Pretending to be in an elevator!

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  • lalalala Posts: 21,175
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    This was needed for television so that the viewing public knew what was going on and what the businesses were actually about.
    With all due respect though. We may not know the intricacies of what goes on within a business. But we are stupid. I'm sure we can recognise a pitch when we hear and see one lol. And also "elevator" pitch? You just know that technique was devised in the states :D.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 83
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    It was a way of getting them focused to actually give a clear and concise summary of their business plan.
    - some of them may have been incapable of this otherwise. (like Melody was)

    This was needed for television so that the viewing public knew what was going on and what the businesses were actually about.

    Could they not have been asked to summarise their business in 30 seconds whilst seated rather than standing and pretending to be in an elevator? The elevator nonsense seems standard now if the meetings I go to are anything to go by but I hate all that business manual stuff.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 36
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    Could they not have been asked to summarise their business in 30 seconds whilst seated rather than standing and pretending to be in an elevator? The elevator nonsense seems standard now if the meetings I go to are anything to go by but I hate all that business manual stuff.

    Maybe.
    I'm not doubting that you could do so yourself.

    But you have to remember that Tom managed to write a buisness plan without using the word chair, Jim apparently seems to pad everything out with cliches and Susan's pitch still lasted somewhat longer than most elevator journeys.

    These aren't all people used to being concise without an extra nudge.

    The elevator I'd not seen before and I quite liked it, it gives that slight psychological edge that they really are under time pressure to give their pitch. ( at least to people with susceptible imaginations)

    though if it's something which happens all the time in your workplace I can imagine it loses it's edge quite quickly and becomes pointless.
    I can well imagine the buisness manual types overusing it in certain workplaces.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 83
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    Maybe.
    I'm not doubting that you could do so yourself.

    But you have to remember that Tom managed to write a buisness plan without using the word chair, Jim apparently seems to pad everything out with cliches and Susan's pitch still lasted somewhat longer than most elevator journeys.

    These aren't all people used to being concise without an extra nudge.

    The elevator I'd not seen before and I quite liked it, it gives that slight psychological edge that they really are under time pressure to give their pitch. ( at least to people with susceptible imaginations)

    though if it's something which happens all the time in your workplace I can imagine it loses it's edge quite quickly and becomes pointless.

    Yea I can understand that. I see it a lot at work but if you'd never seen it it might be useful and just something different to watch from the ordinary interview.

    I don't know where it originally came from - it just seemed that about 2 years ago at work the chat went from "give me a quick overview of the concept" to "pretend you are in an elevator".

    Jim would need to pretend he's using the empire state building elevator and its stopping at every floor!
  • cookie_365cookie_365 Posts: 710
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    I normally despise consultantspeak but this is actually a pretty useful technique.

    Just saying 'in 30 seconds' is meaningless because people just say what they would have said anyway - they aren't aware of how long they're talking for or any kind of approaching limit.

    But get them to imagine pitching in a lift (there's only so far I can stretch) and they're immediately aware of time passing, impatience to get to the end. Really, they are, it actually does work.

    Having said that, the people who use the expression also as a general rule tend to use the other actually usesless consultantspeak jargon so can be safely mocked :)
  • spoonfulofsensespoonfulofsense Posts: 2,666
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 31
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    The one thing I found irritating was he introduced the concept of the person pitching to them in an elevator. So they had to stay standing to make the pitch. Well what is the interviewer doing sitting in an elevator?

    Maybe childish on my part - but still a bit irritating.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 36
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    If he's stood as well, then halfway through Susan's pitch he could have said "Bing! Aha this is my floor" and walked out the room.
  • longterm67longterm67 Posts: 701
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    very patronising indeed. I would have told to sod off personally had it been a real interview situation.
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