The CEO of a major FMCG company has been left underwhelmed by the end result of a 6-month long consulting project. Hastings Products hired Asco Partners to carry out an analysis on their product portfolio, and to make recommendations for growth. The project culminated on Friday in a 3 hour long Powerpoint presentation and discussion.
“It just wasn’t up to scratch, to be honest,” explains CEO Henry Fick. “I was mainly disappointed that they couldn’t do a more professional job.”
The source of Fick’s angst is quite specific. “I have absolutely no problem with the analysis done, and actually found the recommendations very insightful,” he relates. “My problem was more with the PowerPoint presentation. I am no slideshow expert, but it was just so boring. The font was just the default setting, Arial. Even I know how to do Papyrus, and I’d even have been ok with Comic Sans. It’s like they weren’t even trying!”
He continues: “It was just so bland, chart this and chart that. Where’s the Clip Art? Where’s the ‘underwater’ background? And even my 11-year-old can do that spinny animation thing when you click. What was I even paying for?”
The slides in question were made in Powerpoint by analyst Jane Williams, who insists that they were “in line with Asco standard presentation.” However Mr Fick is not convinced. “When you’re spending $1M on a consulting project, you want more than the standard, you want premium. And I won’t be satisfied until the Hastings logo bounces across the screen unexpectedly.”
Hardly Business Review 