Venture Capitalist and marketing guru Guy Kawasaki developed a wonderful technique for making concise PowerPoint presentations.How to Change the World: The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint.    The concept is simple: have no more than 10 slides, give the presentation in 20 minutes and use a font no smaller than 30 points. This forces you to be concise, to focus on the big picture and to practice so that you can present the information in a short period of time. If you have an hour time slot, this leaves plenty of time for discussion.  

While his post was geared to Entrepreneurs looking for funding, the concept applies equally well to leaders providing status reports to busy executives. In one of my assignments, I reported to a Director who blocked out his time in ten minute increments. If you couldn't get his attention in the first ten minutes, you were shown the door. I watched a team who had flown in from another location crash and burn in the first ten minutes. They had to leave without getting the approval they needed to proceed with the project. Everyone's time was wasted, not to mention the expenses associated with the trip.

Here's a list of the Ten Topics from Kawasaki's recommended agenda, modified slightly to fit an Executive Status report:

1. State the Business Problem your project will solve
2. Summarize your Solution
3. Describe how you will measure success in revenue earned or resources saved
4. Describe the technology you will use to achieve the results
5. Discuss how you plan to gain awareness and approval from your clients
6. Discuss any alternative solutions available inside or outside of your company
7. Describe your implementation team
8. Document the major milestones and critical path items
9. Provide a current status and where you are on the timeline
10. Summarize and request action. Examples are: 
    1. an approval to continue
    2. a request for assistance in the form of additional resources