Peer-reviewed assignment overview

Objective

Create a compelling slide deck to present your pricing recommendation and the rationale and
justification for your proposed strategy.

Step Step Step

1 2 3

Review the case details and re- Use BCG’s approach to prepare a Evaluate at least three of your peers’
evaluate your analysis from Weeks 1 slide deck to present your assignments. Look for both
and 2. Develop a recommendation recommendation and persuade senior weaknesses and strengths—and
about markets Philips should enter executives at Philips to implement share your findings with them in a
and pricing in that market(s). your strategy. Include your analyses supportive way to help them improve
and findings. their analysis.
Step

1 Review case, re-evaluate analysis, recommend strategy

1a 1b
• Read through the case one more Develop your recommendation and
time to glean new information and “solve” the case: How should the new
insights. Philips LED be positioned in the
• Review and re-evaluate the analysis market?
you did for the quizzes in Weeks 1 • Whom to target?
and 2. • What channels to sell through?
• At what price point?
Step

2a Develop slides to present your recommendation

2a. Use Thomas’s recommended story flow 2b. Outline slide format: content, layout & graphics

Situation/Problem Executive summary Approach Executive summary Situation/Problem Approach

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Analysis Key Findings Implications Industry growth Competitive analysis Profitability drivers
GM (%)
Real $ NOPAT (%)

sales OE (%)

Average ROACE (%)

FC turns
Asset turns
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
WE turns

Client

Conclusions/Recom Next steps Appendices Conclusions/Recomm. Next steps Appendices

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See the Appendix for more information about how to develop slides
Step

2b Use this Context & Problem statement for slide 1

Context Problem statement

LED1 – a new lighting technology How should the new Philips LED
• Energy-efficient, long-life, be positioned in the market?
compact • Whom to target?
Competition • What channels to sell
• Incandescent and CFLs2 through?

• GE3 ~50% market share • At what price point?

• Sold through wholesale and

retail channels

1. Light Emitting Diode 2. Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs 3. General Electric

Source: Darden Business Pubslishing – Philips: Pricing the LED bulb
Step

2c Before you submit

Check your work! Polished and Needs
ready revision
Finalize the flow
Do titles tell the story?
Does the executive summary mirror the slide flow?
Does each slide advance your point of view on Philips’ pricing problem?
Sharpen the language
Is each slide’s language clear and tightly focused?
Is each key point necessary and made in as few words as possible?
Highlight key insights
Are the titles, subtitles, and take-aways clear and succinct?
Does the slide content provide evidence and details to support the slide title?

Are key facts and insights highlighted with color?

Take care of slide details
Is everything spelled correctly?
Are all tables and graphs labeled clearly?
Does your math add up?
Do you use the same font and colors consistently on all slides?

Revise your slides as needed—then upload as a pdf for review!

Step

3 Rubric for reviewing assignments

Elements Criteria Score

Executive summary Concisely lays out the situation, problem, recommendations, and implications and aligns to slide titles 10

Concisely lays out at least three elements above and or does not consistently align to slide titles 8
Concisely lays out at two – three elements above and does not consistently align to slide titles 7
Does not develop an executive summary 0
Recommendations/ Directly responds to problem statement with each point supported by a minimum of three pieces of clearly 10
solutions presented evidence

Directly responds to problem statement with each point supported by a minimum of two pieces of clearly 8
presented evidence

Directly responds to problem statement with each point supported by one piece of clearly presented evidence 7
Does not directly respond to problem statement or does not present evidence to support key points 0
Slide development Required slides are crisp and clear with effective visuals to support key points: 5
• Content and Problem Statements
• Executive Summary
• Approach
• Analysis, Key Findings, and Implications (may have a few slides)
• Recommendations/Solution
• Next Steps
• Appendix (may have many slides)

Includes 5-6 of the required slide types; slides are crisp and clear with effective visuals to support key points 4
Includes 3-4 of the required slide types OR some slides lack visual consistency and clarity 3
Includes 1-2 of the required slide types OR all slides lack visual consistency and clarity 0
Appendix
Appendix A: BCG’s 7-step approach for effective written
communication
Based on The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto

Consultants at The Boston Consulting Group receive

rigorous training to perfect their written
communication skills.

The foundation of their training is based upon

principles taught in Barbara Minto's book The
Pyramid Principle.

BCG's derives its seven-step approach from The

Pyramid Principle.
BCG 7-step approach for effective written communication
Refer to this 7-step process for support as you prepare your slide deck.

