Painting with Numbers - by Randall Bolten (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Painting with Numbers is a thoughtful, yet practical and readable, guide to presenting numerical information effectively. The chapters are divided into two sections: "Technique" - focuses on how readers and listeners perceive numbers and what they look for in reports, describes how reports should be laid out and organized, and provides tips on how to take advantage of the available tools - principally Microsoft Excel - to minimize time spent "beautifying" reports."Content" - provides thoughts and guidelines on specific types of reports. One chapter alone is devoted to the "Natural P&L", the statement that is the cornerstone of management financial reporting. Other chapters discuss other reports common to businesses, reports relevant to other walks of our lives, and information that especially lends itself to presentation in graphs rather than tables"--

Book Synopsis

Learn how to communicate better with numbers

Whether you are distributing a report or giving a presentation, you have a lot of numbers to present and only a few minutes to get your point across. Your audience is busy and has a short attention span. Don't let an amateur presentation bog you down, confuse your audience, and damage your credibility. Instead, learn how to present numerical information effectively--in the same way you learned how to speak or write. With Painting with Numbers, you'll discover how to present numbers clearly and effectively so your ideas and your presentation shine.

• Use the Arabic numeral system to your advantage master the use of layout and visual effects to communicate powerfully
• Understand how audiences process your information and how that affects your "personal brand image"
• Learn how to be perceived as a professional who truly understands the business concepts and issues underlying your numbers
• Use software tools, including Excel, PowerPoint, and graphs, efficiently and to drive home your point

Author Randall Bolten shares his decades of experience as a senior finance executive distilling complicated information into clear presentations, to help you make your numerical information more comprehensible, meaningful, and accessible. Painting with Numbers is brimming with hands-on advice, techniques, tools, rules, and guidelines for producing clear, attractive, and effective quantation (the word the author has coined for the skill of presenting numbers).

From the Back Cover

PAINTING WITH NUMBERS

Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Will Understand You

You have a lot of numbers to report or present, and your readers or listeners will give you only a few minutes to get your point across. Presenting numerical information coherently is a communication skill, and like any other communication skill, how well you do this has a dramatic effect on your audience's understanding of your narrative. Moreover, they will not distinguish between you and the information you are providing when forming conclusions about your professional and personal credibility. With Painting with Numbers, you'll discover how to present numbers clearly and effectively so your ideas and your presentation resonate with your audience. This is a skill that can be learned.

During his nearly twenty years as a CFO in Silicon Valley, author Randall Bolten learned that small changes in the way numbers were presented made a huge difference in how well they were understood. In Painting with Numbers, you'll learn the art of quantation: the act of presenting numbers articulately for the purpose of informing an audience. Misunderstood reports can lead to mass confusion, and even costly errors. Bolten shows you how to package your material into the "right" presentation to deliver an outstanding performance, every time.

Featuring a wide range of quantation examples, Painting with Numbers covers what you need to know to present numbers so that people can understand them quickly and get the maximum meaning from them. This accessible reference will teach you to:

• Use the Arabic numeral system to your advantage
• Master the layout to convey your information most effectively
• Use visual effects to enhance your reports
• Use software tools, including Excel and PowerPoint, efficiently to drive home your point
• Make graphs comprehensible and meaningful to your audience
• Interact with your audience as a peer
• Maximize the impact of the numbers in your oral presentations
• Add even more meaning to your quantation by combining ratios and other metrics with the basic report information
• Get the words right, and not just the numbers
• Create useful and meaningful management reports
• See how quantation can clarify public policy issues
• Appreciate the role quantation plays in your daily life

Painting with Numbers will show you how to communicate financials and tell your story in a way that is clear, comprehensible, concise, elegant, and, most of all, effective.

Review Quotes

Painting with Numbers does an excellent job of covering all the topics that go into effectively communicating with numbers. Bolten's style of writing is engaging, entertaining, and, most important, effective at delivering his message. This book hasn't only become a key reference on my bookshelf, but I also now have a comprehensive, textbook-style reference to use when I mentor others on communicating effectively with numbers." (Bill Boehman, CMA, CPA, Strategic Finance Magazine, January 2013)

"There actually are quite a lot of annoying things that accountants and analysts do with spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. By the time I finished the first section of the book, I had thought of five or six experienced accountants at clients or companies I am investigating to whom I would like to give this book." (The Value Examiner, Sept/Oct 2012)

"If you're doing investment pitches, you should read this book. If you're doing a pitch I'm going to see, I want you to have read this book. And if you're a startup CFO, finance lead, bean counter, or presentation slide deck preparer, then you should read this book." (Gust.com, June 2012)

"Do you want to tell a story with numbers? If so, I recommend you run, don't walk, to buy this book." (Life Insurance Selling Magazine, June 2012)

Praise for Painting with Numbers

FROM REVIEWS:

"I highly recommend the very accessible and process based book Painting with Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Will Understand You by Randall Bolten, to anyone in business, public policy making, analysis, science, or any occupation or profession who works with numbers and must present that data to an audience. This book will improve your numeric and overall presentation skills, boost your career, and create a more successful business."
--Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World

"Painting with Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Will Understand You [is] a book that will help you overcome the stigma of presenting numbers and allow you to give more effective presentations involving numbers.... For those in the financial world, Bolten's book is perfect if you're looking to give more successful presentations. It's as simple as that. You will be doing yourself - and your career - a huge favor."
--David Domzalski, FinancialBin.com

"Painting with Numbers, by Randall Bolten [is] the best book I've seen on how to present numbers with skill. Randall was a CFO for twenty years in Silicon Valley, so he's got the benefit of seeing all the various ways, shapes, and sizes that people throw numbers around. He's exactly the right person to learn from when it comes to seeing through the numbers, knowing what they mean, and knowing how to present them more effectively to speak the truth, and to make better decisions ... in work and in life.

It's a book I'm going to recommend to the people I mentor to help them advance their careers and take their game to the next level."
--J.D. Meier, MSDN Blogs

FROM SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:

"I've seen Randy Bolten's presentation about his book, Painting with Numbers(Wiley 2012) twice. Randy focuses on communicating numerical data. As a former CFO in the semiconductor industry, he has faced many a room full of high-level executives, and he has seen many a financial presentation -- some clear, many not so clear. His precepts are down-to-earth tips that anyone can learn to use. Simple, but not trivial. They fit into the half-hour between generating the numbers and publishing the report."
--Richard Mateosian, STC Fellow (Society for Technical Communication)

"Randall's relaxed and personable presentation style made it easy to connect with the audience. He brought the definition of "quantation" to life with useful examples of how we, as professional communicators, can more clearly present financial information. I've seen enough bad presentations in my career to know that this information will be helpful to many."
--David Gennarelli, Director, Investor Relations, Autodesk, Inc., and President, SF chapter of NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute)

"Great presentation! Randall is an engaging and hugely knowledgeable speaker, who gave us a much-needed wake-up call about the importance of mastering financial communication. Not only was it useful, but thanks to Randall's humor and warmth, everyone enjoyed the ride. I highly recommend him!"
--Rikke Jorgensen, VP Programs & Professional Development, International Association of Business Communicators, San Francisco chapter

About the Author

RANDALL BOLTEN operates a consulting practice focused on financial management and information presentation. He is a seasoned and accomplished finance executive, with thirty years of experience in high-growth and high-potential Silicon Valley companies. His professional passion is presenting information that can enable managers, investors, and the general public to make real sense of complicated situations. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.