Using your previous MBA coursework, create an audiovisual presentation( PowerPoint with audio) designed to pitch your concept to potential financial backers or senior executives. Your presentation sho

Now that you have a completed business implementation plan along with assumptions and contingency planning, it might be tempting to move quickly toward your next steps. Before you take these next steps, it is important to step back from the business implementation plan with a fresh perspective. Until now, you may have been working on the constituent parts of the plan. Now, it is time to consider the business implementation plan for your idea or concept in the context of an integrated whole.

Within this framework, consider how your potential financial backers may view the business implementation plan. As you do your review, it is important to also identify areas where the business implementation plan might be particularly weak. Financial backers often have considerable experience reviewing various business proposals, and with these skills comes the ability to quickly press in those areas that need to be improved.

Even though one objective of the review is to gain financial backing, a major objective of your review should be to strengthen the overall plan so that you have a greater chance of success. With this in mind, pay particular attention to the implementation plan (Milestone Two), which is often an area in which people struggle. It may be difficult to consider all the relevant activities required in implementing your business plan, but this exercise will bolster your overall plan and ensure a greater probability of success.

In addition to the business implementation plan reflection, this module also details your audiovisual presentation. The objective of the audiovisual presentation is to provide the right level of detail to your potential financial backers. Even though you know most of the details behind your idea or concept, potential financial backers are not concerned with each and every detail. Potential financial backers will want to know that you have been thorough with your planning, but they do not need to know all the details. Instead, potential financial backers need to have a good understanding of how the project makes money and when the project will begin paying returns.

When building your audiovisual presentation, concentrate effort on ensuring that your presentation is memorable. Rather than using bulleted lists and other audiovisual techniques common in the corporate world, consider communicating your idea or concept through the use of storytelling. Storytelling is a technique with which communicators tell evocative and engaging stories to communicate complicated ideas. Carriger (2011) studied the use of communicating important points through relating relevant anecdotes and found that this approach offers two benefits. Audience recall is the first benefit of storytelling. Here, complex ideas communicated through storytelling are more memorable than those ideas communicated with more typical audiovisual techniques. The benefit of storytelling is not just in recall. Carriger (2011) also found that using anecdotes as stories leads to more favorable outcomes for communicators using this technique.

Prospective financial backers for your idea or concept will likely attend multiple meetings per week that use various audiovisual presentation techniques. As a result, some of your potential financial backers might have difficulty engaging with your topic in a meaningful way. Ellwood (2005) states that some audiovisual presentations are actually boring and uninteresting. Within this framework, Ellwood argues for presentations that “enthuse” and “entertain” (p. 12). While enthusing and entertaining might be an ambitious goal for your audiovisual presentation, the fundamental idea is that your presentation should be engaging to distinguish your proposal from potential competitive proposals.

References

Carriger, M. (2011). Narrative approach to corporate strategy: Empirical foundations. Journal of Strategy and Management, 4(4), 304-324. doi:10.1108/17554251111180981

Ellwood, J. (2005). Presence or PowerPoint: Why PowerPoint has become a cliché. Development and Learning in Organizations, 19(3), 12-14. doi:10.1108/14777280510590022