Executive Summary Examples & Templates
When introducing your business to angel investors, stakeholders, and venture capitalists, they won’t want to sit through fifty pages explaining why they should work with you. A simple and effective way to present your business in a palatable way is to write an executive summary. This document can tell the potential investors what to expect from the meeting where you will discuss your business plan or investment proposal. It will summarize the reason for your project.
Have you ever prepared an executive summary? If not, the following guideline and Executive Summary Example should help you create a concise and compelling one.
What Is an Executive Summary?
An executive summary is a broad overview of a business document that tells the reader everything they need to know about a business plan or investment proposal. While the length and scope will often depend on the document being summarized, most executive summaries are about one to two pages long. Important documents that usually include an executive summary include:
- Project plans
- Business cases
- Project proposals
- Environmental studies
- Research documents
- Market surveys
Purpose of an Executive Summary
As mentioned, most lenders, executives, managers, and investors will not want to take time out of their busy day to read an entire novel-sized document. Still, they will want to know what your plan is about and why they should invest in or approve it. A summarized version of the plan – the executive summary – presents an analysis of all your arguments, funding considerations, and projected returns, among other key details. This is often enough to convince them to take a better look at your plan.
Essential Elements of an Executive Summary
A business plan consists of your company’s mission, vision, product or service description, brand identity, goals, target market, and financial projections. In turn, an executive summary should be a short version of your business plan. It should contain the following details:
- Your company’s name and office locations
- Mission and vision
- A brief history and company description
- An overview of your management, advisors, and employees
- A product or service description, including its niche market and competition status – how does it stand out from products from other companies?
- Company goals and objectives
- Startup financial budget and projected returns
- A review of how the reader can help you accomplish your goals
How to Write an Executive Summary
Most executive summaries have four main parts: the problem, the solution, the value of the solution, and the takeaway. The following step-by-step guide will help you flesh out these elements with information that your stakeholders want to know.
Step 1: Define the Pain Point
Start by defining the problem that your business plan or project proposal aims to solve. Include market research and customer feedback to back up your claims and explain why this problem is worth solving. How will solve it helps your target market? Why does it matter?
Step 2: Outline Your Solution
Next, explain your solution and convince the stakeholder that it is the right approach to the problem. Answer the question, ‘how will my product or service solve the problem?’ Once you have, support your solution with facts and figures.
Tip: At the time of writing an executive summary, you will often not have the complete map of your product or service and milestones. Rather than use this document to brainstorm, briefly tell the reader what you plan to do and back it with success-rate research.
Step 3: Expound on the Value of Your Solution
Now, go into detail about how the solution you have described will solve the problem you defined in step 1. Why is your solution important? What results will it yield? This is also where you should highlight potential returns, projected risks, and financial projections for the solution. You should also explain how it ties into your company’s mission, vision, and goals.
Step 4: Supply the Takeaway
Lastly, guide the reader to a takeaway by telling them what they should conclude from your executive summary. Think of this as one final chance to convince them to get on board.
Executive Summary Example
The following is an Executive Summary Example for the imaginary company: Green Future Ltd.
Company Mission
Green Future Ltd. provides green energy solutions to factories, industries, warehouses, and homes, allowing efficient functioning that is safe to both the user and the environment. Our mission is to help you watch TV, drive your tractor, and perform your manufacturing process without worrying about your health or those around you.
Company and Management
The Green Future Ltd.’s main office is located in Jersey City, New Jersey, with branches in Huntington Beach and Bayonne. It is owned and run by Holly Howard, Ph.D., an environmental engineer at MIT, and James Sutton, MBA, who has 30 years of experience in green solar energy solutions.
The company management consists of the two owners and a board of advisors that includes:
- Malcolm Right, CEO of Right Engineering Firm LLP
- Att. Grace Hawkins of the Law Offices of Grace Hawkins (Environmental Law)
- Hellen Irene of ABC Marketing and Accounting
Our Services
We cater to industries, companies, farms, and homeowners that would like to switch to more affordable, environment-friendly, and efficient energy sources and systems. Our services include:
- Solar panel installation
- Panel restorations
- Windmill constructions
- Biogas plant construction
- Bio-digester system installation
- Energy consultations
- Large scale green energy solutions
- Energy recycling
- Round-the-clock repair services
Recently, the call for industries to turn to green energy has become more prominent. More and more companies in New Jersey are looking for ways to optimize their energy use for more efficiency in industrial processes, a smaller carbon footprint, and affordable solutions. According to our market research, eight out of every ten business owners in Jersey City alone plan to switch to solar energy within the next five years.
Competitive Edge
Currently, there are five companies offering green energy solutions in New Jersey but none at our scale. Four of these businesses cater to small-scale farms and homes, while one only focuses on large plants. Green Future Ltd. emphasizes its all-size approach because our solutions can be up or downscaled to meet the needs of a single homeowner or multi-warehouse industry. Our technicians are also highly accredited and from prestigious engineering schools in the country.
