Death by PowerPoint is a common curse for people in corporations. It looks as though Steve Ballmer no longer cares for the “long and winding road” of death by PowerPoint presentations. From a recent New York Times interview:

I”™ve changed that, really in the last couple years. The mode of Microsoft meetings used to be: You come with something we haven”™t seen in a slide deck or presentation. You deliver the presentation. You probably take what I will call “the long and winding road.”? You take the listener through your path of discovery and exploration, and you arrive at a conclusion.

That”™s kind of the way I used to like to do it, and the way Bill [Gates] used to kind of like to do it. And it seemed like the best way to do it, because if you went to the conclusion first, you”™d get: “What about this? Have you thought about this?”? So people naturally tried to tell you all the things that supported the decision, and then tell you the decision.

I decided that”™s not what I want to do anymore. I don”™t think it”™s productive. I don”™t think it”™s efficient. I get impatient. So most meetings nowadays, you send me the materials and I read them in advance. And I can come in and say: “I”™ve got the following four questions. Please don”™t present the deck.”? That lets us go, whether they”™ve organized it that way or not, to the recommendation. And if I have questions about the long and winding road and the data and the supporting evidence, I can ask them. But it gives us greater focus.