"When executives are on the podium, it’s theater," writes veteran speechwriter and blogger Peter W Yaremko. "It's his or her face that everybody’s watching. The last thing a speechwriter wants to do is cause embarrassment."
The fact is, a CEO who handles embarrassment poorly only compounds the original error. Yaremko tells a couple of on-the-mark stories to drive the point home... including the recent White House incident in which President Obama strode confidently to the podium, only to find his remarks missing from the lectern.