I missed this bit since my news feeds are the most abundant in my feed reader. It’s already a few days old but still, I think it’s an important issue to discuss.

The business school of the University of Chicago is now requiring applicants to submit PowerPoint presentations together with their applications according to a report from ABC. Now isn’t that something now that one of the top business schools is now factoring in tech savvy for admissions?

Oh well. Let’s face it, PowerPoint (or similar presentation software) is probably the weapon of choice for corporate presentations. And there have been more than a fair share of lackluster presentations that plagued a conference room. I guess, they’re putting a bit more premium to the other soft skills. I, for one, has used a bit of my PowerPoint savvy to weasel my way out of a report with lackluster content through stunning visuals.

By adding PowerPoint to its application, Chicago thinks it might attract more students who have the kind of cleverness that can really pay off in business, and fewer of the technocrat types who sometimes give the program a bad name.

Now talk about stereotypes. So are they now encouraging geeks to try business out? But I doubt if PowerPoint would be the geek’s primary weapon of choice. Perhaps a bit of Flash presentations should be in order. However, it is quite encouraging that business academe has started to acknowledge technology as a real driver in today’s business.