Learning from Bill Gates & Steve Jobs

It's been almost two years since I wrote this post comparing the approaches to presentation by Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Since PowerPoint 2007 has been out quite a while now I wondered if Bill Gates' visuals and delivery have improved along with the software. So I watched this entire Bill Gates presentation recently (twice). Now, I like Bill Gates a lot. He's a nice guy and he's certainly a great philanthropist. My friends at Microsoft tell me he's a pleasure to talk to one-on-one. I'm sure that's true, but mastering the large keynote presentation on stage still eludes him. His keynotes are not terrible, they are just very average and unremarkable. His style is "normal" and "typical" and his presentations are largely unmemorable as a result. Bill Gates is a remarkable man, why can't his presentations be remarkable too? Every time Bill does one of these "PowerPoint presentations" he legitimizes and validates this tedious style of presenting with slides.

I am not suggesting that Bill Gates change his presentation style (though I'd pay my own way to Redmond and work for free to help Bill with his next presentation). He's been doing it "the Microsoft way" for a long time and the world keeps on spinning. The point rather is that you and I cannot present like Bill under any circumstance. I don't care if you are pitching to investors or presenting a paper at a conference filled with stuffy, pedantic anthropologists, there is no excuse for tedium. We can still learn a lot by examining the different approaches taken by Bill and Steve.

Bill needs to be stickier
Remember that the Heath brothers found that sticky messages have six key attributes in common: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories. Bill has more credibility than you or I will ever have; he's one of the most famous people on the planet. But his presentations are usually weak in the other five areas. They are rarely simple (though the topics are not overly complex), his visuals are cluttered, he speaks in abstractions with few if any surprises and little emotion (Steve Ballmer, on the other hand, gets high marks for emotion VIDEO).

Bill & Steve redux
You may say that comparing Bill's presentations and Steve's keynotes is apples & oranges, that it's not fair to compare Bill's talk about technology trends to Steve's product introductions. If Bill were talking about the intricacies of insurance premiums and actuary tables, you may have a point. But in this May 16th presentation by Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman is talking about "technology megatrends that will shape the future of business and society." The audience included CEOs from top technology-related companies and the thousands watching on the webcast. There is no reason that this talk about "the future" and "business" and "society" had to be a bullet-point filled snoozer. (See more presentations by Bill Gates.)

Bill's "voice" vs. Steve's "voice"
Steve's tone, pace, and the words he chooses all come together to make his "voice" conversational and natural. Steve appears comfortable, smiles, and uses humor just the right amount. He's relaxed so the audience is relaxed. Bill appears less comfortable and his speech is more vague and filled with abstractions. Bill also uses more jargon and terms like "...rich capabilities," "rich fonts," "...working together in a rich way," "...use these tools in a rich way," and "...watching something rich like learning about an election." (See the rich transcripts of Bill's May 16th CEO Summit 2007. Watch the webcast of Bill's presentation.)

Bill's slides vs. Steve's slides
Both Steve and Bill use slides to complement their talks. Steve's visuals are a big part of his talk. The visuals are necessary not decorative. The visuals do not overpower him but they are an important component of the talk not just icing on the cake. Steve uses the slides to help him tell a story and he interacts with them in a natural way, rarely turning his back on the audience (monitors in front show the same onscreen image). Steve uses the huge backlit screen behind him in the same spirit at least that George Lucas uses his screen: to help tell a story. Lucas uses actors, visuals, and effects to convey his message, Steve uses visuals and his own words and natural presence to tell his story. In Bill's case the slides are not only of low aesthetic quality (though this may be a matter of taste) they simply do not really help Bill's narrative very much.

It's not the slides, it's the way they are used
But the biggest difference is not the fact that Steve's slides are simpler with fewer elements and fewer bullet points, the biggest difference is in the way they are used. If you want to appreciate the difference you have to watch both presentations (Steve, Bill). The difference is that Steve's slides flow smoothly with his talk. Bill's slides aren't really necessary; they are more of an ornament or a decoration off to the side. Bill would have been better off just pulling up a stool and sharing his ideas and then answering questions that audience members could have submitted before the talk so that Bill could select which ones he'd answer.

