This overview of the concept of business models was prepared by Yvette K. Schubert while a Finance major in the College of Business at Southeastern Louisiana University.
OK, we may not like it, but the world in 2010 is one driven by metrics, performance measures, bar charts, etc. - all done to make good PowerPoint slides!
This article - and I would encourage you to go read the Chronicle of Higher Ed's original piece on the matter as well (http://chronicle.com/article/30-Ways-to-Rate-a-College/124160/) - shows how little agreement there is out there nationwide on how to evaluate quality and performance when it comes to the world of higher education.
Still, this is the world we live in (and which students and their parents have to make informed choices as to where to spend (read invest) tens of thousands of dollars for their future). In order to succeed (and even exist) in the long-term, we've got to do a better job of yes determining which measures are important - both in terms of inputs AND outcomes - and work to get better at raising these standards. An informed marketplace demands nothing less.
Great PowerPoint Tips from Don McMillan in a classic video called "Life After Death by Powerpoint." Keep these in mind EVERY TIME you make a PowerPoint presentation - no matter who it is for, where you deliver it, and how many people you are presenting to. Watch - and learn (and laugh, too):
So, you think you've had your fill of endless PowerPoint presentations in your job? Be glad you're not in today's military! Colonel Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. - a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts (thanks, man - doc!) - has "stepped out on the ledge" a bit to shine a light on how war is conducted today - largely by PowerPoint (at least where the top generals are!). As a reservist serving in the headquarters' staff for the the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Afghanistan, Col. Sellin took out the driver and penned a column criticizing how the generals are conducting the war based on endless PowerPoint briefings to a bloated headquarters staff (Sellin said there was so much Army brass at the command center that: "Around here you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a colonel."). Col. Sellin further wrote that:
"For headquarters staff, war consists largely of the endless tinkering with PowerPoint slides to conform with the idiosyncrasies of cognitively challenged generals in order to spoon-feed them information."
Since the column appeared, Col. Sellin got an early ticket home from the Afghan front. A New Jersey native, he plans to return to work for an IT firm in Finland. However, his criticism of the military overreliance on PowerPoint is still spreading on the Web. Col. Sellin is not alone in recognizing the "War by PowerPoint Slides" mentality that pervades military leadership today. In April, General Stanley McChrystal, who at that point oversaw the military effort in Afghanistan, criticized his own organization's overuse of PowerPoint: “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”
So, does your organization over-use PowerPoint? How can you avoid falling into this tech trap? Post your thoughts here.....
