Guy Kawasaki tells execs how to write

I am a huge fan of Guy Kawasaki simply because he will happily tell people exactly what they should do to get better at what they do, and he'll do it in a fun and interesting way. But his latest missive, The Art of the Executive Summary, is mis-titled. It should be "The Art of Business Writing" full stop.

But even more wonderful than the article are the comments to Guy's nine "do's" and seven "don'ts". One really struck me as profound:

Writing thin is a skill, and I believe that all entrepreneurs should strive to distill their businesses down to one page of text. In my humble opinion, three pages is too long and despite what we'd all like to believe, there is no business that is so complex as to require it. Frankly, writing a crisp exec summary is good discipline for writing a compelling sales pitch. Which brings up a question…

Guy: As an investor how much emphasis do you put on a management teams ability to communicate as demonstrated by their exec summary, elevator pitch and slide presentation? Would you invest in a team that you felt had a great idea but would struggle to communicate it to customers?

Sadly, if there were a venture capital fund that only invested in entrepreneurs that can "write thin", they'd probably have to return most of the money to investors. Such firms are rarer than hen's teeth and worth their weight in gold. Since Blackfriars' business is helping companies who aren't so gifted, we aren't complaining about their rarity, but we're glad to see someone who aspires to raise the bar on business communication.

Technorati Tags: Executive Summary, Writing, Venture Capital, puppy, Communications, Marketing