About Us

What We're About
Who We Are
Partnering with 154
A Sample of Our Work
About Our Name

What We're About:

Here at 154 Consulting, we've been on both sides of the slide deck. We've given and received presentations in person, over the phone, and using the web, all over the world.

We're not speechwriters. We're not a PR firm. We're not media trainers or speech coaches (If you need any of those things, we'll be happy to provide a name or two).

We care about your message, the logic of your argument, and that you know how to use slides and handouts to make an impact and accomplish your goals.

We have a strong belief that bad presentations are a symptom of everything that's wrong with the culture of work, and that if we all could make presentations better, that would be a great first step to recharging our work lives and just maybe our public discourse. Don't get us started.

Who we are:

John Fishback is the founding principal of 154 Consulting. As a management consultant specializing in financial services at the Corporate Executive Board, John was responsible for translating complex research into compelling presentations and then delivering those presentations hundreds of times each year to audiences around the world. After leaving CEB, John worked as an independent consultant focused on presentations before forming 154 Consulting to bring together consultants that understand visual language and designers that understand management problems. John has a BA from Georgetown and an MA from New York University's Gallatin School, where he studied the rhetoric of rational choice economics and made friends with Georg.

Georg Pedersen is the design principal for 154 Consulting. Before joining 154 Georg worked as the multimedia designer for Bain & Company. At Bain he focused largely on information design, helping to develop many of Bain's visual standards for their materials, presentations, and graphs. Georg has a BFA in Communication Design from Massachusetts College of Art and an MA from New York University's Gallatin School, where he studied new media and advocacy and met John.

Partnering with 154:

154 Consulting is happy to partner with public relations, speech/media training, and other strategic communications firms in order to provide our services to your clients. For those firms considering including 154 in their client proposal, we will provide custom collateral to support your bid. Contact info@154consulting.com for more information.

A Sample of our Work:

We keep all client work confidential. The following is a sample of our work that argues for one small change in your thinking about presentations.

For a take-home summary of this presentation, please download the
summary sheet.

One Small Change for Better Presentations from 154 Consulting on Vimeo.

About Our Name:

Our name is a nod to the fundamental chord structure of most western music (from Bach to "Roll Over, Beethoven"). That underlying chord structure makes music both easily accessible to all people and allows for infinite variety and creativity.