Bill's slides
Below are most of the slides Bill used in his CEO Summit presentation.

Steve's slides
Below are just a few (Steve uses far more slides) of the slides Steve used in his August Special Event keynote on the Apple campus (watch video).



 

If your ideas matter
Bill's topic/subtopic bullet point style is very common, very bland, and rarely effective. He can get away with it, but you and I can't. I am not saying that solid presentation skills will make you successful, but do not dismiss remarkable presentation skills as something soft, fluffy, and superfluous. Why aim to be successful in spite of your presentation skills? Why not allow your presentation skills to be an advantage that helps you make a difference and spread the word about your cause? If your ideas matter, then the presentation matters, right? You don't have to use slideware for every presentation, but if you do the visuals should seem part of "the show" not something "over there" off to the side.

Looking for a photo of Bill
Speaking of Bill Gates, if anyone owns the rights to a high-rez image of Bill Gates presenting at Live or CES, etc. I am still looking to get a Bill Gates image for the book. (There are some good CC ones on Flickr, but my email inquiries seeking permissions have been met with silence--I suspect people rarely check their Flickr email?) If you have an image that you took and would like to share please send me a note here with your terms and conditions. Much appreciated!

Comments

[Robert B]

Nice blog but although I like Steve Jobs presentations, I always thought the best one I ever seen could be found here

http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/hub.mspx

On the front page there is a video entitled 'Innovation' presented by Guy Kawasaki...brilliant video.

Honestly watch it, the perfect pres.

[Nick]

Robert B , you know who Guy Kawasaki is right? The original Apple evangelist.

[MP]

I think the influence that these two people have had on the IT industry is much greater than mere presentations.

Does Steve Jobs have the ability to convince me in buying his company's products? YES

Have I bought Apple products just because Steve Jobs gives excellent presentations? NO.

We should celebrate Steve and Bill for their leadership and philanthrophy efforts respectively. Just because I have a pet peeve about the "words in a speech" doesn't give me any write to compare two people.

[timyeo]

Steve's keynotes are profoundly engaging. I model my presentations to his. I wonder if anyone out there has catalogued all of Steve's slides.

[Anna]

Very interesting article. Anna :)

[PZF (PresentationZen Fan)]

Garr, do you know how Steve got the chart on his slide? Did he use a special "chart generator software" or use Photoshop to draw it? I really impressed with his charts. I hope I can develop such impressive charts.

http://www.presentationzen.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/31/picture_12_2.jpg

[M Crawford]

"Garr, do you know how Steve got the chart on his slide? Did he use a special "chart generator software" or use Photoshop to draw it?"

Anna. Steve uses Keynote (http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/).It is just one of Keynotes chart types.

[John H]

I think both Steve & Bill do great job with presentations. Yes, they have very different styles.
Frankly, Gates presentations are much more ammenable to read independent of the talk. I like that, and that's the way my world works; one doesn't (can't) always attend the presentation, and a slide set that conveys the points on it's own is quite valuable.

Jobs's slides dont stand on their own as well (in my opinion).

[kat]

Well Bill's style is about as exciting as his product line (Zune vs iPod)! No comparison between Bill and Steve, nor Microsoft and Apple. Bill puts me to sleep every time. Steve just makes me want more. He's a natural and his conversational style resonates with his audience. His humor, especially when unplanned is brilliant.

[simon]

I have to agree about the Microsoft slides surely a large company like them could employ someone with some design style. It would be interesting to see how well Microsoft would do if the market was more competitive because some of there work is terrible and that is from a Microsoft fan.

[Jerad from Indiana]

They are very different, but you have to look at the audience each presenter is targeting. Microsoft and Gates focus on businesses. Business concern themselves with costs, expenses, numbers, efficiencies, and more. The information Gates presents is intended to sell to decision makers at a management level, who must then go to upper management to get approval, and then to the purchasing department to get it ordered.

