If your strategy needs 40 slides to explain, it's not a strategy. It's a document. Documents get filed. Strategies get followed.
The test
Can you put the entire strategy on one slide? Not a summary slide. Not a "here's everything at a glance" compromise. The actual strategy. One slide.
- The space you own
- Why it matters
- What changes because of it
If those three things don't fit on one slide, you haven't compressed enough. Or you're trying to say too many things.
Why one slide works
One slide forces choices. You can't hedge on one slide. You can't bury a weak argument in a 40-page appendix.
One slide is a commitment. It says: this is what we believe, and we believe it enough to put nothing else around it.
The reaction
The best one-slide strategies get the same reaction: the room goes quiet, then someone says "that's it."
"That's it" is the highest compliment in strategy.