Often, when I meet a high tech client, I get presented with an existing company presentation that contains all the required information but conceals the big idea behind the company. As a result, we usually push the slides away and start talking, and after a few minutes, that big idea comes out.

First versions of the redesigned presentations are all about that big idea. It is in your face. But there is a risk that over time we start diluting that pure story again. The world out there (and Gartner and IDC reports) are used to defining the technology world in certain boxes, using certain language. And as we get a lot of questions about how you compare to this, to that, we slowly, slowly, get back to a presentation that resembles the one we started of with. It looks prettier, but the big idea is hidden again.

My (and your responsibility) is to prevent that from happening.

Art: RMS Olympic in dazzle at Halifax, Nova Scotia painted by Arthur Lismer