Clarity, Brevity, Simplicity: Conveying the Complicated - in conversation with Marvin Loh
Many topics are highly intricate and challenging to communicate, especially when — in an age of information overload — attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Connecting with an audience today calls for more effort than ever from presenters to distill complex information to its essence and explain it succinctly.
What is the easiest way to simplify information in an accurate yet engaging way? We asked that question of Marvin Loh, a global macro strategist who provides regular television commentary on highly complex financial topics.
Marvin, you have a unique talent for simplifying super-complex research, data, and insights into short, concise, and appealing five-minute overviews. You’ve been doing this on TV for many years, in your lectures, and in board presentations. How do you manage to present concisely and to the point to a specific audience?
Understanding the audience is the start of everything. What a TV viewer, company CEO, or institutional investor needs to make a decision is not always the same thing. What does the audience already know, and what do they need to know? What is their objective? What are they most concerned about, and what would most interest them?
Then, you need to know what’s already been said — and what hasn’t been presented. At a minimum, that means you have an intimate knowledge of the subject or company. It requires a lot of prep, but you can’t offer something of value unless you walk in the shoes of whomever you’re presenting to. You need to know the topic so well that you can adjust quickly based on wherever your audience wants to take the conversation.
When you know your audience and your material, you need to break down the information into a concise, consumable format. Getting to the point as quickly as you can, in the simplest way possible, has worked for me.
Early in my career, I provided investment ideas to an investment committee. A senior person on the committee asked what a lot of the other analysts thought were strange questions.
I realized his questions weren’t strange at all. They were incredibly complex, and he asked them in a way that made each of us really think. To this day, that experience has influenced my approach to problem-solving, making sure that I’m looking at an obstacle or an opportunity from every side of the prism to understand all considerations — before distilling them to their simplest form.
How do you know you’re making the connection?
I strive to make each presentation interesting and fun and to always talk to my audience rather than above them. Audiences appreciate when you go out of your way to be “one of them” — and one with them, giving them information that can help in their own discovery.
Thank you, Marvin, for sharing with us the wisdom of your experience.
A financial strategist with a wide-reaching global perspective, Marvin Loh has more than three decades of experience in the financial service industry. With distinct expertise in advising public company board and executive leaders in their business planning, he distills global trends into their strategic, financial, and operational implications. Currently, Marvin serves as a senior global macro strategist at State Street Global Markets. He is a regular commentator on Bloomberg Television and sought-after presenter at investment, corporate, and media events.
Connect with Marvin on LinkedIn.