Tuesday, January 16, 2007

parla come mangi

the sentence above, typical italian sentence, calls for a way to speak plain, unpretentious, accessible to everyone.

we do hear, from time to time, people pretending to speak cute italian, as well as english and any other language, and fail miserably in using the correct word.

a brilliant article from tod bishop highlights the completely different approach to the keynote in the late speach given from steve jobs, bill gates and michael dell.

jobs' approach: short sentence, few well choosen words, accessible to everyone. this is the coo approach, that has a vision and implement it in person


gates and dell: wider word selection, tech language, more marketing oriented gates. this is the language of the big boss no longer on the field but great to sell the concept

more confused dell, reflecting the current situation of his company. this is the language of the skipper looking around to get the wind

what can we learn:
  1. the way you speak is the way you are
  2. do not pretend to be someone else cause your words will betray you
  3. keep it simple
  4. make people understand you
  5. world is complicated enough to give confused keynote
  6. parla come mangi


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do not pretend to be someone else. Right on, Gianandrea. Authenticity is the best way to get noticed and to deliver a response, as long as we are not authentically boring.

Anonymous said...

Bravo! Cosi' si dice.

I also found an inspirational post by Presentation Zen Garr Reynolds on how "Words Matter,but the Message is King" http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/01/words_matter_bu.html

gianandrea said...

lewis, what i find interesting here if how the keynotes reflect the companies: the speakers do identify with their brands.
valeria, thanks for the link. i get there right now.