1. Framing your story

When you frame your story, you start with your conclusions, key messages or
your proposed solution. You follow them with your key arguments and
supporting facts and evidence. A suggested way to do this is to list all of your
arguments and group them into logical clusters. To frame your story, ask
yourself key questions: "What is the problem?" Why is there a problem?" "How
can the problem be solved?" Your clusters of arguments must support your
recommendation and resolve the key question.
BCG 7-step approach for effective written communication

2. Developing a storyline
After you have framed your story—which should have 2-3 key arguments with
related supporting details—use a logic tree to develop your storyline. The logic
tree connects all of your key arguments and insights together into a logical,
hierarchical story flow. It pairs supporting evidence and insights with your main
arguments. It provides a backbone for your storyline.
A reliable storyline flow is:
– Opening: context situation or problem/recommendation or solution
– Series of key arguments
– Close: Recap/impact
BCG 7-step approach for effective written communication

3. Writing executive summaries

• Executive summary is a 1-page condensed version of your presentation that
contains all of your key ideas in a few crisp sentences. Often, the only slide
your audience will read. A good executive summary has four parts: Situation,
Problem, Solution, Impact
• Effective executive summaries:
• Link to the slide flow and mirror slide titles. If not, iterate summary and/or
slides
• Use sharp language, tell your story, not the process
• Fit the audience-flow and language is tailored to your audience
See Appendix A for a sample executive summary
BCG 7-step approach for effective written communication

4. Building slide flow

• A two-step process shown on the follow page.
• Step 1: Create a blank story flow
• Step 2: Outline format of each slide
• Maintain a storyline that is logical, compelling and audience-appropriate
• Ask yourself: Is the story complete and flow logically? Is every slide
necessary?
• Integrate logic tree elements into the storyline to insure impact
BCG 7-step approach for effective written communication

5. Designing slides
• Effective slides contain 3 key
elements:
• Titles - highlight key insight, match
language in slide, short, precise full
sentences
• Subtitles – Guides audience to
specific info in slide; helps audience
interpret slide; optional
• Takeaways – draw conclusions
beyond the obvious, create flow,
articulate the "so what"
BCG 7-step approach for effective written communication

6. Leveraging visuals
A significant part of slidewriting to
capture your audience’s attention or
trigger a desired response is to take full
advantage of using visuals. Simply put,
“show, don’t tell.”
Slide visuals are used to:
• Engage the audience
• Effectively clarify information
• Help draw out insights and conclusions
• Make large data sets easy to understand
• Trigger interest and emotional response
BCG 7-step approach for effective written communication

7. Finalization your presentation

Finalizing your presentation involves four steps
1. Finalize the flow
2. Sharpen the language
3. Highlight key insights
4. Take care of slide details
Appendix B: Executive summary example
Situation: The digital world is having a huge impact on banks
• Customer behaviors and expectations are changing dramatically – over half access their accounts via digital channels
• Competition coming from new places – Millennials bypass traditional banks in favor of fintech start ups

Problem: Leading financial institutions are investing in digital capabilities, but often not fast enough
• Digital visions range from reinventing the customer experience within the core business (leveraging big data analytics, digitizing the
back end and innovating the front end) to creating new business models
• Potential for approximately 5 – 15% improvement in net profit

• Two typical journeys taken to achieving full digital maturity – stepwise transformation of the core or reverse take-over

Solution: Banks must overcome 5 common people and organizational hurdles

• Building digital capability in their leadership – address the diffusion in digital leadership and lack of expertise at the top

• Framing operating models – re-envision structures, roles and governance overlays to address new strategic needs and to evolve
these models quickly
• Addressing talent gaps – identify talent gaps relative to the new digital skills needed, manage the trade-offs in buy vs. build vs.
borrow, and build a new employee value proposition (compensation structure, career paths, etc.)
• Creating a digital culture – migrate from a traditional risk averse culture to that of a digital attacker

• Leveraging new ways of working – take Agile to the next level – scale beyond IT
Appendix C: Generic storyline provides great starting point
General guidelines of what to include in a generic story flow

In your introduction, explain the situation, problem or key question that is the focus of the presentation. Explain
to the audience why they are there with you in a room and why it is in their interest to listen to you. "You have
Introduction
hired us to figure out what to do with the assets of Company X. Your key concerns are XYZ. We will answer
them."

It should provide your audience with the key message of the presentation, a brief description of the
conclusions and recommendations, and explain what will be discussed in the meeting (and what will not).
Executive summary
Depending on the setting and your clients' preference, a slide with the objectives of the meeting can take
the place of the Executive Summary.

Recommendations and conclusions and should lead to a description of the strategic options the client has to
Body
choose from to go forward.

The recap describes the conclusions and recommendations in more detail, and should lead logically to next
Recap
steps.

Conclude your presentation with the next steps. These may be to refine analysis x, answer open questions,
Next steps
research question y, etc.

Information that provides additional support for your arguments and/or recommendations but is too detailed or
Appendices
voluminous to include within the body of your presentation can be included in the appendices.