At first sight, Jeff Bezos’ preference of narratives to PowerPoint presentations may seem to violate some principles of good writing. According to Bailey (2008), a well-written material has to be easy to read, meanwhile, a six-page memo is not. Neither is such a writing likely to attract the reader, which is also essential. However, it is not the best idea to rely upon a theory without applying it practically. In the real world, readers are different, and the ways to attract them as well.
Bezos addresses the stakeholders of Amazon, the online shopping platform most famous for selling books. A person willing to take part in a project of that kind needs to be a careful reader. Whether they wish to buy a book, to sell one, or to write a review, reading skills are crucial for them. So, there is no wonder in Bezos’ decision to replace slides with texts to be read silently for about half an hour. Those who work with books should not have problems with perceiving information in a textual form, and a fairly keen reader will find this form most attractive.
In addition, careful reading is considerably more useful for concentration than looking at visual materials. At a meeting, this becomes a great advantage as long as the participants need to analyze and memorize a lot of information in real time. Silent reading helps to form a habit of doing so much sooner and more effectively than watching presentations. While slides contain reduced and systematized information, a written text needs processing, making the brain work more intensively and efficiently. The ability of reading to improve the reader’s productivity may be one of the reasons why Bezos opts for memos rather than presentations.
Reference
Bailey, E. P. (2008). Writing and speaking. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.