Financial Projections
Our market research shows sales projections of $3.6 million for the first year and a steep 20 percent growth rate for the next four years.
Startup Requirements
Green Future Ltd will need $1.5 million in startup costs to finance this first year of operation. The owners have already invested $900,000 toward the capital.
Executive Summary Samples & Templates
An executive summary is a brief overview of a business plan or project proposal, usually found among the first pages of the entire document. It captures the reader’s attention and tells them everything they need to know about the company, your plans, and where they come in – so they can decide whether to invest in or approve your plan (project). If you are preparing to meet with potential stakeholders, this guide and the Executive Summary Example should help you capture and keep their attention.
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Common Assignments: Executive Summaries
Basics of executive summaries.
Executive summaries are common in the Walden MBA program, but they are also found as part of some government and business documents. As a student, you should complete an executive summary when specifically requested to do so. An executive summary is a comprehensive review of a larger document. For example, a 35-page report may begin with a single-page executive summary all of the main information in the longer report. Any findings, conclusions, recommendations, or other details that appear in the larger document must be touched on in the executive summary. Readers should be able to read the executive summary alone and have a complete understanding of the larger document in its entirety.
How to Write an Executive Summary
It is important to meet all length and content expectations, so be sure to review the specific directions for your assignment. Also remember that the executive summary can only be written after the full-length document is complete.
Tips for completing the executive summary from Walden University (2013) include:
- List all of the main points in the same order in which they occur in the paper that you are summarizing.
- Take each point and turn it into a sentence.
- Add additional sentences to clarify or explain each point.
- Add a short introduction and a short conclusion. Include the name of the article, report, etc. and the author(s) in the introduction.
- Check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
- Check for plagiarism.
- Read the summary slowly and carefully to make sure it covers all of the main points clearly, yet concisely. Also, check to be sure it is interesting. You want to catch your reader’s attention.
- Set it aside. Let some time pass and read it again. Often, you will catch items that you did not see the first time.
For academic writing, be sure to include appropriate citations and a reference. This is typically not part of a business executive summary but should be included for purposes of this program.
Executive Summary Versus Abstract
Like an executive summary, an abstract is a short summary of a larger text. Both executive summaries and abstracts are meant to capture the main ideas, findings, and conclusions of a longer document. Executive summaries, however, tend to include more details than abstracts. An abstract includes enough information for readers to decide if they want to read the full-length document. Executive summaries must include enough information for readers to understand the full-length document without reading it.
Another difference between executive summaries and abstracts are the fields where they are used. Generally, executive summaries are common in business and government, while abstracts are more common in academia and at Walden, especially when seeking publication in a professional journal.
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How To Write A High-Impact Executive Summary
By Derek Jansen | January 2018
In this post, I’ll deconstruct the often-misunderstood executive summary and show you how to develop a high-impact executive summary for your assignment, research report or even your dissertation or thesis.
So, what is an executive summary?
An executive summary (sometimes called an abstract ) is quite simply a summary of summaries. In other words, an executive summary provides a concise summary of each of your assignment or report chapters/sections . More specifically, it should communicate the key points/insights/findings/suggestions from the following chapters:
- Introduction
- Recommendations
- Implementation (if applicable)
- Reflection (if applicable)
I’ll discuss which key points from each section need to be addressed a bit later. On a separate note – if you’re writing an executive summary for a dissertation or thesis, all of the concepts described in this post will still apply to you, however, you’ll include an additional paragraph about your methodology, and you’ll likely spend more word count discussing your analysis findings.
The 4 Important Attributes Of An Exec Summary
Before I discuss what goes into the executive summary, let’s quickly look at 4 attributes that make for a strong executive summary:
#1 – It should be able to stand alone.
The executive summary should be able to stand independently as an informative document . In other words, the reader should be able to grasp your broad argument without having to read the full document. Further reading should be purely for attaining more detail. Simply put, the executive summary should be a “Mini-Me” of the assignment.
This independence means that anything you write in the executive summary will need to be re-stated in the body of your assignment. A common mistake that students make is to introduce key points in the executive summary and then not discuss them again in the document – accordingly, the marker must view the main document as missing these key points. Simply put – make sure you discuss key points in both the executive summary and the main body . It will feel repetitive at times – this is normal.
#2 – It should be written for the intelligent layman.
When crafting your executive summary, its useful to keep the intelligent layman front of mind. What I mean by this is that you should write your summary assuming that your reader (i.e. the marker) will be intelligent but won’t be familiar with your topic and/or industry. This means that you should explain any technical concepts, avoid jargon and explain acronyms before using them.
#3 – It should be concise.
