good: Very short presentation

Rail industry cost and revenue sharing (2011)

Good: Good introduction and executive summary, realistic client presentation

Not Good: Outdated, boring design

2019 Media and Entertainment Study

Good: Clear charts, good titles

Not Good: Very short, too much text

Navigating a digital-first home furnishings market

Good: Infographic style slides

5 Opportunities in the Nutritional Supplements Industry

Good: Great charts, good deck structure

Not Good: Not a client presentation, text heavy

Infrastructure Victoria – AZ/ZEV International Scan

Good: Realistic client presentation, wide variety of slides

Not Good: Very long

The Rapidly Evolving Landscape of Meal Kits and E-commerce in Food & Beverage

Good: Variety of basic charts, realistic design

Top 8 Insights From the 2018 Beauty, Health & Wellness Survey

Good: Good column chart examples

Not Good: Report style

2018 Brand Owner Packaging Survey

Good: Good visuals, multiple charts

2016 Strategic Hospital Priorities Study

Good: Multiple charts, good qualitative visuals

The Merchandising Evolution (and why NDC Matters)

Good: Good storyline, clear charts

Not Good: Weak titles, outdated style

Infrastructure beyond COVID-19

Good: Wide variety of slide types, realistic presentation

China Exit or Co-Investment Opportunities for German PE Investors

Good: Multiple data heavy slides, good charts

Not Good: Slightly old

Strategy Study 2014

Good: Variety of charts

Not Good: Reads like an infographic, poor choice of color

Australia: Taking Bigger Steps

Good: Illustrative chart, use of icons

Not Good: D istracting backgrounds and colors

Lifting the Barriers to Retail Innovation in ASEAN

Good: Simple to follow

Not Good: Minimal analysis, questionable stacked column chart

The Future of Commercial Vehicle Powertrains (2012)

Good: Realistic slides, excellent takeaways, good overall structure

Not Good: Older presentation, simplistic design

Pursuing Customer Inspired Growth

Good:  Realistic client slides, multiple frameworks

Not Good: Short, outdated design

The Accelerating Growth of Frictionless Commerce

Good: Mix of charts, clear insights

Not Good: Distracting backgrounds, short presentation

Consolidation of the US Banking Industry

Good: A couple good titles

Not Good: Large text, minimal charts, distracting colors

Covid-19 and Effects on Turkey

Good: Consistent color, focus on insights

Not Good: Strange layout, marketing focused

Booz Allen Hamilton, Alvarez & Marsal and others

European Distressed Credit Watch List

Good: Simple charts

Not Good: Boring template, appendix heavy

Corporate Headquarters Study 2018

Good: Clear and simple slides, good variety of charts and visuals, not overly produced

Not Good: Not a typical client presentation, average slide titles

The Lithium-Ion (EV) battery market and supply chain

Good: Realistic titles and content-heavy slides

Not Good: Distracting background and colors

Good: Story flow, titles

Not Good: T itle page, overall design rs

Booz Allen Hamilton and Market Connections: C4ISR Survey Report

Good: Simple bar charts

Not Good: Titles, design

Joining Forces: Interagency Collaboration and “Smart Power”

Good: Slide consistency

Not Good: Chart design, outdated

Booz Allen at a glance

Good: Easy-to-read charts

Not Good: Meant for live presentation, minimal content

Responding to Covid-19 (2021)

Good: Excellent use of color, good overall design and visualizations

Not Good: “White Paper” style presentation (i.e. not client deliverable)

Covid-19 Special Primer (2020)

Good: Variety of data visualizations, nice color usage, clear takeaways

Building Up Immunity of the Financial Sector

Good: Clean design, interesting charts

Not Good: Some text heavy slides

Customer Experience: The 14BN Risk Noted for Discussion

Good: Simple design, good overall structure

Not Good: Inconsistent colors

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Database of 34+ Downloadable McKinsey Presentations

Table of contents.

It’s great to learn the techniques that strategy consulting firms like McKinsey & Co use to build compelling slide decks (e.g. executive summaries , the Pyramid Principle ,  action titles , etc.)

But sometimes you just want to see McKinsey presentations to see how those techniques are applied in the real world.

The problem is that it’s quite hard to find good-quality McKinsey presentations. Most of them are commercial in confidence and, even if they’re not, they’re scattered all over the web.

You can download the full set of McKinsey presentations (plus an additional 100+ presentations from BCG, Bain & Co, Kearney, Oliver Wyman, L.E.K, and more) using this form:

Download 120+ strategy consulting presentations for free

Looking for slide inspiration? Download 120+ consulting slide decks from top strategy consulting firms, such as McKinsey, BCG and Bain!

Or if you’d rather download the McKinsey presentations individually, you’ll find a list for you to download below:

Downloadable McKinsey Presentations & Slide Decks

• McKinsey – USPS Future Business Model (2010)
• McKinsey – Addressing the Global Affordable Housing Challenge (2016)
• McKinsey – The Internet of Things and Big Data (2013)
• McKinsey – Challenges in Mining: Scarcity or Opportunity? (2015)
• McKinsey – Digital Luxury Experience (2017)
• McKinsey – European Banking Summit (2018)
• McKinsey – Context for Global Growth and Development (2014)
• McKinsey – Outperformers: High Growth Emerging Economies (2018)
• McKinsey – Insurance Trends and Growth Opportunities for Poland (2015)
• McKinsey – Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: Workforce Transitions (2017)
• McKinsey – Current Perspectives on Medical Affairs in Japan (2018)
• McKinsey – Digitally-Enabled Processes in the NHS (2014)
• McKinsey – From Poverty to Empowerment (2014)
• McKinsey – What Makes Private Sector Partnerships Work (2011)
• McKinsey – Reinventing Construction (2017)
• McKinsey – Laying the Foundations for a Financially Sound Industry (2013)
• McKinsey – Technology’s Role in Mineral Criticality (2017)
• McKinsey – Capturing the Full Electrical Efficiency Potential of the UK (2012)
• McKinsey – How Companies can Capture the Veteran Opportunity (2012)
• McKinsey – Investment and Industrial Policy (2018)
• McKinsey – Moving Laggards to Early Adopters (2019)
• McKinsey – Helping Global Health Partnerships to increase their impact (2009)
• McKinsey – The changed agenda in the global sourcing industry (2009)
• McKinsey – Attracting Responsible Mining Investment in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings (2014)
• McKinsey – Using Artificial Intelligence to prevent healthcare errors from occurring (2017)
• McKinsey – Refueling the innovation engine in vaccines (2016)

If you’d like to download more consulting decks from BCG, Bain, L.E.K Consulting, Oliver Wyman, Kearney and more, then check out our free database of 71+ downloadable consulting presentations .

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The Advanced Guide to McKinsey-style Business Presentations

Introduction to business presentations, why we wrote this guide.

350 PowerPoint presentations are given per second. The vast majority of them suck.

They are too long, too dull, too full of useless detail, too generic. And these bad powerpoint presentations matter a lot.

They are how we represent ourselves and our work to the world, they are the culmination of our analysis and our thinking. They are our value-add.

And they are terrible.

FREE  eBook

Receive a pdf copy of this 10,000-word ' Advanced Guide to McKinsey-style Business Presentations' as part of our Accelerator Kit .

The disturbing challenge for many of us is that 'terrible' simply isn't good enough. Our careers depend on our business presentations not being terrible.

We wrote this guide in the hopes that, in our own way, we can have a disproportionate impact on your success - your success in presenting yourself, your ideas, and your value add. We hope you find this guide useful.

Our goal was to create the most comprehensive online guide to writing McKinsey-style business presentations on the web. At over 10,000 words, we think it is safe to say - job done!

Who is this guide for?

If you need to write a business report, update a team, complete a consulting assignment, or develop an investor pitch deck, and you are not sure where to start, this guide is for you.

If you need to write a senior executive presentation and are struggling to collect your thoughts, then this guide is for you.

If you are looking for tips, tools and resources to create your presentations faster and make them better, you are going to love this guide.

From PowerPoint newbie to strategy consulting veteran, you'll definitely learn something new that you can use to make your presentations sing.

How to use this Guide

Use The Advanced Guide to Writing McKinsey-Style Presentations in the way that works best for you. We have formatted and structured the Guide to take advantage of the web. You can use it for reference, inspiration, or as a how-to-guide. Be sure to bookmark the guide so that you can reference it in the future.

