Back of the Napkin author Dan Roam has made the rounds of cable television lately, appearing on
Fox Business,
CNN Money and
MSNBC's Consultant's Corner. In both the CNN and FOX interviews, Dan breaks down Microsoft's bid for Yahoo on his whiteboard, and implements the same approach on MSNBC to explain how small businesses can be heard in the marketplace. If you're going to watch only one, I would suggest the one from FOX (I've placed it at the bottom of this post. In it, Dan was able to get in a few points about why his approach works that were absent from the others. In the other two interviews, he shows that drawing pictures
can help solve problems or explain ideas, but not
why. One of the great things about Dan's book is that it gives you an understanding of the science behind how we process information visually, establishing right away why visual thinking is hugely beneficial in the process of selling ideas and solving problem--and not just some gimmick. He gets that point across very well in the FOX interview. We get a bit of his biography at the end of the interview as well, which is nice.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reviewed the book as well. You can find that
here.
Also, If you missed it the first time around, it was one of March's
Jack Covert Selects, and we posted the book's
"missing chapter" over at ChangeThis. If you'd like to read
an excerpt from the book, we have that too.