Typically, your executive summary should be a one-pager (one and a half pages at worst). To summarise a 3000 – 5000-word document into one page is no easy task, so you’ll need to:
- Present only the most important information (key insights, recommendations, etc).
- Write concisely – i.e. with brevity and completeness.
To the first point, I’ll explain what the “most important” information is for each chapter shortly. To the second point (writing concisely), there are various ways to do this, including:
- Using simple, straightforward language.
- Using the active voice.
- Removing bloaty adverbs and adjectives.
- Reducing prepositional phrases.
- Avoiding noun strings.
Does this sound like gibberish to you? Don’t worry! The Writing Center at the University of Wisconson-Madison provides a practical guide to writing more concisely, which you can download here.
On a related note, you typically would not include headings, citations or bulleted/numbered lists in your executive summary. These visual components tend to use a lot of space, which comes at a premium, as you know.
#4 – It should be written last.
Given that your executive summary is a summary of summaries, it needs to be written last , only once you’ve identified all your key insights, recommendations and so on. This probably sounds obvious, but many students start writing the summary first (potentially because of its position in the document) and then end up re-writing it multiple times, or they don’t rewrite it and consequently end up with an executive summary which is misaligned with the main document.
Simply put, you should leave this section until everything else is completed. Once your core body content is completed, you should read through the entire document again and create a bullet-point list of all the key points . From this list, you should then craft your executive summary . The approach will also help you identify gaps, contradictions and misalignments in your main document.
So, what goes into an executive summary?
Right, let’s get into the meat of it and consider what exactly should go into your executive summary. As I’ve mentioned, you need to present only the absolutely key point points from each of your chapters, but what does this mean exactly?
Each chapter will typically take the form of 1 paragraph (with no headings) in your executive summary. So, 5 chapters means 5 paragraphs. Naturally, some will be longer than others (let this be informed by the mark allocation), but assuming one page contains 500 words, you’re aiming for roughly 100 words per paragraph (assuming a 5-paragraph structure). See why conciseness is key!
Now, let’s look at what the key points are for each chapter in the case of a typical MBA assignment or report. In the case of a dissertation or thesis, the paragraph structure would still mimic the chapter structure – you’d just have more chapters, and therefore, more paragraphs.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
This paragraph should cover the following points:
- A very brief explanation of the business (what does it do, for whom and where?).
- Clear identification and explanation of the problem or opportunity that will be the focus of the assignment/report.
- A clear statement of the purpose of the assignment (i.e. what research questions will you seek to answer?).
- Brief mention of what data sources were utilised (i.e. secondary research) and any fieldwork undertaken (i.e. primary research ).
In other words, your first paragraph should introduce the business, the problem/opportunity to be addressed, why it’s important, and how you approached your analysis. This paragraph should make it clear to the reader what the assignment is all about at a broad level. Here’s a practical example:
This assignment focuses on ABC Ltd, a XXX business based in XXX, which provides XXX to XXX customers. To date, the firm has relied almost exclusively on XXX marketing channel. Consequently, ABC Ltd has little understanding of consumer segments, wants, and needs. This marketing channel is now under regulatory threat due to XXX. The core challenge, therefore, is that whilst ABC Ltd seeks to grow its market share, it has little understanding of its market characteristics or competitive set, and its sole marketing channel under regulatory threat. Accordingly, the objective of this assignment is XXX. The assignment draws on survey, interview, and industry data.
Paragraph 2: Analysis and findings
In this paragraph, you should discuss the following:
- What exactly did you analyse? For example, you might have analysed the macro context (i.e. PESTLE analysis), followed by the meso (i.e. competitor or industry analysis) and then the micro (i.e. internal organisational analysis).
- What were your key findings in relation to the purpose of the assignment? For example, you may have identified 4 potential causes of a problem and would then state them.
In other words, your second paragraph should concisely explain what you analysed and what your main findings were . An example of this:
Segmentation analysis, consisting of macro, industry and firm-level analyses, revealed a strong segmentation variable in the form of XXX, with distinct needs in each segment. Macro analysis revealed XXX, while industry and firm-level analyses suggested XXX. Subsequently, three potential target segments were established, namely XXX, XXX and XXX. These were then evaluated using the Directional Policy Matrix, and the results indicated XXX.
From a presentation perspective, you might structure this section as:
- Analysis 1, findings from analysis 1.
- Analysis 2, findings from analysis 2.
- Analysis 3, findings from analysis 3.
Importantly, you should only discuss the findings that are directly linked to the research questions (i.e. the purpose of the assignment) – don’t digress into interesting but less relevant findings. Given that the analysis chapter typically counts for a large proportion of marks, you could viably write 2-3 paragraphs for this. Be guided by the mark allocation.
