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

TLDR

The study develops a process model showing how PowerPoint visuals influence meaning‑making in strategy by facilitating divergent interpretations, especially in politically sensitive or analytically complex contexts, and aims to understand strategists’ use of visual information and its effects on the strategy process. The authors explain that visuals broker divergent interpretations and generate new understandings by prompting conversations that create strategic visibility and resonance. Ethnographic data reveal that strategists employ three visual mechanisms—depiction, juxtaposition, and salience—to shape PowerPoint slides, which stimulate conversations, create strategic visibility, and lead to revised interpretations, thereby influencing follow‑up actions and enabling managers to address complex, politically sensitive issues more effectively.

Abstract

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 mechanisms 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 interactions among these three subprocesses ( visual mechanisms, strategic visibility , and strategic resonance ), we develop a process model for how visuals influence meaning making in strategy engagements. We contribute to existing strategy practice and process studies by explaining how visuals help broker divergent interpretations of a strategy and give rise to new understandings, especially when issues are politically sensitive or analytically complex. Managerial Summary : The purpose of this study is to understand how strategists use visual information (specifically 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 implications are that: (a) PowerPoint slides can be designed to help tackle complex issues, for instance, when participants have divergent opinions or in politically sensitive situations, 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.