If you feel that you have a handle on writing business presentations - and just want to learn a new tip or two - then jump to the relevant section of the guide and dive in! We’re sure you'll find some new tricks and tips to add to your arsenal.

If you have a basic grasp of writing business presentations, but are looking to add a layer of depth to your knowledge - then you should read the guide in order.

Here is an overview of each of the chapters in this Advanced Guide to Writing McKinsey-Style Presentations.

Chapter 1: One of the Most Valuable Business Skills You Can Master

Presentation writing skills are under-rated. They have, in fact, a profound effect on your career success. 

In Chapter 1, we will layout the reasons why developing presentation skills can accelerate career advancement and explore why writing presentations is such a deceptively challenging task. 

We'll also introduce a framework for thinking about the skills one must master to become truly proficient at writing business presentations.

Chapter 2: The Many Schools of Business Presentation Design

There is a lot of conflicting advice out there. And a lot of fantastic presentation styles which one can emulate. In the end, as with much in life, the answer to 'which style should I copy?' or 'which advice should I follow?' is 'it depends'.

In this chapter we expand on the general 'horses for courses' answer. We'll introduce you to a number of alternate schools of presentation design and layout the precise circumstances under which each is powerful. We’ll explain how you select the presentation style and approach that matches your purpose.

This is your one stop shop for understanding the various presentation ‘schools-of-thought’ and for determining which high-level presentation approach you should adopt.

Chapter 3: The Consulting School of Presentation Design

The dirty little secret of presentation writing is that the vast majority of presentations that we write are not presented! At least not in a formal, auditorium kind of way.

This has profound implications on the style of presentation which you should adopt.

In this section we will explore the characteristics of the McKinsey (or consulting in general) style presentation and identify the things it does well and why this style is so useful.

Chapter 4: The Five Disciplines

There are five disciplines one must master to become great at writing killer business presentations. This is the heart of our process and of the SlideHeroes course:

•   The Power of Logical Structure
•   The Art of Storytelling
•   The Science of Fact-based Persuasion
•   The Harmony of Design
•   The Drama of Performance

Chapter 5: The Power of Logical Structure

Your job is to communicate an answer to a question. When the audience cannot follow your answer, when they cannot follow the logical steps that flow through your argument, they become frustrated.

Logical structure helps comprehension.

But sometimes it can be difficult.

In this chapter we will dive deep into several business writing techniques you can use to help structure your presentation.

•   How to group your ideas (the right number and nature; the right level of abstraction)
•   Inductive and deductive arguments
•   The special role your Introduction plays in establishing context and framing the question you will ultimately answer

Chapter 6: The Art of Storytelling

At their heart, all presentations are stories.

Our brains are wired to learn from and remember stories. Presentations that effectively make use of storytelling techniques are easier to understand and remember.

In this chapter we explore the hows and whys of storytelling within business presentations.

Chapter 7: The Science of Fact-based Persuasion

The focus of this chapter is on the need for facts and data, and how to present them.

To better understand how to present facts in the form of data we will start with Edward Tufte and a theory for the visual display of quantitative information.

We will also explore the differences between tables and graphs, and how to know when to use each.

The chapter will conclude with an overview of the standard graphs that are most commonly found in business presentations.

Chapter 8: The Harmony of Design

 How do I make my slides look good?

We get this question a lot. Usually the implicit assumption underlying that question is that it is a PowerPoint (or Keynote) question.

I don’t know how to use this stupid tool to make my slides look good.

In fact, creating good looking slides is, in the main, not a question of PowerPoint skills (it is a basic tool, pretty easy to learn). It is a design question, not an IT question.

And design is a little trickier.

The good news is that the basics of slide design are not difficult to master because, in general, less is more.

This chapter focuses on straight-forward design strategies you can employ to create amazing looking slides. We will also discuss tips and techniques that you can apply to improve the delivery of your presentation.

Chapter 9: The Drama of Performance

One of the things we emphasize strongly at SlideHeroes is the need to focus on the creation of the presentation material - the content, the structure, the story and the data.

But you better believe a presentation is a performance. Delivery matters, even if you are sitting down.

This chapter focuses on the kind of preparation and practice that is required to take a well written deck and deliver a great public speaking performance.

Chapter 10: The Process

At SlideHeroes we have a step-by-step process for applying each of these five disciplines, in the right order, so you can quickly go from a blank sheet of paper to ‘congratulations!’ on a job well done.

This chapter lays out that process for you.

Chapter 11: The Tools

We list a set of recommended tools that you can use to help create a great business presentation.

Chapter 12: Final Thoughts & Next Steps

In the final chapter of the Advanced Guide to Writing McKinsey-Style Presentations we provide some thoughts on where to go for more help and how the SlideHeroes course builds on the material contained in this Advanced Guide.

Who are we?

This post is the most popular on our site and, as a consequence, a lot of readers discover SlideHeroes for the first time via this Advanced Guide.

So who are we and what do we do?

SlideHeroes provides online, video-based business presentation training .

We help students become top-tier consultants, top performing sales people, superstar analysts and highly successful business professionals.

We help teams improve their corporate communication skills.

In our free course trial, we offer free video lessons that teach:

•   Our full Who, Why, What and How process for creating killer presentations
•   How to identify the key question your presentation must focus on answering
•   How to structure the introduction of your presentation to plant this question in the mind of your audience

FREE  Course Trial

Start improving your presentations skills immediately with our free trail of the Decks for Decision Makers course.

Chapter 1: One of the Most Valuable Business Skills you can Master

The ability to write clear and impactful PowerPoint-based McKinsey presentations is, for young and mid-level professionals, one of the most valuable skills you can master.

Here’s why:

•   PowerPoint (Keynote) is the de facto paradigm for internal corporate communication today
•   The ability to present ideas and results in an understandable and compelling way can be a key differentiator (frankly many people are simply not very good at it)
•   Strong communication skills make professionals more effective - being understood the first time, saves time

The problem many young professionals face is that unless they luck out early in their career and learn the craft of creating business presentations from someone pretty exceptional – they probably suck at it.

Becoming awesome is harder than most people realize

Becoming exceptional at crafting board-level presentations (presentations that kick ass) is tough. Much harder than most people realize.

Most of us initially dismiss the challenge as a PowerPoint formatting challenge - a time consuming technical challenge that should be delegated.

In fact, crafting successful presentations is a multi-disciplinary challenge that requires the mastery of a broad SET of distinct skills:

•   The ability to order ideas in a logical and structured way
•   The skill to utilize words succinctly, powerfully, accurately
•   Numeracy, and the ability to communicate data effectively
•   Taste - the appreciation for and ability to create aesthetically pleasing design
•   Charisma and executive presence

Only some of these 'presentation skills' are taught in schools or formally in organizations. Many from this list are either very challenging to master, or are seen (by many) as simply innate.

‘How to use PowerPoint’ courses do not teach these skills either.

And to master all of them? Well, that is the challenge.

Chapter 2: The Many Schools of Business Presentation Design

There are many, many different 'schools' of presentation style. Different approaches to crafting and delivering a business presentation.

Here are a few to give you a flavor:

The ‘Pecha Kucha’ School

Pecha Kucha is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (six minutes and 40 seconds in total). It is a format designed to keep presentations concise and fast-paced and is often adopted for multiple-speaker events (PechaKucha Nights). PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

Here is an example from the author Dan Pink of a Pecha Kucha presentation. Dan briefly explains the format and then goes on to give a Pecha Kucha about a favorite topic of his. It is a pretty good example. Unfortunately Dan messes up the pronunciation of Pecha Kucha (lots of people do). If you are curious as to how to pronounce Pecha Kucha, have a look at this video .

When to use Pecha Kucha

•   Oral ‘stand-up’ presentations only, good for conference presentations
•   When you only have 6 minutes and 40 seconds
•   When a focus on fast-pace, conciseness and entertainment are paramount

The ‘TED Talk’ School

TED Talks are, quite simply, some of the most fascinating talks you will ever hear. The power of the ideas, and the skill of many of the presenters in the delivery of these ideas, has popularized an 18 minute presentation format that emphasizes story and big ideas.

Listen to Andrew Stanton from Pixar talk about what makes a great story:

When to use the ‘TED Talk’ style

•   Oral ‘stand-up’ presentations only
•   When you want to tell a story
•   When the focus is on big ideas
•   When you are presenting at TED (of course!)