Lastly, you should ensure that the findings you present here align well with the recommendations you’ll make in the next paragraph. Think about what your recommendations are, and, if necessary, reverse engineer this paragraph to create a strong link and logical flow from analysis to recommendations.
Paragraph 3: Recommendations
With the key findings from your analysis presented in the preceding paragraph, you should now discuss the following:
- What are your key recommendations?
- How do these solve the problems you found in your analysis?
- Were there any further conclusions?
Simply put, this paragraph (or two) should present the main recommendations and justify their use (i.e. explain how they resolve the key issue). As mentioned before, it’s critically important that your recommendations tightly align with (and resolve) the key issues that you identified in the analysis. An example:
Based on the Directional Policy Matrix analysis, it is recommended that the firm target XXX segment, because of XXX. On this basis, a positioning of XXX is proposed, as this aligns with the segment’s key needs. Furthermore, a provisional high-level marketing mix is proposed. The key aspects of the marketing mix include XXX, XXX and XXX, as these align with the firm’s positioning of XXX. By adopting these recommendations, the key issue of XXX will be resolved.
Also, note that (typically) the tone changes from past to present tense when you get to the recommendations section.
Paragraph 4: Implementation
If your assignment brief requires an implementation/project plan-type section, this paragraph will typically include the following points:
- Time requirements (how long will it take?)
- People requirements (what skills are needed and where do you find them?)
- Money requirements (what budget is required?)
- How will the project or change be managed? (i.e. project management plan)
- What risks exist and how will these be managed?
Depending on what level of detail is required by your assignment brief, you may need to present more, less or other details in this section. As always, be guided by the assignment brief.
A practical example:
A high-level implementation plan is proposed, including a stakeholder analysis, project plan and business case. Resource requirements are presented, detailing XXX, XXX and XXX requirements. A risk analysis is presented, revealing key risks including XXX, XXX and XXX. Risk management solutions are proposed, including XXX and XXX.
Paragraph 5: Reflection
As with the implementation chapter, the need for a reflection chapter/section will vary between assignments and universities. If your assignment has this requirement, it’s typically good to cover the following points:
- What were your key learnings? What were your ah-ha moments?
- What has changed in the real world as a consequence of these learnings? I.e. how has your actual behaviour and approach to “X” changed, if any?
- What are the benefits and/or disadvantages of this change, if any?
This section is very personal, and so each person’s reflections will be different. Don’t take the above points as gospel.
Time to test it out.
Once you’ve written up your executive summary and feel confident that it’s in good shape, it’s time to test it out on an unsuspecting intelligent layman. This is a critically important step, since you, as the writer, are simply too close to the work to judge whether it all makes sense to a first-time reader. In fact, you are the least suitable person on the planet!
So, find someone who is not familiar with your assignment topic (and ideally, not familiar with your industry), and ask them to have a read through your executive summary. Friends and family will usually tell you its great, regardless of the quality, so you need to test them on their understanding. Do this by asking them to give the details back to you in their own words. Poke and prod – can they tell you what the key issues and recommendations were (in their own words!). You’ll quickly spot the gaps this way, and be able to flesh out any weak areas.
Wrapping up.
In this post, I’ve discussed how to write the all too often undercooked executive summary. I’ve discussed some important attributes of a strong executive summary, as well as the contents that typically go into it. To recap on the key points:
The key attributes of a high-impact executive summary:
- It should be able to stand alone.
- It should be written for the intelligent layman.
- It should be concise.
- It should be written last.
The key contents of a high-impact executive summary:
Each paragraph should cover a chapter from the document. For example, In the case of a typical assignment, it would be something like:
- Summary of the introduction chapter.
- Summary of the analysis chapter.
- Summary of the recommendations and/or conclusions chapter.
- Depending – summary of the implementation and reflection.
Lastly, don’t forget to test out your executive summary on an unsuspecting layman or two. This is probably the most important step of them all!
If you have any questions or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch here or leave a comment below.
Thanks so much for your methodical process and explanation of Executive Summary. It is exactly what I was researching for.
Regards Saane
It’s a pleasure!
This was really helpful with how to structure my assignment.
Thank you so much for the step by step process. It’s so helpful for beginners like me.
Great! This post is very informative and gives clear guidance on to write an executive summary. Thanks very much for sharing this information, it’s very helpful.
Thanks for the feedback, Anna. Best of luck with your writing 🙂
Thank you for the great article, really helped explain what was needed.
Great insight and tips . Thanks
Thank you so much for sharing this. It was exactly what I was looking for.
Thank you for your help
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Free Executive Summary Template [PDF + Masterful Examples]
Use these templates to craft an effective executive summary for your business or project.
According to Time Magazine, 55% of people only read a piece of content for 15 seconds. Attention spans across the board are at an all-time low — including those of potential investors and project stakeholders. If you want to capture and hold interest, then you need to craft an engaging executive summary that can effectively hold someone’s focus.
