|
When you watch a typical CEO keynote, you usually feel like you’re being sold to. You have your guards up and you are constantly looking for the holes in their argument. They open the deck with: “Our Strategic Initiative 2026.” Jensen Huang builds it the other way around. He doesn’t start with Nvidia. He starts with the world. Which means, he doesn’t ask you to agree with his strategy. He forces you to agree with physics first. And once you agree with the physics, his strategy becomes the only logical conclusion. It’s a 3-step formula. If you watch closely, he uses it in almost every major keynote. 1. The New Reality (the “broken” assumption)The amateur says: “We are launching a new AI processor.” He identifies an External Shift (physics/market limits) that has fundamentally broken an Old Assumption (that CPUs will keep getting faster and cheaper). Put differently, he isn’t trying to sell an opinion. He is stating a fact that you cannot argue with. 2. The Necessity (the gap)Now that the old way is dead, what does the world demand? He says: “To keep scaling intelligence without bankrupting the planet, we need a new way to calculate. We need accelerated computing.” He defines the New Capability required to survive in the New Reality. 3. The Commitment (the only way out)Only now, after he has broken your old assumption and defined the necessary fix, does he talk about himself. He says: “That is why we built Blackwell.” By the time he reveals the strategy, it doesn’t feel like a pitch. It feels like relief. The pitch says: “Look at my great idea.” Let’s revisit the formula: 1. New Reality: [External Shift] has fundamentally broken [Old Assumption]. If you mess up step 1, step 3 is arrogant. Now, try it on your own strategy. Don’t start with “We are implementing a Hybrid Work policy.” (That’s Step 3). To put it in a nutshell: Don’t persuade people that your strategy is “good.” Prove that it is necessary. Keep lighting the path, PS: Read the full case study of how Jensen Huang communicates in my newest issue. If you use this link, you can access it free for a month, including the action guide, and cancel anytime. __ If you like podcasts but not the 2 min intros, my podcast “Irresistible Communication” is 2 minutes overall and always comes with an actionable insight you can try right away. |
Daily insights to help you change minds and drive action. Bi-weekly premium essays that dive deep on how the world’s best leaders communicate.
Strategic clarity at the top. Confusion below.That’s the status quo in too many organizations. The CEO knows exactly what she wants. The board refines and approves it. It sounds brilliant. But then the relay chain takes over:Directors “translate” the business terms → managers “interpret” what it could mean for everyday tasks → and teams can only guess what the strategy actually is. Every layer adds a thought, nuance, perhaps fear and no one can really explain the original intent. But why does...
There’s a very simple reason why most messages don’t spread. It has nothing to do with how smart the message is or how polished and elaborate your argument is. Me and you have seen too many smart, polished, and elaborate arguments fail. The reason is much simpler: People are selfish. They treat their message as if it’s their own. They want others to spread it exactly as they said it. And then they wonder why no one repeats it. Here’s the problem: Sharing is not about you. It’s about what the...
Is this the biggest lie we tell ourselves:“I’ve made it very clear”. Well, not in the strict sense of the word, of course. It’s not technically a lie. You did make it very clear. But we both know that clarity is not really what happens on the stage (or in the email). Clarity is what happens in the hallways, two days later. The actual lie is this: It’s the middle managers’ fault. They just didn’t get it. They passed it along wrong. Spinned it. Mis-quoted you. Which they did. Only that it...