The Lessig School

Larry Lessig is a Harvard Law Professor, founding board member of the Creative Commons, and strong proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum.

He is also an amazing speaker. Lessig has, over the years, developed a very unique style that he has continued to refine. Have a look:

Interesting characteristics of Lessig’s unique style include:

•   Many, many slides; sometimes pausing for only a moment between each
•   Slides contain either a single, compelling image or simple text
•   Talks built around compelling stories or anecdotes
•   Variable speaking pace, with an almost preacher like cadence
•   Passion (righteousness even)
•   Strong narrative core (don’t be distracted by the novelty of the slides). These are very, very well written talks

When to use the ‘Lessig’ style

•   When story plays a major role in communicating your message
•   When the focus is on big ideas and themes
•   When your narrative is where the power is coming from

Guy Kawasaki School

Guy Kawasaki, former Chief Evangelist at Apple and a silicon valley venture capitalist, evangelizes the 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint presentations. The rule states that a presentation should have no more than 10 slides, take no longer than 20 minutes, a contain no font smaller than 30pt.

When to use the ‘Guy Kawasaki’ style

•   When you are pitching to Guy Kawasaki (or other VCs)
•   When your audience already has a good understanding of the content and likely structure of what you will say (as Kawasaki's VC-pitch examples illustrate in the video above)

Sit-down style presentations

There are many other styles. You may have noticed that these approaches to presentations have one thing in common; these Schools are all oriented towards the ‘stand-up in front of a crowd and give a speech’ type of presentation.

When we say presentation, we often mentally picture ourselves standing in front of a crowd. And this is a problem.

The majority of business ‘presentations’ are not made standing-up in front of a crowd. Instead, they are made sitting down, around a table, updating a project team, or presenting our thinking/ideas/suggestions to our boss.

The context of these types of ‘sit-down’ meetings has a profound effect on the style of the presentation we need to give.

These types of meetings and presentations:

•   Will be more detail oriented (performance to-date, operational reviews, financial reviews, project-plan updates, etc.)
•   Consist of small groups, in a more intimate setting
•   Are more likely to result in discussion, going off on tangents or drilling-deeper
•   Likely have the participants holding a hard-copy of the presentation in their hand, inches from their nose
•   Can cause similar levels of public speaking anxiety as speeches

Speeches, in this context, are, shall we say… inappropriate.

Yet the vast majority of the 'presentation training' literature is focused on teaching what we should do when we are standing up in front of our audience (to give a speech). Some of it focuses on the creation of the presentation, but for presentations in a forum type setting.

Learning to give a presentation is not the same as learning to create a presentation

Our focus here is on what to do when you are sitting down. Our focus is on the creation of content for the presentations we give everyday. The project update / status report / executive board business presentation.

These types of business presentations require a specific presentation approach that the consulting school of presentation design is tailor made for.

McKinsey & Co. are universally regarded as the gold standard in strategy consulting. McKinsey's multi-million dollar advice is delivered in a very specific way.

There are a number of factors that make the McKinsey presentation, or Consulting style of presentation, unique and powerful:

•   Clear, logical structure: The presentation takes you step by step through an argument
•   The logic is sound (bullet proof!), the argument is complete
•   Strict, consistent slide format - minimalist in design
•   Data intensive: Assertions are proven with facts; and facts are data-driven whenever possible
•   Quantitative data and other evidence is displayed and structured in simple and clean charts
•   The key messages are contained on the slides of the presentation
•   Can be read in advance, forwarded to others without losing meaning

This is not an exhaustive list of the characteristics of this style of presentation, but these are perhaps the most material. Hopefully you can see how they distinguish the consulting business presentation style from other approaches.

Zen-style presentations popularized by Garr Reynolds, for example, stand in stark contrast (reliance on imagery; focus on conference-style presentations).

Below is a BCG presentation, which is a good example of this type of presentation. We have annotated it with comments on how it could be even better, but, in general, it is a good example.

Fine, but does this approach work outside of consulting?

This approach to business presentation design applies across a range of different business situations:

•   Board meetings, senior executive meetings
•   Solution selling
•   Project updates / status meetings
•   Start-up investment pitches
•   Financial performance reviews etc. etc. etc.

If you are still in doubt as to when to use this style of business presentation, here are a few tests to apply:

•   Is it a business situation?
•   Do you need to communicate information in some depth?
•   Is it a ‘sit-down’ type setting (almost intimate)?

Have a look at the following presentation for an example of why the first test above is important ;-)

To create great presentations requires skills across a wide range of areas.

There are 5 disciplines one must master to effectively write and present impactful business presentations:

•   The Power of Logical Structure

The rest of this Advanced Guide to McKinsey-Style Presentations will dive deep into each of these disciplines.

Structure is a beautiful thing.

It brings order, clarity. It enables understanding. We know it when we see it (even if it is just subconsciously) because comprehension immediately becomes easier. Our mind is automatically sorting information into distinctive groups and establishing hierarchies of relationships between these groups (semantic network model) all the time.

Effective structure is the first commandment of presentation creation.

But what is logical structure? How do you create a presentation that has logical structure?

There are half a dozen or so tricks, which when employed obsessively, can allow you to quickly cut through most of the pitfalls (and fairly unhelpful theory of logic) to produce a structure that works.

Group your ideas together to form an argument

Your mind is automatically imposing order on everything around you, all the time. You are grouping, classifying and imposing relationships on all the information your brain processes.

The goal in crafting a presentation is to facilitate the mental processing that is going on in the mind of your audience. To make this processing as easy as possible.

We can do this in two ways:

1. Rule of 7 Updated: Limit the Number of Your Groups to 4

George Miller, a Harvard psychologist, published a famous study in 1957 entitled ' The Magic Number Seven, Plus Or Minus Two '. This led to a well know rule of thumb that stated people only had the capacity to process 7 chunks of information at a time. Further research has enabled us to refine our understanding of how this rule changes depending on our definition of 'chunks' of information. More recent conclusions state that people can really only process 4-5 concepts - and only one at a time.

As a consequence, we should seek to structure our ideas into groups of 4-5 or less.

Put simply - there is no such thing as 7 or 9 of anything. If you have a list of 9 things, then you need to go up a level of abstraction and group them into 3-4 buckets.

It is easy to take this insight too far. There is no magical number of bullets per slide. Edward Tufte has some interesting things to say about this here . At its core, this is about a relatively self evident truth: Your audience will struggle to process information. Help them out by being aware of the number of discrete ideas you are sharing at any one time.

2. MECE: Ensure your Groups are Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive

MECE stands for mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive. It is terminology that today is synonymous with McKinsey and other top-tier consultancies.

The term refers to the idea of structuring lists of ideas in ways where the list is:

•   Collectively Exhaustive (collectively, the ideas in the list cover all possible components of the idea)
•   Mutually Exclusive (individually, each idea in the list is distinct from each of the other ideas, there is no overlap between ideas)

The easiest way to get your head around these ideas is with an example.

The following list of the 7 dwarves is not collectively exhaustive:

We are missing Doc!

The following list of options for where to go for dinner is not mutually exclusive:

•   Restaurants East of our current location
•   Italian restaurants
•   Restaurants with music
•   Restaurants South of our current location

There is overlap within this list. There could be Italian restaurants east of us. Some restaurants south of us could have music.

This 'test' (is this list MECE?) is extremely powerful technique in ensuring logical structure and improving the clarity of your presentation.

You will be surprised at how many groups of ideas you will create which will fail this test - and result in you thinking about additional, great points and ideas that make you argument even more powerful.

Inductive vs deductive arguments

Deductive reasoning.

Deductive reasoning starts out with a general statement, or hypothesis, and examines the possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion.

The scientific method uses deduction to test hypotheses and theories. The deductive argument presents ideas in successive steps. An example of this type of argument is:

•   John is ill
•   If John is ill, he will be unable to attend work
•   Therefore, John will be unable to attend work

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning (know also as induction or 'bottom-up' logic), is a kind of reasoning that constructs general arguments that are derived from specific examples. Inductive arguments can take very wide ranging forms. Inductive arguments might conclude with a claim that is only based on a sample of information.

Here is an example of an inductive argument.

•   Two independent witnesses claimed John committed the murder.
•   John’s fingerprints are the only ones on the murder weapon.
•   John confessed to the crime.
•   So, John committed the murder.