Before you dive into the details of your business plan or project proposal, your first step should be an executive summary that captures the attention of those in a position to give buy-in.
Think of the executive summary as the back cover of your book. It convinces readers to purchase a copy because the storyline is worth their time. An investor or C-level executive with limited time probably won’t feel motivated to read a full business or product plan without a compelling executive summary.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to write a captivating executive summary, what to include in the document, and jumpstart yours with customizable templates.
What is an executive summary?
An executive summary is a brief synopsis of a larger document such as a report or business plan. It provides a quick overview of your business plan with details like a description of your company, financial information, and market analysis.
The executive summary is made for lenders, investors, and busy executives who don’t have time to read the full proposal.
Done right, it zeroes in on what your prospective investor or project sponsor wants to hear and clearly communicates the value of your business or plan. Many investors or stakeholders will only read the executive summary during the first contact with your business, so all the information they need should be included.
The goals of an executive summary include:
- Grab the reader’s attention
- Tell them what to expect in the business plan so they are motivated to keep reading
- Provide a high-level overview of your company, your short-term and long-term goals
- Acts as an elevator pitch
What is an executive summary in a business plan?
An executive summary in a business plan is a concise overview that provides a snapshot of the key elements of the plan as it pertains to the business overall. It outlines the business concept, objectives, market analysis, financial projections, and other essential information. The executive summary serves as a summary and introduction to the entire business plan, allowing lenders, investors, and decision-makers to quickly grasp the main points and make informed decisions.
What is an executive summary in project management?
An executive summary in project management is a summary of the most critical information of your project proposal. It’s everything that management needs to know when they land on your project before they review your project plan .
An executive summary in project management shouldn’t be confused with a project overview. While they have similar elements, an executive summary can stand alone as a document, while a project overview needs to be attached to your project.
Executive summary vs abstract
An abstract summarizes a document like a journal article while an executive summary sums up a longer document.
An abstract is mostly used in academia as a requirement when submitting conference papers, book proposals, or applying for a research grant. The abstract is not an excerpt but an original document that is self-sufficient.
An executive summary is aimed at a business audience. It contains information to help executives make funding decisions. Where the language in an abstract is technical, the language of an executive summary is non-technical. An executive summary is written as a condensed version of a project plan to secure buy-in while an abstract is written for orientation.
Executive summary vs introduction
The introduction is the first part of your project plan or business plan. It explains what the project is about and the goals you want to achieve. On the other hand, the executive summary is a standalone document condensed into a few paragraphs. It is thorough and high-level. Decision-makers can choose to read only the executive summary and still get the gist of the entire project proposal.
Think of the introduction as the first few pages of a long book with many chapters and an executive summary like a short book with only one chapter. You can understand both context and storyline when you read a short book.
What should an executive summary include?
For a project .
What is the problem you’re going to solve? What product plan, customer feedback, or insight led to this project? Why should it happen now ? These are questions to lead with in the opening paragraph of your executive summary.
What steps or methods are you taking to solve the problems you’ve listed in the opening paragraph? What are the goals and objectives you’ll achieve at the end of the project? Detail the answers in this section.
Value proposition
This is an important section where you briefly explain the value of the outcome. What is the ROI of the solution you’ve proposed? How will it improve service delivery and customer experience?
In a few sentences reiterate why it’s important to solve the problem now and the next steps or actions you want the reader to take.
For a business plan
Introduction .
For a business plan, the introduction is an opening statement that explains the purpose of the document. Your goal is to grab and hold the reader’s attention by clearly communicating the value of the business and the desired outcome.
Company description
Include the following details in the company description:
- Business name and location
- Contact information
- Description of the purpose
- Leadership, founders, and current investors at your company
- The team responsible for the project
Products and services
Briefly explain the problem you’re going to solve. If you’ve conducted research that shows a need for the proposal, include your findings here. Also, explain how you’ll accomplish the project goals and what you’ll need for success.
Market analysis
A few questions to answer in this section include:
- Is there a market opportunity for the problem?
- How do you plan to grow your customer base and expand your market share?
- What is the five-year growth plan for this product/service?
- What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned about your target audience that the reader should know?
Competitive analysis
Questions to answer as part of your competitive analysis include:
- Who are your competitors?
- What are the present and future opportunities?
- What is the unique value proposition of the product or service?
- Do you have experience with competitors?
- What are the risks particular to this niche or line of product?
- What roadblocks do you expect to address?
Funding request and use
Use this section to sweeten the pot for investors. How much will you need to fund your business? What is the profitability of your business? How will investors benefit?
