Every day I get a fresh pile of emails containing executive summaries and powerpoint presentations (keep them coming by the way) inquiring whether I’d be interested in exploring an investment. I try to quickly look at them all and decide immediately whether or not I want to spend any time considering investing in the business.
There is an endless list of nitpicky things I could suggest that would improve these executive summaries and powerpoint presentations. I’ll spare you those. There is also an endless list of substantive things I could suggest. For example, what is wrong with the following graph?
Um. Not useful. I got that you’ve had relative growth but you are missing the numbers on the y-axis. If you think I’m a total buckethead, you’d assume I’d be impressed by this growth. However, my first question is “so, what is the 2007 revenue?” I looked at the next few pages in the presentation and it was nowhere to be found.
If you trust me (or are interested in me) enough to send me a ppt unsolicited, please at least give me the real quantitative data for me to react to – assuming you think it’s an important part of your presentation. If it’s not an important part of your presentation (e.g. tiny numbers so far – nice yoy % growth, but tiny numbers) don’t include it!
At least I got a blog post out of this one.
Posted in: Pet PeevesCOMMENTS (7)
I want to know why the Y/Y growth is forecast to be less in 07 than it was in 06. And what about 08? I mean, we're in October already.
It would be interesting to see how many reasonable questions could be asked of this graph alone...
Innumeracy (or deceitfulness) notwithstanding...the author should be spanked if only for the blue tissue background he put the graph on. Bleh.
Brad, you just hit a big pet peeve of mine as well. I think no y-axis numbers is the worst, but closely followed by those who change the scale to make a 2% change look like the numbers have doubled.
, October 5, 2007 8:43 PM
I would reject the plan that included this graph on aesthetic grounds alone.
-c
PS. Didn't Greh Reinacker's first pitch to you lack Y-Axis values? Turned out OK for him...
:-)
Brad,
This South Park episode comes to mind:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underpants_Gnomes
The Underpants Gnomes have a three-phase business plan, consisting of:
1. Collect Underpants
2. ?
3. Profit
If you think this is just a peeve, you should check out two books that form a thesis on this subject. Excellent books I would recommend for your reading list also, Brad!
Author - Stephen Few
Show me the numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten
Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
Someone who sent you a graph like this is either guilty of mentally sloppy thought, or has a lack of respect in your intelligence. Either way, don't invest.
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