Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips Why Elon, Bezos and US Generals Ban PowerPoint from Meetings
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Nov 24, 2025 Top leaders like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos ban PowerPoint to encourage deeper thinking and sidestep lazy bullet-point culture. Instead, they advocate for six-page memos, which spark analysis and debate. While slides can work for all-hands or external presentations, they emphasize the importance of pre-reading materials for effective meetings. The discussion also touches on the challenges of personal branding, burnout, and key-man risk as founders scale their businesses beyond their own names.
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PowerPoint Promotes Lazy Thinking
- PowerPoint often encourages lazy, oversimplified thinking and wastes meeting time on reading slides aloud.
- Leaders like Jeff Bezos and General Mattis replaced slides because memos force deeper understanding and discussion.
Send Materials Before Meetings
- Send presentation materials in advance and ask attendees to review before the meeting.
- Use meeting time for real-time problem-solving, debate, and deciding actions rather than reading slides.
Use Six-Page Memos For High-Stakes Talks
- Replace slide-driven status updates with well-written memos for high-stakes meetings.
- Spend the first 20–30 minutes reading the memo, then use the rest for a messy, productive discussion.