Financial projections
Include financial data that supports your research such as:
- The budget baseline for your business plan
- Your projected revenue for the first three years
- Your plan to manage finances
- Your current and future business finances
Conclusion
The conclusion is a recap of the problem and the solution. Ask about the decision you want the reader to take. The outcomes should be obvious but leave room for intrigue so they feel compelled to read the rest of the business proposal.
Executive summary examples
Executive summary presentation.
Often, executive summaries are presented to stakeholders in addition to the document. Get the templates below to snag these PowerPoint executive summary presentation templates.
One-page executive summary template
A one-page executive summary is a short document with a big impact. You’ll present it as a mini version of a project plan during a meeting with decision-makers or as a business plan when pitching investors.
A few details to include in a one-page executive summary:
- Business name
- Financial information
- Use of funding
- Management team
- Business model
- Unique value proposition
- Competitive advantage
- Go-to-market strategy
Startup executive summary template
Your startup executive summary could be the difference between getting a pitch meeting or not. Venture capitalists and investors and overwhelmed with pitches from startups looking for a partnership.
An executive summary is the fastest way for them to learn about your company and evaluate its potential. It’s usually a one-page document that is concise, yet detailed and engaging. Before writing your startup executive summary, determine the goal and ensure it matches what potential investors want to see.
Details to include in your startup executive summary:
- A description of your product or service
- The value proposition
- Market analysis showing the merit of the project
- Your current business model and future plans
- An explanation of your market and customer base
- Financial projections and funding request
- Other special information that could sway a decision in your favor
Business plan executive summary template
The business plan executive summary shouldn’t exceed two pages. Make sure you’ve tailored it to your audience to show why the opportunity is special. An executive summary for a business plan should include:
- Mission statement
- Company information with details about your services or product
- Business highlights describing how you’ve grown over the years. Include details of revenue increase, number of customers, profitability, revenue increase, and market share
- Future goals
- Financial summary
- A closing sentence that reassures the value of the plan
Project executive summary template
The goal of a project executive summary is to show what life will look like after you’ve executed the project. Your executive summary should tell a story that helps the reader visualize the solution and inspire them to choose you.
The executive summary should be written as the final step of your project proposal template. This way, you save time revising the content.
Details to include in a project executive summary:
- Summary of the challenge the client wants to solve
- Description of how you’ll solve the pain point
- Overview explaining how you’ve solved similar problems in the past
- Unique value that competitors don’t offer
Marketing plan executive summary template
An executive summary for a marketing plan offers an overview of how you’ll reach your intended audience and drive conversions.
Details to include in a marketing plan executive summary:
- Introduction
- Brief description of your company and key leaders
- Project goals and objectives
- Your product or services and the major features and benefits
- Description of market factors and trends affecting them
- Who is your audience and how will you reach them?
- Financial projections
Healthcare executive summary template
A healthcare executive summary template is used in formal communications for hospitals, government health agencies, and nonprofits. The template accommodates longer-research proposal plans targeted at a wider audience of the general public, external investors, and management.
Details to include in healthcare executive summary:
- Project topic
- Overview of the organization
- Two to three key problems that have a profound impact on quality care, operations, or regulatory compliance
- A proposed solution to each identified problem
- Obstacles and opportunities
- Policy changes and program proposal
- Vision and recommendation
Executive summary report template
An executive summary for a research or analyst report offers an overview of key points from the research.
Details to include in a report executive summary report:
- Brief description of your company
- Analysis findings
- Why these findings matter
Here's an example:
How to write an executive summary
1. write a problem-based introduction.
Use the opening paragraph to explain why your project matters. Outline the problem with supporting research or customer feedback to strengthen your claim. The reader should understand why it’s important to solve the problem now and the relevance to your customer base.
A powerful way to grab attention is to open with a customer quote or thought-provoking statistic that forces the reader to sit up and listen.
For example:
“I wish this camera had a longer battery life span so I could record an entire football game on 4K without switching to full HD when the battery is low .” - Customer review
In a recent survey, 70% of our customers expressed a desire for a camera with a longer battery life that could last up to six hours while recording in 4k. 80% said they wouldn’t mind paying more for the convenience of not having to log extra battery packs when going out. To serve our existing clientele and improve our market share, we need to create a camcorder that performs at optimal levels while using fewer resources on battery life.
2. Tell your story
Use storytelling to explain the mission statement of your organization. Explain how you’ll use your skill and experience to solve the problem you’ve highlighted in the introduction. Storytelling sets the tone and gets the reader excited about reading the project plan.
3. Make sure you’ve done the research
While an executive summary is short, it’s loaded with research. Research shows that you know your competitors, understand your target audience, and have a plan for capturing a significant market share.
Think of your executive summary like an elevator pitch. If an investor only read your executive summary without making it to the project proposal or business plan, what would you want them to know?
