A CEO of a major corporation walks up to the podium. He welcomes the audience, takes a sip of water, clears his throat, opens his notebook and reads his speech word for word, line by line, page by page. When people find out what I do, they tell me stories like this. And it's no wonder.
Most people read their speeches because that is how it has always been done.
Reading from a script, however, can have a negative impact on your audience. He did not care enough about the audience. But, the end of the story is typically the same. When it's time for the CEO to conduct the question and answer session, he does great. The latter is certainly more believable, interesting, and sincere.