3.3 Executive Summaries

An executive summary is a non-technical review of the highlights of your in-depth report. Or a one to two page abstract of a business plan, a formal proposal or a lengthy report. They’re generally placed before the main document. Executive summaries are quite often a selling paper. They’re usually used to apply for finance or when contracts or showcase accompanies achievement. This is why many executive summaries end with a pitch for the business idea. When writing an executive summary, certain components are very important. But most are dependent upon the document the summary is accompanying. Generally speaking, though, the following components are common in an executive summary. Whether it’s for a business case or a proposal or a lengthy report. An overview of the company or organization presenting the document. This should include some brief information about the formation of the organization as well as its products, or services, and the market the organization serves. A second critical component is the organizations mission statement. There should be a description of the senior management instructor and who those people are. Also important is the information about the market to be targeted and what is known about the customer base. A clear explanation of the objective of a document and an explanation of why it is is worth the time of the reader will also be necessary. How your proposal stands versus the competition. A brief summary of the financial need and financial projections. Certainly this could be a lot of information, but the goal here is to be brief, be clear, and justify further reading by the audience. If the executive summary is to be placed at the beginning of a report on a study or an analysis, much of this list would be similar, except that they’re may not be a need to identify management. But the creators of the analysis or the study. Information about the customer base and competition may or may not be relevant. But an explanation of how the information from the study impacts the customer base or alters the current competitive situation might be relevant. Brief, big picture, and accurate financials are almost always relevant. A great resource that explains how to write a professional executive summary was written by the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center Environmental Program. I urge you to review it. The link is found on the resources page for this module. There are top ten tips in writing an executive summary are, keep it simple, keep it short, avoid technical jargon and language, and acronyms, use subheadings and bullet points, highlight your main points. Provide conclusions and recommendations, consider your audience, avoid confusing or emotional language, proofread and spell check, and be logical, clear, and interesting. I recommend that you write an executive summary after you’ve written the entire business plan or report. This way, you can easily summarize in one to two sentences each section of the business report. Also, remember to use positive and proactive language as well as reliable sources of information. A great place to see some excellent executive summaries is in the back of Harvard Business Review. Each month in the back of the journal, there are executive summaries of the articles for that month.