The New Articulate Executive: Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader, 2nd Edition

The Snow Job

An executive friend of mine complained recently that a management consultant he was considering hiring gave a presentation that seemed not only inane, but pointless. My friend felt suffocated—buried under an avalanche of statistical information presented in a PowerPoint extravaganza packed with endless rows of hard-to-read numbers. For three hours he suffered under this onslaught; then he confided later that he felt pretty stupid because he was unable to figure out what the guy was trying to say.

I assured my friend that the problem lay not with him but with the consultant (who, as you might imagine, did not get the job). Either out of ignorance or sheer devious intent, the consultant had “snowed” my friend with enough random facts ...