Most consulting slides are one chart and one title. Two kinds of chart do most of the work:
- Bar or column charts compare items. Sort them largest to smallest so the ranking reads at a glance, and label the values instead of using gridlines.
- Waterfall charts explain how you got from one total to another: last year's profit, each thing that pushed it up or down, then this year's profit. The first and last bars are totals; the bars in between float.
In PowerPoint: Insert > Chart, pick the type, then type the data in the sheet that opens (Chart Design > Edit Data reopens it). For a waterfall, mark the first and last rows as totals. Many consultants build waterfalls with the think-cell add-in; the logic is the same.