Generally, our advice is to construct inductive-based arguments. They are easier for an audience to absorb because they require less effort to understand.

The challenge is that our instinct when writing a presentation is to present our thinking in the order we did the work, which is usually a deductive process.

DON"T DO THIS. No one cares what you did. How hard you worked. They want an answer to a question, not a tour of what you were up to for the last month!

Pay special attention to the Introduction

The start of a presentation requires special attention from a structural point of view.

It contains many traps which can lead unsuspecting authors astray. The purpose of the presentation is to address a question in the mind of the audience. The objective of the introduction is to establish the groundwork to plant this question, so that the rest of our presentation can focus on answering it.

The best approach for achieving this is Barbara Minto's SCQA framework. Buy Barbara's exceptional book The Pyramid Principle .

Context (or starting point): Where are we now?

Financial performance last year was fantastic, but growth has stalled in the first quarter…

Begin at the beginning. The Situation/Context or Starting Point is the background or baseline that anchors the rest of the story that will subsequently unfold. It is comprised of facts that the audience would be aware of and agree with in advance of reading the presentation. This helps to ground the presentation and establish a common starting point.

Typical situations are “we took an action”, "performance was good", "we have a problem".

Soon the audience will be asking themselves “I know this – why are you telling me?”. This is where the complication comes in.

Catalyst (or Complication): Something has changed...

A strategy for returning to growth has been proposed...

What happened next? The Complication creates tension in the story you’re telling. The key objective of the complication is to trigger the Question that your audience will ask in their mind.

Typical complications: “something is stopping us performing the task”, “we know the solution to the problem”, “a solution to the problem has been suggested” and “the action we took did not work”.

Question: The Question in the Mind of the Audience

Is this the right strategy?

The Question arises logically from the Complication and leads into the Answer. It is not explicitly stated in the introduction, it is implicit.

Typical questions: “what should we do?”, “how do we implement the solution?”, “is it the right solution?” and “why didn’t the action work?”

Answer (or Solution): Your answer to the Question

Yes, it will drive growth because…

The Answer to the Question is the substance of presentation and your main point. It is your recommendation. Summarize it first – completing your introduction – then break it down into details and write the main body of your presentations. This is where we develop our inductive argument, deploying groups of MECE ideas on the way to proving our point.

Call to Action (or Next Steps): What you want the Audience to do

We need to do this next

The call to action is the list of next steps that you want your audience to do.

You need next steps.

In fact, the next steps are the objective of your entire presentation. You want to identify these next steps early in the process of developing your presentation so that you can be sure to design a presentation that drives your audience to the action you desire.

Don’t leave the thinking around what the next steps are until the end.

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact. Robert McKee, Author and Screenwriter

Storytelling is a timeless human tradition. Before the written word, people would memorize stories that shaped cultures for generations. We are wired for communicating through and learning from stories.

All presentations are, at their heart, a story.

Via storytelling techniques we can elevate our presentations to something that moves people. Sometimes, it is obvious that this is our goal. We are presenting at TED. We are making a speech to our employees about our new strategy. We are delivering our first State of the Union address...

Often, it is not.

Our topic may feel mundane - lacking the grand themes that great stories seem to require. When this happens, often our mistake is in framing the objective of our presentation as an exercise in conveying information - to update.

Rather, the objective of our presentations should be to persuade. To, in-fact, establish in the minds of the audience an important question, and persuade that audience of the validity of our answer.

When we need to update - we need to identify the question the audience should have in their minds as a consequence of the update. In many case it will be ‘what do I need to do next’.

As a rule of thumb:

If you don't have something to say, why are you presenting? If you are presenting, know what you have to say.

Why stories are effective.

There are a couple of reasons why stories can be more effective than fact-based arguments at persuading audiences.

1. While some opinions people hold are rational and thought-out, many others are emotional

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Your favorite sports team?

You cannot change an emotionally charged opinion with a rational argument, but you can get your audience to empathize with a hero in a story and thereby affect the emotions they have connected to that subject.

Presenting a rational argument immediately activates the audience's critical mind, inviting him or her to analyze and counter-argue. By immersing your audience in a story, you bypass that resistance.

2. Stories are memorable and, as a consequence, are easier to repeat

As we have discussed, our brains think in terms of stories. We find it easier and more efficient to process stories. In fact, we have a pronounced bias towards stories.

As a consequence your audience is much more likely to remember the stories you tell them (and the messages those stories contain) and more likely to repeat them to others.

What makes a great story?

As a primer, have a listen to Academy award nominated documentary film maker Ken Burns (The Civil War, Jazz) talk about story (especially the fist half). In the video Burns explores what makes a great story. The '3' Burns references is what we are seeking to capture in any great presentation.

Nancy Duarte does a fantastic job of exploring how story is critical to the creation of a great presentation.

In this video, Nancy makes the point that stories and reports occupy opposite ends of a spectrum.

She makes the case that in order to convey the meaning behind your report, you need to introduce elements of story, in order to engage with your audience on a more human level. The appropriate balance you need to strike between story and reporting will be entirely driven by the context of your own presentation.

We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts. John Dewey, Pragmatist philosopher (1859 - -1952)

The Bare Assertion

CEO: So you are saying that I need to invest $100 million now or we will go out of business?

Presenter: Yes.

CEO: And why is that again?

Presenter: Because I said so…?

To convince and persuade in today’s corporate world business people must construct evidence-based arguments. They must demonstrate, not simply assert.

Edward Tufte makes a great case for what he calls informational depth.

Executives are not dumb. When you are presenting to them they need informational depth. When people are presenting to you, you need to figure out what their story is, but also need to decide whether you can believe them. Are they competent? … Detail helps credibility. Edward Tufte, Author, statistician & professor

This, unfortunately, requires significant effort, work, and thinking to pull-off.

The effort required to do this is also a key reason why so many poor presentations lack a fact-based approach to persuasion. There are no short cuts. This is where real effort pays off with discriminating audiences.

Often discriminating audiences (senior executives, investors, advisers, challenging customers) will see their role being a ‘stress-tester’. They will test your assertions. Challenge your data. Poke, probe and dissect your analysis.

Your audience does this because they suspect what you are saying is important. And if they act on what you are saying, and it turns out you were wrong… well this would reflect negatively on them. So, in a way, receiving the third-degree in a presentation can be a good sign.

If you pass the test.

It is for situations like this that you need data, facts and proof. You will be eaten alive if you simply assert.

But your data, facts and proof should be in support of your structure, your story. The goal is not to squeeze in all the analysis you have done. Inevitably much of your analysis will not be required to make your central argument. Be equally ruthless in sorting and prioritizing what analysis is required to make your point.

Tables and Graphs

They are fundamentally different.

When you have data that you would like to present, resist the urge to throw it into the sexiest 3D pie chart you can create.

Instead, think first about how you intend to use the data and what point you are trying to make with the data.

Graphs and tables excel at different things and depending on your purpose, one will be a better choice than another.

The primary benefit of a table is that it makes it easy to look up individual values. There are four uses of data for which a table is a good option:

•   Look-up individual values
•   Compare individual values (but not entire series of values)
•   Present precise values, and
•   Present both summary and detail values

Business Charts, on the other hand, present the overall shape of the data. Graphs are used to display relationships among and between sets of quantitative values by giving them shape.

Use charts and graphs when:

•   The message or story is contained in the shape of the data
•   The display will be used to reveal relationships among whole sets of values

Common Graphs

Quantitative values can be represented in graphs using the following:

• Shapes with varying 2D areas
• Shapes with varying color intensity

When determining what type of graph to select, it is absolutely critical that you first consider what you are trying to say with the data.

When you are in the diagnostic phase of your work, you may not know what the data has to say, so you will try a few different approaches. But once it comes time to creating your presentation, the data on the page exists to support the message you have in your headline. You will have a very specific message you will want the data to convey. You will have a specific relationship that you will want to represent.

And here are what graphs are best to illustrate each type of data relationship:

Design is thinking made visual. Saul Bass, Graphic Designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker

Some people don't see the same way you do

Some people's visual processing thought routines are more word oriented, others are more visually oriented.

Visual thinking is the phenomenon of thinking through visual processing - it has been described as seeing words as a series of pictures.

Research by child development theorist Linda Kreger Silverman suggests that about 30% of the population strongly uses visual/spatial thinking, another 45% uses both visual/spatial thinking and thinking in the form of words, and 25% thinks exclusively in words.

