A. Read the article and check your answers in Starting-up.

One of the most common presentations people do is presenting their company. Like most things there are some guidelines you should follow. Sadly, most companies prepare a 40 to 60 minute presentation detailing things such as company management structure, financial growth over the last few years and a detailed explanation of each individual factory and office. This is simply far too much information.

A company introduction should last between ten and fifteen minutes. Anything longer is too much detail. It should include four things. These are:

Brief history

What you make or do

Who are your customers

What makes you unique and or different

When you are talking about your company’s history, rather than put a bullet pointed list of important dates on a slide, your audience is far more interested in the stories. For example introducing Hyundai would be a dream because there are so many stories around the founding of Hyundai. For example selling rice on the streets of Seoul in the 1920′s and repairing cars in the 1930′s and 40′s.

By telling stories of your company’s foundation you immediately create an interest in the company. Apple and the early days in Steve Wozniak’s parent’s garage, Microsoft’s first meeting with IBM and Richard Branson selling second-hand records from the basement of his parent’s house. All these stories are fascinating and audiences love them.

When you come to talk about what you do and who you sell to, don’t go into detail about contract sizes or individual components. Talk about unique technology in your products, give a couple of examples of your customers and how they feel about you.

Finally, telling your audience what makes you unique and different from your competitors sets you apart from your competition. Remember, your audience might not be attending your presentation only, they may be going to see your competitor tomorrow. So you need to stand out and impress now.

Short, simple, story filled introductions will always beat long, detailed factually based introductions.

There is one exception to this rule.

If you are introducing your company to new employees – then you can put in more detail, but personally, I would stick to the simple version and create an interest and a pride in the new employee.

C. Make a list of tips for a successful presentation of the business.

D. Match the words (1-5) to the nouns (a-e) to make word partnerships used in the article.

company	management structure
financial	an interest
company	technology
create	growth
unique	introduction