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Elsbach, Kimberly D. “How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea.” Harvard
Business Review (September 2003; product #R0309J).
Coming up with creative ideas is easy; selling them to
strangers is hard. Entrepreneurs, sales executives, and mar-
keting managers often go to great lengths to demonstrate
that their new concepts are practical and profi table—only
to be rejected by corporate decision makers who don’t seem
to understand the value of the ideas. Why does this happen?
Having studied Hollywood executives who assess screenplay
pitches, the author says the person on the receiving end—the
“catcher”—tends to gauge the pitcher’s creativity as well as the
proposal itself. An impression of the pitcher’s ability to come
up with workable ideas ...