This research has a profound impact on how we need to think about communicating our ideas. It is the principle reason (although most people don't really recognize it) why there has been a shift from the vertical memorandum (written in word, exclusively text), to the horizontal PowerPoint presentation (written in PowerPoint, containing text and visuals) - modern presentations are easier to understand!

It demands of us as presentation creators to continually think about how our ideas and concepts can be represented both verbally, but also visually.

Design is important, but can be challenging

Design, for many, is a challenge. Many attempt to solve this problem by hiring an agency to design a PowerPoint template for them. Or outsourcing the entire presentation design.

We recommend a different approach, one rooted in investing a bit of effort and in applying a good understanding of the type of design that works best for presentations.

Invest the time to make the presentation look decent

Many people believe (or use an excuse) that 'it's the content that counts'.

Spend the effort to make the presentation look good (it isn’t that hard).

Sign-up for our free trial and download our free template to get you started:

Practice a simplicity design ethos - not simple thinking

The very basics of slide design are not difficult to master because, in general, less is always more.

The very best presentation design eliminates the excess. It is a minimalist strategy to focus on only what matters, and to avoid distracting the reader away from the central point.

This minimalist design approach is not an aesthetic preference. It is a design strategy to support our presentation goal - the communication of our message. The design of our presentation, of each slide, should be solely focused on supporting that goal.

Focus on what your point is, and the key evidence required to prove that point - design around this.

You do not need to be a graphics designer to create very effectively designed presentation slides.

Here are some basic design rules of thumb to get you started:

Rules of Thumb (applied aggressively, obsessively)

1. adopt a message-driven slide layout.

•   Have a single, primary idea per slide
•   Put this main idea in your headline that spans the top of the page
•   Make your headline no more than two lines long
•   Put content in the main body of the slide that contains the proof of the main assertion / idea that is in the headline

2. Align all elements on each page neatly

•   Make sure the position of the headline on each slide is in the exact same spot on every slide
•   When you flip through your slides (like with those old picture books that created moving images when you flipped through them) the position of the headline should not move, the font size should not change
•   This also goes for other common design elements on each slide (logo, copyright notice, page number etc.)

3. In many instances, a picture is worth significantly more that 1,000 words

•   Use powerful, relevant images
•   Do NOT use stock photography
•   Do NOT use clip art
•   Use images judiciously, don’t go over board

4. Colors should be muted; Brighter colors used for emphasis

•   Don't use bright colors like red, orange or yellow, except to highlight an important point
•   Use a tool like Adobe Kuler to design an attractive color scheme that won't give your audience a headache

5. Use whitespace, use contrast

•   Be careful to use enough spacing – whitespace between lines and paragraphs is good
•   Whitespace improves legibility, increases comprehension, increases emphasis, and creates the right one
•   Use contrast to emphasize difference
•   Ways to create contrast include using contrasting colors, sizes, shapes, locations, or relationships

6. Don't use crazy animations, 3D, or random special effects

•   Just don't. Emulate modern 'flat' design style (think Metro interface, google design refresh etc.)
•   The wow of your presentation comes from the power of your ideas. Spiral animation entrances are not going to help

7. Don't use pie charts

•   This is a pet peeve of mine, but pie charts are visually difficult to interpret - other chart types (bar charts) are significantly more effective
•   Serious presenters know this and don't use them - when you do it makes you look like an amateur

8. Use typography

•   Custom fonts give your presentation a nice distinctive look that allows it to stand out in a sea of Arial
•   Many great custom fonts are now available for free - check out Google Fonts, they can be downloaded and used on your desktop within PowerPoint

The passions are the only orators that always persuade. Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Author, moralist (1613 - 1680)

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1874 - 1965)

The presentation has been written. The work has been put in. It is time to start thinking about the act of delivering the presentation.

Our view is that ‘winging it’ tends to not be a good strategy.

Preparation

Preparation, once the deck has been written, means practice.

We suggest the following approach:

1. Develop a script

Write down a formal voice-over script of what you will say. Write this down in advance.

Adopt simplified language. You want to be interpreting the content on the slide, not reading it!

2. Memorize the script

Rehearse until you have memorized your script. We know this is boring. Try speaking the script out loud. In our experience it is very difficult to memorize a script simply reading it to yourself.

3. Finally, abandon the script

Once you have spent enough time memorizing the script you will start to feel comfortable deviating and embellishing.

Use your script as a road-map during delivery, rather than a crutch. It is your safety net.

This robust approach takes time and, to be honest, may only be appropriate for the most important of meetings. But it works.

Deliver with Conviction, Passion and Drama

You must believe in your material for others to believe in you.

A fact-based approach to persuasion, and logical structure are techniques that, when applied, position you to have a very high degree of confidence in your material.

The standards are high (and sometimes unforgiving). By meeting them in advance, you can enter the room with a high level of confidence in your material.

Enthusiasm is contagious.

Show your passion for the material. If the topic is as dull as dishwater, show passion for the elegance of your thinking and the power of your recommendations. This is killer.

A little drama (mixed in with some storytelling) can really elevate a presentation.

This drama can be inherent in the complication/catalyst. It is also embedded in the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). Play this up and occasionally reference the implications of what you are saying to this.

Chapter 10: The Process to Write a Killer Presentation

What follows are a set of presentation tips in the form of a step-by-step list of what you need to do to create a killer presentation. The SlideHeroes course includes an interactive checklist that allows you to keep track of each step as you progress.

Before you start, determine where in the thinking process you are.

Ask yourself the following key questions:

•   Have you finished your analysis, and are now embarking on the final phase of summarizing your findings? 
•   Or are you still trying to figure out the question you should be answering?

Often people will turn to PowerPoint long before they have completed their thinking – try to resist this urge, use paper instead.

Once you are finally ready to write your presentation - stop.

Consider crafting your elevator pitch instead.

Imagine: your meeting has been cancelled, but you manage to catch your audience in the elevator on the way out of the building. You have 1 minute – what do you want to say?

Often we are better at ‘getting to the point’ orally. As soon as we start thinking in terms of a presentation, we can sometimes lose the plot. This exercise will help you capture the main thrust of what your presentation is meant to convey early on in the process.

Apply our 'Who, Why, What, How' process

Begin the process of writing a business presentation by reviewing our 4-step process. This process is your roadmap of what you need to do. Briefly review what you need to do at each step:

•   Identify WHO your audience is
•   Determine WHY you are speaking with them
•   Determine WHAT your answer is to your audience's question
•   Decide HOW to best communicate that answer

Once you have taken stock, determined where you are in your thought process, and are ready to proceed.

The first major step is to identify WHO our audience is.

This sounds easy. But there are critical nuances that you need to be aware of which we will explore.

A. Identify Who your Audience is

Determine who the hero of your presentation is (hint it is not you - it is your audience).

A nuance to be aware of is that sometimes the true target of your presentation may not be obvious. You may be speaking to a group you don’t know well and, as a consequence, may not have a full understanding of the political dynamics at play. Who are the true decision makers? Who can truly help you progress to the next step?

During this step you need to take the time to identify who within your audience you are truly speaking to – who matters.

B. Profile your Audience

Once you have identified your Audience, spend some time profiling them.

Ask yourself the following questions about your audience:

•   How much will the audience know about the situation/topic before we start the presentation?
•   How do they prefer to consume information?
•   Visual bias? Numerical bias?
•   Pre-read in advance?
•   What is the best timing of messages?

The second major step in our process is determining WHY you are presenting and your goal for the meeting.

A. Determine the Context of the Presentation

The next three tasks in our process are focused on building our Introduction and isolating the question we are answering for our Audience.

The reason we are creating a presentation, is always to answer a question that is in the mind of our audience.

The context is the background to the presentation. It contains information the audience already knows.

B. Identify the Catalyst of the Presentation or meeting

The Catalyst is the complication in the story that has resulted in the problem we are here to answer.

What happened, changed or was realized that is causing us to meet today? What led us to do the analysis or work to answer your question?

C. Determine the Question

Determine the question you are there to answer.

Most questions will fall into one of these 4 types:

• I have a problem: Why did it happen? or,
• I have a problem: What should we do?
• I have a problem, someone has suggested a solution: Should we adopt that solution?
• I have a problem, someone has suggested a solution: How should we implement this solution?

D. Determine the Objective / Next Step for the Meeting

You need next steps. You need a call to action. The objective of your presentation should be for your audience to DO SOMETHING as a result of you presenting your material.

