Nvidia Corporation NVDA CEO Jensen Huang’s rejection of PowerPoint presentations isn't a quirky habit—it's part of a broader trend among some of the most successful tech leaders who believe slide decks are a barrier to real thinking.
What Happened: In "The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant," a book published last year detailing Nvidia's rise, one of the most striking revelations is Huang's near-total ban on PowerPoint, according to DigiTimes Asia, a Taiwanese media outlet.
Instead, Huang prefers whiteboard meetings, which he believes foster sharper, more transparent conversations.
As per the book, Huang's team ensures a whiteboard is always available, whether in the office or while traveling. A former Nvidia executive even recalled an instance where the requested board was so large it required five people to bring it into a conference room.
At Nvidia headquarters, many conference rooms feature entire whiteboard walls. Huang believes whiteboards prevent employees from hiding behind flashy formatting and force them to engage in live problem-solving, the report noted, citing the book.
And he's not alone in this view.
Apple Inc. AAPL co-founder Steve Jobs once said, "People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint." He insisted that real conversations—not slide decks—drive decisions, reported Inc.com.
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN founder Jeff Bezos also replaced slide decks with written memos. "The narrative structure of a good memo forces better thought," he explained.
Attendees in Bezos-led meetings begin by silently reading a multi-page memo before discussing it, allowing for deeper reflection and structured conversation.
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Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has also previously advised leaders to "get out of PowerPoint and just start building." LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner also eliminated presentations, saying, "The meeting can now be exclusively focused on generating a valuable discourse."
Microsoft Corporation's MSFT former CEO Steve Ballmer also found slide presentations inefficient. "You take the listener through your path of discovery… I decided that's not what I want to do anymore," he said.
Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk has also echoed these sentiments during a 2020 interview with the Wall Street Journal, criticizing CEOs who spend too much time on PowerPoint and not enough on product innovation.
"Spend less time in conference rooms, less time on PowerPoint and more time just trying to make your product as amazing as possible," Musk stated then.
It is important to note that these CEOs are likely referring broadly to slide presentations, regardless of the specific software used to create them.
Photo Courtesy: jamesonwu1972 on Shutterstock.com
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