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110 The McKinsey Mind

Figure 5-1. Acme Widgets Presentation: First Slide

Acme Widgets can lower the marginal cost of its thrum-mats with a new,
shorter curing process:
• The new process saves money.

• We have the resources in place to implement the new process.

• We can use the new process while maintaining thrum-mat quality.

As an example, let’s go back to the Acme Widgets issue tree
from Chapter 1 (see Figure 1-2, page 26). Your team came up with
the initial hypothesis that Acme can lower the marginal cost of its
thrum-mats by instituting a new, shorter curing process. Your
analysis proves that the new process is cheaper, that Acme can
implement the changes required to accommodate the new process,
and that the new process will not diminish the quality of Acme’s
thrum-mats. Say so in your first slide (Figure 5-1). With that slide,
you’ve established the structure of your presentation for your audi-
ence: they know where you’re going and will have an easy time fol-
lowing you.
The rest of your presentation flows out of the first slide. Each
of those major points under your initial hypothesis constitutes a
section of your presentation. Each section will consist of the vari-
ous levels of subissues under each of those major issues. For exam-
ple, let’s look at the second major issue, “Acme can implement the
changes necessary to accommodate the new process,” which we
delved into in Chapter 1. The various subissues that arose from
that discussion now form the major points for Section 2 of your
presentation: we have the necessary facilities and the necessary
skills within our organization (see Figure 5-2). You can repeat this
process all the way down your issue tree, but you have the freedom
not to go too deeply into detail, depending on your audience. At