What do you want your audience to do?

What do you need your audience to understand to achieve the meeting’s goal?

The third major step is to determine and write WHAT your answer is to your audience’s question.

The Power of Logical Structure

A. gather existing work; develop new thinking.

Do the work.

This is where your own domain expertise comes in. Suffice it to say, you need to do the work, the analysis, the thinking to answer the question.

•   Gather existing content (improve on it)
•   Conduct new analysis

Create ideas first, slides second.

B. summarize and organize your ideas.

•   Organise your argument into logical groups
•   Bucket arguments into MECE groups
•   Use visual thinking tools to capture and organize your ideas

The Art of Storytelling

A. storyboard the presentation.

Storyboarding is a technique for writing that was first developed by Walt Disney for use in the creation of animated movies.

Have a listen to Pixar describe how they use storyboarding in film:

Storyboarding is a fantastic technique for developing presentations because it allows you to work on text, visuals and structure simultaneously.

The Harmony of Design

B. develop a slide template, c. develop content for each slide.

•   Write out each heading for each slide
•   Write out each sub-heading for each supporting piece of evidence/chart
•   Design charts and supporting visuals
•   Open PowerPoint!
•   Populate slides with supporting evidence

The Science of Fact-based Persuasion

D. develop graphs and tables for your data.

•   Determine what tables or chart types are best for the data you wish to show
•   Create the tables or charts
•   Reduce and eliminate chart-junk
•   Design tables and graphs to emphasize the key data elements that support your story

The Drama of Performance

A. practice.

Practice makes perfect. So practice.

•   Do an initial run through of the presentation. Speak the presentation out loud and improvise
•   Write this version down as a formal script
•   Run through the presentation two or three more times working on length, simplifying language
•   If the length needs editing, revise the presentation, eliminating or combining slide ideas
•   Present to someone else to solicit feedback and simulate a ‘live’ presentation
•   Run through the script a few more times and then park it
•   Get a good night’s sleep; review the script once or twice just before the presentation
•   Conduct a pre-presentation flight-check to ensure you have everything you need
•   Deliver with conviction, passion and drama
•   Focus on just a few things to ensure a great delivery:
• Manage your stress - quite your mind, breathe, relax
• Adopting the right ‘tone’ and approach
• Being yourself. Relax!
• Communicating both verbally and physically (kinetically)
• Answer your Audience’s questions

Below are the set of presentation tools we recommend to create fantastic business presentations.

Presentation Creation

I know everyone rags on PowerPoint. It just isn’t PowerPoints fault.

It is still the best we have got.

Pretty cool 'zoom' transition effects. Kind of hard to use, places huge emphasis on design skills.

Chart Design

We can do so much better than PowerPoint and Excel…

Plotly charts look great. The interface is easy to use and there is a good variety of chart types to select from.

RAW (open source)

Similar to Plotly, RAW produces great looking charts. There is a wide selection of chart types (you can also create your own). Powerful.

Image Design

Web apps that help create fantastic graphics, easily.

Image design tool. Very, very easy and quick. Pretty Awesome.

Poor man's Photoshop. Particularly good at retouching photos.

Productivity

PowerPoint plugins that can turbo charge your productivity

Plugin that enables you to quickly create complex Waterfalls, Marimekkos, Gantts and Agendas within PowerPoint. A favorite.

PowerPoint Add-In to improve visual quality and help with proofing.

Presentation Distribution

The YouTube for presentations.

If you have made it this far, well done! ;-)

If you are still hungry for more here are some great books, blogs and courses(!) that may pique your interest.

I recommend the following great books:

•    The Pyramid Principle , Barbara Minto
•    Slideology , Nancy Duarte
•   The Visual Display of Quantitative Information , Edward Tufte
•   Show Me the Numbers , Stephen Few

The following blogs are among my favorites:

•   Storytelling with Data , Cole Nussbaumer
•   Presentation Zen , Garr Reynolds
•   SlideMagic , Jan Schultink

Our course (Decks for Decision Makers)

The Decks for Decision Makers course takes the concepts covered in this Advanced Guide to Writing McKinsey-Style Presentations and drills deeper into each. In the course, video lessons and PowerPoint slide examples allow you to fully explore all of the many concepts discussed in this Guide.

Try our Free Trial to get a flavor of the course.

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Business strategy template.

• Created by ex-McKinsey & BCG consultants
• 277 PowerPoint slides & 1 Excel model
• 4 full-length, real Fortune500 strategy examples

Trusted by thousands of teams

• Business Strategy

What you get in this template

• A comprehensive, end-to-end strategy presentation based on proven frameworks created by ex-McKinsey and BCG consultants
• 277 PowerPoint slides organized in a complete storyline with best-practice slide-layouts, titles, and graphics
• 4 real-life full-length examples from Fortune500 companies so you can see how a strategy is presented in other organizations
• Helpful checklist used in top-tier consulting firms
• Excel model to support your strategy document

Our Business Strategy Template is based on a proven framework

The template is centered around the best-practice business strategy ‘house’ as used by McKinsey and BCG

Our template takes you through all layers of a business strategy and helps you create a best-in-class presentation:

• Purpose: what is our reason-for-being?
• Vision: where do want to be in 2-3-5-10 years?

Strategic choices

• Where do we want to play? What are our must-win battles?
• Set of choices on what to do and not do that guide day-to-day decision making

Strategic initiatives

• How can we win these battles?
• Specific initiatives and actions that are designed to achieve vision and goals within strategic choices
• Linked to tangible, specific, measurable goals and KPIs
• What do we need to have in place to move forward on our strategic initiatives?
• Supportive actions or capabilities that are prerequisites for accomplishing initiatives
• What is the foundation allowing us to achieve everything else?
• How do we nurture and grow this foundation?

This template includes 277 slides based on proven frameworks, complete storyline with best-practice slide-layouts

“These templates have been a life saver for me and my team! We used to waste so much time trying to build slides based on old decks or PDFs. This is so much easier and looks much more professional.”

What can you use the Business Strategy template for?

The Business Strategy Template includes a fully structured storyline complete with ready-to-use slides, as well as frameworks, tools, tutorials, real-life examples, and best practices to help you:

• Create and present a complete, cohesive, well-structured business strategy
• Analyze your current position and starting point to build your future strategy on incl. current market dynamics, customer segments, customer behavior, internal performance and more
• Formulate your organization’s purpose and vision in clear, concise formats
• Formulate your organization’s strategic choices and priorities that will guide everything from strategic initiatives to day-to-day decision making
• Construct tangible, measurable, specific goals for your organization at all levels from overarching vision to individual business units, teams, and time frames
• Design specific strategic initiatives linked to measurable goals that align with your organization’s strategic choices
• Understand core enablers and foundational elements in your organization and analyze your status quo and what must be done to support and grow these to achieve your strategic goals

Fully customizable

Easy to recolor, tweak, and edit.

Our PowerPoint and Excel templates are 100% customizable, meaning you can change everything from colors to fonts to layouts to footnotes. Match templates to your company format and color schemes with just a few easy clicks and give it your own personal style.

Created by top-tier consultants

We’re a team of ex-consultants from McKinsey and BCG. Between us we have created thousands of presentations for every purpose and organizational level. Here we have distilled this experience into these templates for you so you can create similar best-practice, tried-and-tested presentations with none of the hassle.

Trusted by 4,500+ customers worldwide

How to write a strategy document?

…and how the Business Strategy Template can support your process

What is a strategy document

To create an effective strategy document, it helps to first answer the question “What is a strategy document ?”. In the world of management consulting, a strategy document typically refers to the slide deck delivered at the end of a strategy project that summarizes in clear, coherent terms what a company’s goals are and how they plan to achieve them. There are many frameworks and structures that can be used to facilitate this document, including the familiar where to play - how to win framing or the classic setup of

• Mission & Vision
• Targets (markets, customers, geography)
• Value Proposition (products, services, pricing)
• Go-to-Market (sales, marketing, distribution)
• Organization (people, processes, technology, partners).

How the Business Strategy Template can support your process

The end goal of the strategy process is to formulate a comprehensive business model strategy that lays out the goal, direction, and plan in a clear, structured, and to-the-point document that can be used and shared throughout the organization.

