Have you ever asked a CEO: "What does your company produce?" For many of us, this is a question often avoided since the answer is usually too long or too confusing. I recall asking the leader of a high-tech firm to explain his company's mission. By the time he finished his explanation, I had forgotten the question.

It is critical for corporate leadership to develop a short explanation of the company's product or service. Many audiences, including investors, the media, employees and customers, appreciate brevity.

The industry term for this three- or four-sentence description is the "Elevator Pitch." The term refers to the time that it would take to ride five to 10 floors in an elevator. An interested listener is willing to give you that much time to make your case before committing more time to your cause.

The Elevator Pitch is now an expectation among professionals. The idea of an effective, short explanation has become institutionalized. Today it is not only used in daily communication, but also is the focus of several national competitions. Wake Forest University and Brigham Young University sponsor competitions where business teams are given a limited time to communicate their business strategy.

In the Wake Forest competition, participants take a pair of two-minute elevator rides with venture capitalists. Winning teams are then chosen from the "Elevator Round" to move on to Round 2 and an opportunity to present their business plans.

The challenge is how to develop a compelling story that attracts attention in a couple of minutes. In her book "Six Week Startup," Rhonda Abrams suggests that you "focus on what customers get, not what you do . . . and make it easy to remember." She proposes developing a worksheet that is organized into seven paragraphs that answer a series of questions about your company: What is your company name? What do you do? What market do you serve? How do you make money? What other companies are you similar to? Why will you succeed? What do you aim to achieve?

Invite several of your senior managers to develop answers to these questions and then review what each has written. You may be surprised to see how many variations exist. Develop a common definition and practice vocalizing your company's Elevator Pitch. It may take several iterations before you are comfortable with the final product.

For example, here is an elevator pitch from a recent BYU business competition: "Silent Whistle helps companies prevent, identify and control risk resulting from illegal or unethical activities within their organization. Using efficient online and phone-based anonymous reporting systems, Silent Whistle allows employees of any organization to safely and silently blow the whistle on fraud, sexual harassment, substance abuse, discrimination and any other unethical act."

Using Abrams' guidelines, the company states its name, explains what it does and identifies its customer as any organization. The short statement communicates to a potential client what "it gets" - prevention, identification and control of risk associated with illegal activities - all of which are big issues for companies in today's business environment. Silent Whistle's additional information, which is not included in this article, includes the other key components of an effective pitch.

Standing before 1 million people in Berlin, John F. Kennedy said: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am one with the people of Berlin). You may not be able to summarize what you do in four words, but you can do it successfully in four sentences.