The power of PowerPoint: A visual perspective on meaning making in strategy

• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Author: Loizos Heracleous,Eric Knight,Sotirios Paroutis
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2727
• Date: 01 March 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

The power of PowerPoint: A visual perspective on

meaning making in strategy

Eric Knight

1

| Sotirios Paroutis

2

| Loizos Heracleous

2

1

University of Sydney Business School,

University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

2

Warwick Business School, University of

Warwick, Warwick, U.K.

Correspondence

Eric Knight, University of Sydney Business

School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Email: eric.knight@sydney.edu.au

Research Summary: Relying on ethnographic data from

two consulting engagements, we find that strategists use

three visual mechanisms (depiction, juxtaposition, and

salience) to create PowerPoint slides. These visual mecha-

nisms prompt meaning-making through the conversations

they stimulate, creating strategic visibility. As participants

react to visuals, they enact revised interpretations of the

strategy, reflecting strategic resonance. Based on the inter-

actions among these three subprocesses (visual mecha-

nisms, strategic visibility, and strategic resonance), we

develop a process model for how visuals influence mean-

ing making in strategy engagements. We contribute to

existing strategy practice and process studies by explaining

how visuals help broker divergent interpretations of a strat-

egy and give rise to new understandings, especially when

issues are politically sensitive oranalytically complex.

Managerial Summary: The purpose of this study is to

understand how strategists use visual information (specifi-

cally in PowerPoint slides), and its effects on the strategy

process. We find that strategy conversations are influenced

by the techniques strategists use to create slides, which in

turn shape the kinds of follow-up actions taken. The impli-

cations are that: (a) PowerPoint slides can be designed to

help tackle complex issues, for instance, when participants

have divergent opinions or in politically sensitive situa-

tions, and (b) those who craft and edit PowerPoint slides

strongly influence the direction of the strategy. The skillful

use of PowerPoint is therefore crucial in allowing managers

to shape the nature and speed of strategy engagements.

KEYWORDS

PowerPoint, strategy consulting, strategy as practice,

strategy process, visual semiotics

Received: 29 August 2015 Revised: 31 May 2017 Accepted: 16 August 2017 Published on: 23 January 2018

DOI: 10.1002/smj.2727

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2017 The Authors. Strategic Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

894 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/smj Strat Mgmt J. 2018;39:894–921.

In retrospect, it was great that we found a name so distinctive…it suggested our goal

of putting power into the hands of the individual content originator. The “Power”in

“PowerPoint”was thought of, not as in ”Powerful,”but as in “Empowerment.”Robert

Gaskins, Inventor of PowerPoint. (Gaskins, 2012, p. 165)

1|INTRODUCTION

How do strategists create visual representations of strategy,and why does visuality matter? Despite the

ubiquity of visuality in the social accomplishment of strategy, visuals have been relegated largely to

the background in theoretical accounts of strategy processes (Meyer, Höllerer, Jancsary, & Van Leeu-

wen, 2013). Although Mintzberg (1994, p. 240) once declared that strategy cannot be “tangible,”since

it consists of abstract concepts in the minds of people, a growing body of work—particularly in the

strategy as practice area—is focused on examining the role and impact of materials used by strategy

actors to achieve strategic ends in firms (Dameron, Lê, & LeBaron, 2015; Stigliani & Ravasi, 2012;

Vaara & Whittington, 2012). Yet, the precise role of visuals as a particular type of material employed

by strategists has remained a black box, even though visuals have distinct physical properties that

empower and enable actors to interact and convey meanings in ways that differ from other modes of

communication (Gylfe, Franck, Lebaron, & Mantere, 2016; Paroutis, Franco,& Papadopoulos, 2015).

Examining this gap is important, as it may help us gain a deeper understanding of the ongoing

flow of the strategy process and explain the mechanisms behind both intended and unexpected shifts

in direction that the strategy process can take, especially when actors employ visual materials. Exist-

ing research on how discursive and material practices are used in the strategy process tends to focus

on how actors convey intended meanings (Barry & Elmes, 1997; Paroutis & Heracleous, 2013). But

studies of visuality in organizational research more broadly show that visual images give actors the

ability not only to illustrate or reproduce what is said in words, but also to “contradict and work

against spoken or written messages”(Jewitt & Oyama, 2001, p. 55), potentially creating generative

tensions. Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996), for example, showed how heteronormative images in

advertising contradicted the language of sexual inclusiveness in the text. However, strategy scholars

have yet to explore how dissonance between visual depictions and concurrent strategy talk might

influence subsequent actions. Unlocking this puzzle is important, because it could yield a more

holistic explanation of how strategy participants make meaning through their use of visuality, and as

a result, how strategy meanings emerge that were previously “unseen”or were difficult to convey

linguistically (Bell & Davison, 2013; Meyer et al., 2013).

Our concern with this topic arose inductively as we conducted an ethnographic study of two

change projects led by ConsultingCo, a top-tier strategy consulting firm. Over the course of our

fieldwork, we became acutely aware that while engaging in conversations with clients is important,

creating PowerPoint presentations is also an important aspect of consultants’strategy work. More-

over, as the engagements unfolded, we observed that PowerPoint work could be seen as analytically

distinct from talk and other activities, such as organizing meetings or making introductions, in that

it involved the deliberate and ongoing production and modification of visual features (e.g., shapes,

text layout, style formats, models, and pictures) of the slides. When we reviewed studies that had

recognized the central role of PowerPoint in strategy making, we realized that PowerPoint’s influ-

ence was still largely conceptualized as a backdrop to discourse, and treated as an “object”that facil-

itates the primacy of epistemic culture enacted through discursive practices without exploring the

nexus between discursive and visual practice (Kaplan, 2011, p. 323; Mirabeau & Maguire, 2014).

Recognizing the penetration of visuality and PowerPoint—particularly in strategy work across the

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