As mentioned, there are many ways to structure a document like this and your organization may already have a slide template to use as a starting point. If you do not, you can use our Business Strategy presentation template to jumpstart your process of crafting your strategy and to ensure your final presentation follows best-practice storylines and includes all the core elements of an effective strategy document. The Business Strategy Template is composed of both ready-to-use slides for you to populate and customize as you need, and perhaps more importantly several real-world Fortune 500 examples of full strategy documents so you can see how these look at other companies.

Implementing the strategy

Effective execution distinguishes a good strategy from a great one. Translating strategy into purposeful action requires consistent messaging and meticulous planning. As the strategy solidifies, ensuring the right people, decision-making processes, accountability structures, and execution pace are in place is essential.

In essence, creating an impactful strategy involves collaborative workshops, analysis, research, and a commitment to implementation. The journey from questioning to execution defines a company's growth trajectory and success.

The five fundamental questions for strategy development

Regardless of the framework that is chosen, the creation of a strategy document always requires you to answer five fundamental questions:

• What is our current business context in terms of our own business performance, industry, competitive landscape, and macro environment, and how do we expect it to impact us in the future?
• Where do we have a competitive advantage (customer segments, markets, geographies) and how can we continue to build that competitive advantage in terms of value delivered, differentiation of value proposition, and efficiency and effectiveness of our go-to-market strategy?
• What are our major strategic pillars and necessary choices to create and sustain those competitive advantages? What does success look like?
• What are the associated strategic initiatives we need to put in place to implement those choices and achieve those goals, and what underlying enablers or structures do we need in the organization to support those initiatives?
• How does this all come together in a cohesive plan so we ensure we have the right resources and governance in place to effectively drive strategic change?

For most businesses, strategy revolves around focus—aligning their business model with customer value, competitive differentiation, and ROI improvement. Crafting a strategy frequently involves deciding what not to do, freeing up resources for impactful endeavors. Strengths and weaknesses within the business model also quickly become apparent. By focusing on target customer segments and aligning various elements, companies can tap into their growth potential. See our blog post “ 5 Key Elements of a Successful Strategy ” for more practical tips.

Steal the templates and frameworks used by top management consultants. Decrease the time you spend structuring a storyline or creating new visuals.

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Review of 39pg McKinsey Presentation

by Consultant's Mind | 9 comments

McKinsey & Company do great work.

On this blog, I have written about their leader , culture , high-visibility assignments at the CIA , and Department of Corrections . Overall, have enormous respect for the work they do, and the way they have built their practice. So, now I would like to take a look a their presentation structure and format. Let’s dissect a McKinsey presentation.

Key elements of a McKinsey presentation?

I was curious how good their presentations are. I have physically seen a dozen or so from clients who had McKinsey-ites passing through their halls. Online, this content is pretty easy to find. Some of them are from industry conferences and others are from client engagements that their clients (oddly) leave online.

I reviewed a 39 pg presentation from 2010 by McKinsey for the USPS here . Generally, this deck follows a simple, but strong logic. It addresses a HUGE problem facing the US Postal Service and provides a smart roadmap.

1) Stay Organized

It’s common for consulting presentations to have table of content pages which is re-introduced at the front of each section – telling the audience where in the flow of the presentation they are. These are road markers. In the example below, this introduces the base case section, part 2 of 4.

2) Parallel structure in titles

I remind my teams that the titles of the pages are the most valuable real estate – use them wisely. Its storytelling , so the titles should come together cohesively. The titles should read well – similar structure, tense, tone, format. Like an essay, the points should be clear with transitions between the arguments.

3) Credibility through data and documentation

Consultants are known for their left-brain, data-crunching rigor. McKinsey is no different. Unless it is a straight marketing or organizational design piece, there are numbers on the majority of pages. They will create data through surveys or other means, if necessary. Clear footnotes indicate where the data comes from . . even if it coyly says “McKinsey Research”.

4) Make sure each page has a point

Senior managers are trained to push consultants to answer the question “So What” for each page. Each page needs to say something clearly to the audience, or it needs to be taken out. In this page, you see there is a kicker box which says 55% of the reduction came from overtime and non-career cuts.

5) Create a simple framework for the problem

Consultants solve complex problems with lots of moving parts. As a result, it’s important that we bucket the ideas and details into an overarching structure which is easy to grasp and helps with the storytelling. Often this can be done with a simple income statement (Rev-Cost=Profits) or balance sheet ( A = L+E ). Here the reader sees from the color coding that there are several unfavorable revenue AND cost trends.

6) Find the right data

In professional services, it’s all about the client success – not ours. Therefore, you do what it takes to get the answers and (try to) bury your pride. In the following page, you see that McKinsey actually refers to BCG research on the topic; acknowledging their competitors’ work when appropriate.

7) Charts which are easy to understand

McKinsey slides tend to be busier than I prefer, but their charts are at least simple and easy to understand. You see that they are clearly labeled and the trend lines are obvious. Revenue is flat. Costs are going up. Profits are going down. Cumulative losses are going up. Unequivocal. Direct.

8) A clear case for change

Too many recommendations – including the strategic ones by McKinsey – end up on the executives shelves collecting dust . It is almost a joke. As a result, it’s key to make it in-your-face clear why action is needed. McKinsey shows that $18 billion can be saved if these actions are taken, or $123 billion total. Billion with a B.

9) High level recommendations have details

In true Minto Pyramid fashion, there are back-up pages for the recommendations with specific action steps. Here the $10 billion in savings is broken into 4 initiatives and a few action steps:

Question – not sure how the argument on the right hand side supports this $10 billion target. McKinsey notes that the USPS already automates 90%+ of its processing, thereby questioning the feasibility of really improving that much. As a reader – my question is. . .is it possible or not?

10) Go beyond the obvious

Here comes the creativity. Yes, consultants do a great job of capturing internal know-how, structuring it in a smart story, and marrying it with best practices. That puts a consultant’s performance at a B-/B.  Good, but not great.

The real “juice” in consulting comes from thoughtful inquiry, rigorous intellectual curiosity, creativity, and something new. Let’s remember. . . our clients are smart too. They don’t need you to just regurgitate what everyone knows.

Here, you see McKinsey proposing 30 new revenue streams for the USPS to consider, and the methodology to filter out the ones which are not profitable, or not controllable.

For those interested, open up this pdf yourself

What other elements do you believe McKinsey did right or could improve?

Related posts:

• Consulting PowerPoint Presentations: 4 Steps
• Better PowerPoint: 6 Ways to Make Your Point

5 Consulting Courses

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I’d like to share my experiences and advice on how we can all work like consultants; smarter and faster.

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Hi, thank you for posting this insightful blog post about the McKinsey way of Powerpoint presentations. I’m currently working on a pro-bono consulting project and these slide deck features are definitely golden!

Just a slight feedback: I believe that for number 8, there are 2 typos for ‘McKinsey’

Other than that, keep it up!

Thank you. Another set of eyes. Helpful. Keep going.

No problem!

Great post – thanks Fi. Reminds me of the basics which are so powerful and often overlooked!

Thanks for reading. Yes, too often corporate executives just want an outsider to come – ask the right questions – and tell them the truth, in an actionable way.

Only comment on availability of PDF…As a quasi-public entity, the deck is is a public record, no? Thus, not odd that it would be available.

Very possible. Very true. In addition, it’s surprising / not surprising how much stuff is hosted and posted across the internet. Just add “PDF” to your google query. Thanks for reading.

This is a great deck autopsy. Well, a deep dive. extremely useful and insightful. The kicker box is often overlooked by ‘average’ consultants. Keep up the excellent work.

