Page 58 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

FORGING A POWERFUL MESSAGE 49
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It is never enough simply to rattle off a list of things you want to say.

The only way to talk about many things (and transform information
into knowledge) is to make them all sound like one thing. To do that,
you begin by taking a position. Figure out the need, change, or trend,
and then present your case from that point of view. Your point of view
will give you your theme.
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Let us say you have determined that your theme is globalization.
When we translate globalization into a simple sentence, we come up
with something like: “The future of our company depends in part
on our ability to plug into the global economy.” Fine. Now we have
globalization translated into a business message coupled with a real
sense of urgency. That’s a big subject full of possibilities and more
than enough to talk about in the next eighteen minutes or so.
Now you might argue that while it is all right to talk about glo-
balization, you also want to talk about a lot of other things that
affect your business. My answer is that you may certainly discuss all
these items, as many as you like—as long as you clearly link every
subtopic to the original overriding concept of globalization. So if you
must talk about research and development, for example, under the
principles of the POWER formula you could only discuss research
and development as it relates directly to globalization. Research and
development would then become an aspect of globalization, as
would strategic planning, marketing, advertising, and all the rest.
In Chapter 13 we will talk about the two varieties of theme—the
rocket and the necklace—but first, let’s open the windows.