4. Outline the solution
After telling the reader the pain points and explaining your business credentials, use a bullet list to outline the solution. Your goal is to convince the reader that your solution is the best fit. Save deliverables and milestones for the project proposal. Instead, describe what will happen during the project so the user can picture the outcome working for them.
5. Show the value of the solution
This is where you get into more details about the impact of the solution. Explain how the results provide relief and improve ROI for the company. include potential risks that may arise and relevant financial information such as income projections.
6. Formal or informal tone?
While an executive summary usually has a formal tone, your decisions should be based on your audience.
Presenting to your C-level executives in your company? What language do they respond to? Don’t be afraid to break the mold if it gets the desired results. However, avoid clichés as they rub readers the wrong way.
If you’re presenting to investors, use language that resonates with your audience. Use personal pronouns like “I”, “you” and “we” over impersonal pronouns like “they” or “the company.
7. Make sure the summary can stand alone
If you follow the clearly defined structure we’ve listed above, your executive summary can stand on its own merit. Keep revising the document until you’ve achieved this goal. The introduction, problem, solution, and conclusion should be detailed, yet concise.
After writing, take a second look and read from the viewpoint of the decision-maker. Is there any section where more context is needed to clear confusion and help the reader understand the summary? Consider linking to a relevant section in the project proposal or explaining briefly in the summary.
8. Be concise
Every word in your executive summary must have an impact. The executive summary is not the place to brainstorm new ideas as it could jeopardize the project plan.
Avoid using jargon words. Readers without prior knowledge of your company or niche should understand key findings by reading the executive summary alone.
When you find yourself going deep into details, pull back and ask yourself if this belongs in the project proposal or executive summary. The goal is to keep the executive summary engaging and actionable.
9. Proofread for errors
Before sending it off to executives or potential investors, read through the document three times in order to catch errors. It also helps to send it to a colleague to review with a fresh pair of eyes in case you missed a typo here and there.
10. Write the executive summary last
It takes longer to write an executive summary when you haven’t yet written the project proposal or business plan. Instead, wait to create a summary until you’ve written the full document, then pull details. This ensures that your executive summary captures the information you’ve detailed in the project plan.
Manage your executive summary templates with Guru
An executive summary is a quick and easy way to bring stakeholders up to speed on your project proposal. In a few paragraphs, you can communicate the problem, why it matters now and the key information they need to make a decision.
Rather than creating a new executive summary from scratch, these templates will add impact to your report and speed up the process. Use Guru’s knowledge management software to store your templates, collaborate remotely, and work efficiently on projects.
FAQ for executive summaries
Where does an executive summary go in a report.
Place the executive summary before the table of contents and after the title page. Include a page break before and after the executive summary.
How long should an executive summary be?
Most executive summaries are 5-10% of the length of the project proposal. Ideally, aim for one page for a 20-page project proposal.
Who is the audience of an executive summary?
The audience of an executive summary can include:
- Project stakeholders
- Management personnel who make decisions on funding
- Venture capitalists
- C-level executives
What is included in an executive summary?
Elements to include in an executive summary are:
- A summary of the key points of the project proposal report
- Major points of the report you want the reader to remember
- The goal of the report
- Results and recommendations from the report
- Other details that enable the executive summary to function as a standalone document
Executive Summary Examples for Business Plans, Project Plans, and Research Projects
By Kate Eby | February 8, 2024
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Executive summaries allow decision-makers to quickly grasp the key points of important documents and make decisions. We’ve collected a variety of executive summary examples and templates that you can use as models for your executive summaries.
Included in this article, you’ll find a business plan executive summary example , a project proposal executive summary example , a research report executive summary example , and more. Plus, learn how to fix common executive summary mistakes .
What Are the Main Components of an Executive Summary?
An executive summary is a concise overview of a larger document, report, or proposal. It gives high-level executives or decision-makers a quick understanding of the main points of a longer document without requiring them to read the whole text.
These are the components you might include in an executive summary:
- Problem Statement: Clearly state the problem or challenge the company, product, or project addresses.
- Key Proposition: Outline the proposed solution or key value proposition.
- Market Analysis: Summarize findings about the market, customer needs, or competition.
- Key Features and Benefits: Highlight the main features or benefits of the proposed solution or strategy.
- Financial Summary: Provide a snapshot of financial aspects, such as cost, revenue projections, or return on investment (ROI).
- Next Steps: Briefly describe the next steps or strategy for implementation.
Simple Executive Summary Example
The following simple executive summary presents a concise statement of key findings and links them directly to a strategic recommendation. It provides a clear snapshot of the situation and the proposed action, which is essential for an executive summary.
Problem Statement
Many small businesses struggle with inefficient inventory management, leading to lost sales and increased operational costs.
Key Proposition
Our company proposes an AI-driven inventory management system that automates tracking and forecasting, tailored for small businesses.