Great! post, thanks for sharing all ideas and detailed walkthrough

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• Beware: the long middle of the project
• AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee, chapter 1
• Proposal advice from seasoned consultants
• What’s been your work/life balance in consulting?
• Spotify Playlist – Spring 2020
• What managers can learn from Orange Theory Fitness
• 50+ final strategy papers
• Killer presentations: start and end with storytelling
• Data Visualization: 20 Economist Graphs
• Rework, written by founders of Basecamp
• Case interviews, “We want to see you think.”
• Deloitte 2019 Banking Industry Outlook
• Fall 2019 Strategy: Crowd-sourced playlist
• Factfulness – Hans Rosling
• What is operational transparency?
• Cal Newport: So Good They Can’t Ignore You
• HBR: Why do consultants go independent?
• Review: White Coat Investor
• Consultants are paid to worry
• Career is a bunch of S-curves
• July 4. More G.E.M. and less F.E.A.R.
• Compare and Contrast: Texas, California
• Naval Ravikant: How to be Wealthy
• Elon Musk: “Walk out of a meeting. . . “
• Deloitte: Pivoting to Digital Maturity
• CNBC 16 min video on McKinsey & Company
• PWC CEO Survey 2019: What 1,300 CEOs think
• Who wants the global talent?
• Bain: Healthcare M&A in 2018
• Bain: Healthcare PE in 2018
• Who is Chris Sacca?
• Great Podcast Interviews
• 100+ Healthcare Links
• The Health Care Handbook, Elizabeth Askin MD, Nathan Moore MD, 2014
• US Healthcare Strategy?
• d.School bootcamp bootleg deck
• Executive status reports

McKinsey on Books

Explore this month’s best-selling business books prepared exclusively for McKinsey Publishing by Circana and a collection of books by McKinsey authors on the management issues that matter, from leadership and talent to digital transformation, corporate finance, and more. For our series of interviews with authors of books on business and beyond, visit Author Talks .

McKinsey & Company Books

Power to the Middle

CEO Excellence

The Titanium Economy

Deliberate Calm

The Ecosystem Economy

March 2024 best-selling books

Business overall, decision making, organizational behavior, workplace culture, computer ai, sustainability, featured insights.

2023 summer reading guide

Activating middle managers through capability building

What really works when it comes to digital and AI transformations?

10 songs (and 30 reads) to kick off your summer break

Author Talks

Venkat Atluri and Miklós Dietz

2022– The Ecosystem Economy offers a compelling new take on how the global economy is being fundamentally transformed. Prepare your organization for a competitive new landscape.

Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, 7th edition

Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart, David Wessels

2020 - At the crossroads of corporate strategy and finance lies valuation. This book enables everyone, from the budding professional to the seasoned manager, to excel at measuring and maximizing shareholder and company value.

Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill that Changes Everything

Charles Conn and Robert McLean

2019 – This book outlines a seven-step, systematic approach to creative problem solving that will work in any field or industry, helping to transform the way you approach problems and take you to the next level of business and personal success.

Go Long: Why Long-term Thinking Is Your Best Short-Term Strategy

Dennis Carey, Brian Dumaine, Michael Useem, and Rodney Zemmel

2018 – Inspired by an annual off-the-record gathering of chief executives organized by the authors, Go Long reveals how some of the world’s most prominent business leaders resisted short-term pressures to successfully manage their organizations for the long term.

Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: People, Probabilities, and Big Moves to Beat the Odds

Chris Bradley , Martin Hirt , and Sven Smit

2018 – Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick is about unlocking big moves because that’s what it takes to beat the odds in business. Anchored in empirical evidence from 1000s of companies, it reveals what really matters and what doesn’t for exceptional performance.

No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends

Richard Dobbs, James Manyika , and Jonathan Woetzel

2015 – The world not only feels different. The data tell us it is different. This book is a timely and important analysis of how we need to reset our intuition as a result of four forces colliding and transforming the global economy.

In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run Companies

Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman

2006 – Based on a study of 43 of America’s best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, this book describes eight basic principles of management that made these organizations successful.

Leadership & Organization

Beyond Performance 2.0

Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger

2019 – Beyond Performance 2.0 more than doubles your odds of successfully leading significant, sustainable change by applying equal levels of insight and rigor to the “hard” and “soft” elements that matter.

Leadership at Scale

Claudio Feser, Michael Rennie, and Nicolai Chen Nielsen

2018 – Leadership at Scale provides leaders with the systematic and fact-based leadership development approach they need to unlock organizational performance in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths

Scott Keller and Mary Meaney

2017 – Leading Organizations identifies the most challenging organizational issues leaders face, providing the hard facts, big ideas, and practical “how to” steps to address those issues.

When Execution Isn’t Enough: Decoding Inspirational Leadership

Claudio Feser

2016 – Inspired people have the energy and persistence needed to achieve extraordinary results and transform organizations. This book shows what it takes to win the minds and hearts of the people you lead.

Connect: How Companies Succeed by Engaging Radically with Society

John Browne, Robin Nuttall , and Tommy Stadlen

2016 – Drawing on the experience of John Browne, the former CEO of BP, and the insight of two McKinsey experts, this book articulates and explores the recurring rift between big business and society, offering a practical manifesto for reconciliation.

Centered Leadership: A Breakthrough Program for Leading with Purpose, Clarity, and Impact

Joanna Barsh and Johanne Lavoie

2014 – By studying the stories of leaders and working with Fortune 100 companies, Joanna Barsh and Johanne Lavoie explore why some talented people rise to the top and create positive and sustained impact, while others stop short of their full leadership potential.

How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life

Joanna Barsh, Susie Cranston Hamilton, and Geoffrey Lewis

2011 – This book presents unique ideas about successful leadership. Personal stories and related insights show how success results from combining the five elements of centered leadership: meaning, framing, connecting, engaging, and energizing.

Mobilizing Minds: Creating Wealth from Talent in the 21st-Century Organization

Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce

2007 – By tapping into employees’ talents, knowledge, and skills, you can earn tens of thousands of additional dollars per employee, and manage the barriers that prevent real achievements. This can only be done through organizational design and redesign.

Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt

Arun Arora , Peter Dahlstrom , Klemens Hjartar , and Florian Wunderlich

2020 – Today’s technology demands lightning-fast changes. But speed without purpose is not progress. McKinsey leaders cut through the hype to provide an inside look into what digital winners do best: set direction, learn, and adapt faster than anyone else.

Digital @ Scale: The Playbook You Need to Transform Your Company

Jürgen Meffert and Anand Swaminathan

2017 – Value in the next phase of the digital era will go to those companies that don’t just try digital but also scale it. This book examines what it takes to break through the gravitational pull of legacy organizations and capture the full value of digital.

Beyond Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Digital Business

James M. Kaplan , Tucker Bailey , Derek O’Halloran, Alan Marcus, and Chris Rezek

2015 – Founded upon proprietary research, client experience, and interviews with over 200 executives, regulators, and security experts, this text arms your company against devastating online security breaches.

Talent, Culture & Change Management

Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First

Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, and Dennis Carey

2018 – Written for CEOs and leaders across the organization, Talent Wins provides a much-needed framework for transforming how companies acquire, manage, and deploy talent—for today’s agile, digital, analytical, technologically driven strategic environment.

YOU: The Positive Force in Change!

Eileen Rogers and Nick van Dam

2018 – The human brain is wired to resist change. In this book, leadership experts Eileen Rogers and Nick van Dam share insights and methods to making the transition to a more consultative, “emotionally intelligent” approach to leading change.

Mastering Coaching: Practical Insights for Developing High Performance

Max Landsberg

2016 – This book summarizes the most important research in areas such as neuroscience, sports psychology, mindfulness, and goal-setting and offers a practical guide to how this new thinking can help coaches and managers to develop their own coaching practice.

How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life

Caroline Webb

2016 – In How to Have a Good Day, economist and former McKinsey partner Caroline Webb shows readers how to use recent findings from behavioral economics, psychology, and neuroscience to transform our approach to everyday working life.

Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation

Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor

2015 – Primed to Perform explains the counter-intuitive science behind great cultures, building on over a century of academic thinking.

The Tao of Coaching

1996 – To get the most out of individual employees, companies and managers are turning to coaching as a means of enhancing performance. This practical guide shows how to develop the necessary habits and skills needed to become a good coach.

Marketing & Sales

Marketing Performance: How Marketers Drive Profitable Growth

Thomas Bauer, Tjark Freundt , Jonathan Gordon, Jesko Perrey , and Dennis Spillecke

2016 – This book addresses the most pressing marketing performance questions for CMOs who have an investor’s mindset. This isn’t a work of theory. It’s a hands-on guide to better marketing, neatly packaged into ten concise chapters.

Power Brands: Measuring, Making, and Managing Brand Success

Jesko Perrey , Tjark Freundt , and Dennis Spillecke

2015 – What distinguishes a brand-name product? How can companies enhance the value of their brands? What steps can executives take to manage their brands successfully? Answers to these and other questions can be found with McKinsey’s BrandMatics-Konzept.

On McKinsey

The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, and Problem Solving

Barbara Minto

1996 – This work has been designed as an aid to the logical presentation of business communications. Topics covered range from the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning to a discussion of how to highlight the structure of information.

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