Execs stressed to a point

21.06.2006
Most professionals working in IT have, at some stage, been "PowerPointed" to death. But according to a new survey released in Australia Tuesday, even those giving the presentations resent the entire process.

The online poll of 382 respondents, conducted by Zommerang, reported 36 percent of executives find board presentations "tedious," with 24 percent "dreading when they come around."

Respondents cited presentation preparations as time-consuming and stressful with 45 percent noting it takes more than an hour to convert data from spreadsheets to an appropriate format, while 34 percent work throughout the night in preparation.

Accor IT manager Lyall Dawson said presentations are often misrepresented, are biased and are extracts from previous works.

"They [display an] artist impression of a service or product... which is often the epitome of misrepresentation," he said.

"It puts an agenda into fact, which varies depending on the presenter. You can see the segments of previous presentations come through [in new works]."