At the apex of our professional practice class we have business presentations. Led by two geniuses of the corporate world of architecture, our class was aimed all semester at learning good business. We learned the ropes of how to start a firm, what the ethics of good business look, sound, and feel like, how to write out a fee proposal – you name it! Now, Brad Perkins and James Greenberg have put us to the test: we were to draft up a business plan AND presentation to start our own companies. I being a theater and film buff naturally went the production company route. Others, with their endless cleverness, engineered laundry-bar facility combos, designers to superheroes, and Instagram-friendly gyms. After hours and hours of researching income pro formas, cost estimates, related markets, and statistics, we assembled manuscripts for a business plan. The real proof in the pudding was our presentation. In front of a shark tank – like audience we were asked to present an eight minute pitch for our respective startups. We had been schooled in how to give presentations before. The strictest rules being, 1. Simplify and entice—this is the trailer to the movie, 2. Don’t convey more than five points on a slide, 3. Compelling graphics make a huge difference, 4. Use props, 5. Engage with the audience.
After giving a riveting presentation filled with gimmicks, images, and easily-readable-info galore, all in 8 minutes or less, the panel was asked to behave like a bank, miserly uncle, or organization who could be coerced into funding our projects. They got to ask us questions and delve deeper into the supposed structure of our projects.
Overall, I think the exercise was a success—most people’s projects seemed to receive the ‘monopoly money’ they requested, and an enormous amount of business sense was imbued into our brains. This was one of the rare moments of pragmatism in our highly theoretical architecture careers, and the snap to reality was most definitely rewarding. It’s the kind of life lesson that can only carry us to more successful, more fruitful endeavors.