Kingstree capitalises on presentation

The original plan was to put the bankers through the specially devised training programme over two years. But Lee Bowman, managing director of Kingstree, says the take-up has been so rapid that it is now likely to be completed by June.

The success of the programme is a sign of how important presentation has become in the financial industry. Getting the right message across is critical for corporates launching into the capital markets for the first time or presenting their results to analysts in today's interconnected world, where information flows instantly across the globe.

For the investment bankers, effective presentation can make the difference between winning or losing those precious mandates from a government or company. Given the paucity of business around, it is hardly surprising that banks are intent on exploiting every possible source of competitive edge.

Mark Lewisohn, head of telecoms at UBS Warburg, says: "The professionalism of the presentation and the thinking that goes into it is very important in winning pitches."

He has worked with Kingstree on a number of occasions when pitching for big mandates in competition with a dozen or more other banks.

"One of the problems people tend to have in our industry is that they talk too much. There's a fatal tendency to rattle on. Kingstree is very good at helping you to organise your thoughts and make sure the key messages get across," he says.

Kingstree has worked with many of the big investment banks as well as an impressive list of corporate clients ranging from United Technologies to Ford and AstraZeneca.

About a third of its business is related to roadshows, analysts' presentations and pitches and much of it comes through its banking clients. Morgan Stanley, for instance, recommended Kingstree on several of the big IPOs and privatisations it led in Spain. Kingstree worked with the Spanish chief executives of the companies, preparing them for roadshows and meetings with analysts and investors.

Bowman, an engaging American who has lived in the UK for many years but has lost none of his US flair for selling, learnt his trade from his father, a Hollywood actor who went on to work with the Republican party in the 1960s.

Bowman senior worked with both Reagan and Nixon, helping develop the intimate, conversational style of presentation that made President Reagan such a powerful communicator. It is that style that forms the starting point of the Kingstree approach.

Kingstree starts from the presumption that the people it is working with are generally already good communicators, otherwise they would not be in the jobs they are in. The training involves teaching them to replicate their natural communication skills by demonstrating how they communicate when they are relaxed and how the pace and rhythm of speech is punctuated and broken up to allow the listener to absorb information.

Bowman says: "The clever thing my father did was to realise that people communicate best when they are in a conversational environment. What we do is to make people understand how they can still come across in a relaxed, convincing way even when they are in a structured, formal environment."

But good presentational skills are only the starting point. The other part of the Kingstree offering - and a large part of the work it does for banks and companies - is helping clients identify exactly what it is they are trying to say. Kingstree does this by forcing bankers or chief executives to focus down on the essential investment message.

"We are the guardians of the investment case," says Roly Grimshaw, one of Kingstree's senior consultants with a background in marketing and the military, including a spell as equerry to the late Queen Mother. Often one of the main obstacles Kingstree faces in getting this message into clear simple English is the lawyers.

"The problem is the story gets clouded as the process goes along and with regulations getting tighter, it'll become harder for investors to see what the story is," says Grimshaw.

Kingstree's services do not come cheap. In fact, it makes a virtue of being expensive. Bowman says: "Our stated policy is to be the most expensive around. If we find someone who is charging more, we put our fees up."

However, it seems to work with clients. Christopher Rodrigues, chief executive of Bradford & Bingley, the UK retail bank, and former McKinsey partner, is an unashamed fan and repeat purchaser.

"The trick is you pay buckets of money and then they beat the hell out of you to make sure you are getting value for money. But it certainly forces you to schedule time to rehearse," says Rodrigues.