Comments on: Product Launches Should be a Big Deal

By: Leigh

Leigh — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:31:08 +0000

Does anyone know if the speech was videoed and if so if it is available on the web?

By: Carl Pullein

Carl Pullein — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:12:20 +0000

I think analysis of a presenter’s words can often distort the purpose and message of the presenter. Steve Ballmer has a very unique, almost tongue in cheek way of presenting, that whilst not being particularly polished, is certainly effective, believable and entertaining.

If Steve Ballmer were to have his words scripted and polished up, he would begin to sound more like a politician than a CEO of one of the world’s largest software companies, and his natural flair, charisma and passion may well be lost to us all.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:15:20 +0000

Come now. Steve Jobs refers to the iPad as magical, then spends 15 mins in a chair surfing the web at a keynote (“you can surf the web — extraordinary), and you think Ballmer is self-aggrandizing?

Nancy, please do your analysis on the iPad launch.

By: Taryn

Taryn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:46:13 +0000

As a biased Mac-Maniac, I am thrilled with this bloated, apologetic, self-aggrandizing speech. Come to think of it, it really captured the essence of Windows perfectly. :-)

Thanks for the post, and to Chris for “picturing it” for us – see, this speech could have been done in one slide!

By: Miguel.M

Miguel.M — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:15:27 +0000

N. you missed underlining something else…

Wasn’t he (mainly) talking about market?

Well…

“…people stretching from Australia to Iceland. Across the planet…”

Across the planet from Australia to Iceland (by east) – leaves Asia, Africa and Europe out.

Across the planet from Australia to Iceland (by west) – leaves the Americas out.

He sure missed an educated resercher to review his speech.

By: Chris Craft (@crafty184)

Chris Craft (@crafty184) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:26:35 +0000

Hi Nancy,

Interesting thoughts.

Just for fun I decided to plug just the text of his speech into Wordle to see what would distill up to the top visually.

Check it out here..

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1615780/Stave_Ballmer%27s_speech

or shortened here

http://edurls.org/1m

Yours,

Chris Craft

By: Bruce Couch

Bruce Couch — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:21:15 +0000

@Todd you said: “should every presentation the collective we do present our product/service as visionary or revolutionary?”

No … but you shouldn’t be insulting your audiences intelligence or disrepecting them by displaying how little thought you put into your presentation.

By: Bruce Couch

Bruce Couch — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:18:05 +0000

@Todd I couldn’t disagree more. Jobs does not utter one word that is not thought out and not consistent with how they want to market their product. The bigger problem that Microsoft has is that instead of positioning themselves as innovators, they’ve positioned themselves via their products and their behavior, as chasing the innovators. Most users see Windows 7 as the functional version of Vista. You know, the version they should have released 8 years ago.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:11:06 +0000

What I think is so interesting is that if you changed “Windows 7″ to “OS X” and read it as if the other Steve was presenting it, this speech would be raved about. It shows just how important perception is, and how there can be a vast difference between how speeches are written and how they are presented.

I also wonder, should every presentation the collective we do present our product/service as visionary or revolutionary? Or is that something that only a few companies (Apple, Nintendo, etc.) can get away with? In the case of the above speech, Windows 7 is really an evolution not a revolution. It seems to me it would be delusional to present it any other way without the benefit of a Reality Distortion Field™.

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:16:33 +0000

This is a fantastic post, Nancy. Very excited about your next book. Thank you for posting this and for being so very generous with your expertise in all that you do!