????上個月，在沙特麥地那的一間會議室里，我和當地一位商界朋友相坐而談。這里距離先知穆罕默德安息之地僅幾英里，讓我驚異的是這里既不乏異國風情，但又倍感熟悉。我的銀行家朋友圍著傳統的黑白格圍巾，穿著長袍，與我穿的藍西裝形成鮮明的對比。外面的氣溫接近華氏112度。早餐桌上擺的是炸羊肝，豆蔻香味的咖啡和駱駝奶。

????但這位朋友談論的目標、希望和煩惱，與美國高管們（從華盛頓到達拉斯）經常談論的并無二致。在發展企業的同時，怎樣給家庭更多時間？如何能在競爭中保持領先？如何與員工、客戶、投資者和媒體更有效地溝通？等等。在與全球各地的客戶打了多年交道后，我再度意識到至少在商界，不同國家人們之間的共同之處比我們以為的要多得多。。

????我和阿卜杜拉（Abdullah）的談話是在Madinah Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (MILE)項目間隙進行的，這是由沙特政府和企業在麥肯錫（McKinsey）的幫助下創立的高管培訓項目。在這個兩周的項目中，每天都有來自美國或歐洲的知名商學院教授向來自中東和亞洲的大約30位高管講授8小時的課程。希望讓阿拉伯和穆斯林世界的高管無需前往費城或倫敦就可獲得重要的商業教育。我到那里是進行小范圍的媒體培訓和演講技巧訓練，看到了演講挑戰之不分疆域。

????那天早上，我看到一位演講者開始的表現完全符合預期：開頭開得不錯。他沒有用那些我們經常能聽到的、欠考慮的開場白（嗯，大家好，很高興今天能到這里來，后排的人能聽到我的聲音嗎？等等），他直接從一個年輕大學生阿莫德的故事講起，亮出了演講主題，讓聽眾倍感興趣。

????問題是他在結束演講時沒這么漂亮利落。他只是停了下來，說：“我想這差不多就是我要說的。有問題嗎？”沒有好好的總結一下，沒有逐漸推到頂峰，讓我們意猶未盡。他錯失了進一步強調其觀點的最后機會。

????有太多辦法可以漂亮地結束演講，把你的演講要點深深烙在聽眾的腦海中：

????有力的援引。前英國首相戈登?布朗有一次盛贊美國總統奧巴馬的演講技巧，是這樣收尾的：“當奧巴馬演講時，他給予聽眾信心——不是對奧巴馬的信心，而是對聽眾自己的信心。據說當西塞羅演講時，人們說‘這是偉大的演講’。但當德摩斯梯尼演講時，他們說，‘讓我們游行吧’”。

????鳳頭豹尾。如果你用一個好的故事開篇，不妨將故事結尾留在演講結束時?！氨热纾哼€記得我一開始告訴你們的、那個富有才華的理科大學生嗎？上周，他的一項醫療設備獲得了專利，明年該設備將能挽救兩萬人的生命。”

????As I huddled with a Saudi business contact in a conference room in Madinah, just a few miles from the final resting place of the Prophet Muhammad last month, I was struck by how exotic and yet how familiar it all felt. My friend, a banker, wore the traditional kafiyeh and thobe to my blue suit. Outside, the temperature approached 112 degrees Fahrenheit. On the breakfast table: fried lamb liver, cardamom-scented coffee, and camel's milk.

????But my friend spoke of exactly the same goals, hopes, and anxieties that I discuss every day with executives from D.C. to Dallas. How can I make more time for my family while growing my business? How do I stay ahead of the competition? How can I communicate more effectively with employees, customers, investors, and the media? And so, after years of working with clients from all over, I once again realized that in the world of business at least, we are much more alike than we think.

????My conversation with Abdullah took place at the Madinah Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (MILE), an executive-education program created by the Saudi government and corporate backers with help from McKinsey. Every day, over the course of each two-week program, a different marquee-name B-school professor from the U.S. or Europe delivers an eight-hour program to a group of 30 or so senior executives from the Middle East and Asia. The goal: to give executives from the Arab and Muslim worlds relevant business education without having to send them to Philadelphia or London. I was there to conduct media training and presentation skills coaching in small sessions. And I saw first-hand that public speaking challenges know no cultural bounds.

????That morning I watched a speaker do exactly what he was supposed to do at the opening of his presentation: he started strong. Instead of boring us with the kind of half-baked opening we all hear too often, (Um, hello, great to be here today, can everyone hear me in the back? etc.) he launched right into a genuinely riveting story about a brilliant young university student named Ahmed that previewed the key themes of his presentation and made us eager to hear more.

????The problem was that he didn't end his presentation with quite so much panache. He just sort of finished talking and said, "I think that's about all I needed to cover. Any questions?" No big wrap-up, no final crescendo to send us off with a sense of purpose. He missed the opportunity to advance his point one last time.

????There are plenty of ways to end with a bang and keep your key points fresh in the audience's mind:

????A powerful quote. In wrapping up a paean to President Obama's oratorical skills, former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "When he speaks, he gives listeners confidence -- not in him, but in themselves. It is said that when Cicero spoke, people said 'That was a great speech.' But when Demosthenes spoke, they said 'Let's march.'"

????A bookend. If you started with a strong story, consider saving the end of the story for the end of the presentation. "So: remember Ahmed, that gifted university science student I told you about when we started? Just last week he patented a medical device that stands to save 20,000 lives next year."