Jobs targets the consumer. Consumers don't ncare about usage figures and coporate efficiencies. . They don't want a point-by-point during a sales pitch. They want someone to identify with, someone to make the product look cool, and somone to tell them what they need to go out and buy the product tomorrow.

You can't fault them for going after their key market segment, can you?

[erik]

i haven't seen a lot of presentations of bill but Steve's presentations are getting really boring lately. Yea I know he's got clean slides, looks casual etc, but my goodness, it's getting tiring.

Someone should count the number of times he has said 'it was good but it's getting better'. It's just always the same crap. He's even always wearing the same bloody clothes!

[John Cutler]

Thanks for the great post Garr. Your post strikes me on a couple levels.

First, this highlights that presentation culture is really a top down phenomenon. I'm assuming that Bill Gates has the clout to look at a template, or a script, and ask his design team to come up with something better. Perhaps he doesn't care much (which is possible), but assuming that he does, then this presentation -- from a design perspective -- met with his approval.

I recently sat in a meeting at Viacom, and heard a CEO confidently claim that "a famous ad man once told me put my whole script verbatim on slide bullet points". And the CEO confidently touted her bullet-laden presentation. It was absolutely terrible. Try as they might, the designers in this division couldn't sway her. The culture was top down.

At another organization, I sat with a pair of frustrated marketing execs as they struggled with a manager's horrific script. The presentation was unpresentable ... not because of poor design, but because the story was poorly constructed.

CEO's have tough jobs obviously, and there is often a reason they are paid a lot of money. They may come from a numbers background, or a marketing backgrounds, or perhaps sales. They are often very comfortable with presenting sans PPT. But their taste and attention to detail has a huge ripple effect.

Especially in entertainment companies, there are huge budgets to produce shows, design print ads, etc., but presentations are treated as an afterthought. They are in the image business, but they can't produce decent presentations.

I have little doubt that most presentations at Microsoft resemble Bill's presentation, and most Apple presentations resemble Steve's . To shift an organization's style, you need to persuade the folks at the top to buy in to a better way of doing things.

Thanks Garr.

[Gerry Quach]

@John H: Of course Steve Jobs' presentation slides aren't meant to make sense if you didn't attend his talk -- those are presentation slides, not notes. Many speakers make their notes available for download afterwards, which I think is a great idea for those who didn't make it to the talk or want to find out more.

Even better is if the slides, notes and audio are all made available together.

[Sherri]

Wow- the slide sets really drive the point on the difference between a typical PowerPoint style presentation and a true integrated presentation.

[b.g.valentine]

fail to grasp?...or worth my attn?

[Arvino]

Bill Gates perhaps more open towards sharing "the future" that he sees, and the context of problem that surrounds us all, and how he & his company can make an impact. That's why his presentation looks like that.

On the other hand, Steve Jobs perhaps more open towards expressing his deep truest emotional feel about what's really great and cool about his product, and that's why his presentation looks like that.

Both style reflect and resonates great with truest personality of each individual. It works best for each. And that's probably the most important.

Although one slide might seem "cluttered" and the other looks "clean", the most important thing perhaps is the fact that in the hand of each maestro, the slides works.

And that's the most important thing of all. The message it try to conveyed travel to people's heart and mind. And it get embraced, extended and adopted.

Changing the style and making it unfit to the personality of the speaker might be as odd as asking Bill to use Steve's turtle neck, and -- vice versa -- asking Steve's to use Bill Gates wardrobe. :-)

Perfect fit of the presentation slides to the personality and style of the speaker -- and not solel its "graphic visual" nor "tone" is perhaps the most important.

More explorative thoughts expressed (and discussed) here: http://arvino.typepad.com/digital_living/2007/11/comparing-bill-.html

Thanks so much again for the posting Garry. As always, you produce a great inspiring thoughts and perspective. Always learn so much from it.

[School teacher]

As we can see Bill Gates is more succesful in business, to my mind. His approach works.

http://www.dalloway-school.com

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