Market Analysis
Research shows a 40 percent increase in demand for automated inventory solutions in the small business sector, with a significant gap in affordable, user-friendly options.
Key Features and Benefits
The system offers real-time inventory tracking, predictive restocking alerts, and an intuitive interface, reducing inventory errors by an estimated 50 percent.
Financial Summary
Our projected development cost is five hundred thousand dollars with a break-even point in 18 months. The expected ROI is 200 percent in three years, tapping into a market with a potential revenue of five million dollars annually.
Development will commence in Q1 2024, with a pilot launch in Q3. Full market release is scheduled for Q1 2025, followed by targeted marketing campaigns and customer feedback integration for further enhancements.
Executive Summary Template
Download a Blank Executive Summary Template for
Microsoft Word | Google Docs
Download an Example Executive Summary Template for
Available in blank and example versions, this executive summary template guides you in succinctly presenting key information about your business plan or project to stakeholders. Simply fill in each section with relevant details to create a concise overview that highlights problems, solutions, market potential, product features, financials, and next steps.
Business Plan Executive Summary Example
Review the following example for a business plan executive summary of an eco-friendly transportation company. This example provides a clear, brief overview that is essential when you want to engage stakeholders and set the stage for more detailed discussions.
In urban areas, the lack of convenient, eco-friendly transportation options leads to increased traffic congestion and pollution.
GreenGo Mobility Solutions proposes a network of e-bike sharing stations, offering an affordable, sustainable, and flexible transportation alternative.
There is a growing trend toward eco-friendly transport in cities, with a 60 percent increase in e-bike usage. Surveys show high interest among urban commuters for more accessible e-bike options.
Key Features and Benefits
Our e-bikes are equipped with GPS tracking and easy-to-use interfaces. The bikes are designed for urban environments, offering a convenient and environmentally friendly commuting option.
The project requires an initial investment of two million dollars, with projected annual revenue of five million dollars by the third year. We anticipate a break-even point within two years, based on subscription and pay-per-use models.
Marketing Plan Executive Summary Example
In the following example, an executive summary outlines a marketing initiative within a company, detailing both the challenge and the strategic response. It provides a clear overview of the marketing plan’s objectives, actions, and expected outcomes.
We have seen a decline in new user adoption of our company's flagship software product over the past year.
Initiate a Revitalize and Engage campaign, focusing on updating the product’s user interface and enhancing customer engagement through social media and community building.
Competitor analysis and customer feedback indicate a need for more intuitive design and stronger community presence to attract and retain users.
The campaign will introduce a sleek, user-friendly interface and a robust online community platform, aiming to increase user engagement and satisfaction.
The campaign requires a budget of five hundred thousand dollars, with an expected increase in user adoption rates by 20 percent within the first year post-implementation.
Begin a UI redesign in Q2 2024, launch a social media engagement strategy in Q3, and roll out the updated product with community features in Q4.
Project Proposal Executive Summary Example
The example executive summary below demonstrates a well-structured project proposal that succinctly identifies a specific challenge and proposes an actionable solution. It provides a comprehensive snapshot of the project, including its rationale, expected benefits, financial implications, and implementation timeline.
Our current customer relationship management (CRM) system is outdated, leading to inefficiencies in sales tracking and client management.
We propose the development and implementation of a new, custom-built CRM system to streamline sales processes and enhance customer engagement.
Internal analysis indicates a 35 percent increase in process efficiency with a modern CRM system, while competitor benchmarking shows significant advantages in customer retention.
The new CRM will offer real-time sales tracking, automated client communication tools, and advanced analytics features, improving sales efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The estimated project cost is two million dollars, with a projected increase in sales efficiency by 50 percent and customer retention by 20 percent within two years.
Initiate the project in Q2 2024, with phase-wise implementation and employee training, aiming for full deployment by the end of Q4 2024.
Startup Executive Summary Example
Startups need to communicate their vision to potential investors and key stakeholders. In this example, an executive summary helps convey the startup’s vision with a concise summary of the business opportunity, unique selling proposition, market potential, and action plan.
There is a growing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly home cleaning products, but the market lacks options that are both effective and affordable.
EcoClean Innovations is a startup offering a line of environmentally friendly, biodegradable cleaning products made from natural ingredients, catering to eco-conscious consumers.
Market trends show a 50 percent increase in consumer preference for green homecare products, with a significant gap in cost-effective options.
Our products are non-toxic and competitively priced, and they have a minimal environmental footprint, addressing the need for effective and sustainable cleaning solutions.
We require an initial investment of one million dollars, projecting a 30 percent market penetration in the eco-friendly segment within the first two years.
Launch with an initial range of products by Q3 2024, followed by marketing campaigns targeting eco-conscious communities and online marketplaces.
Real Estate Development Executive Summary Example
In the following executive summary example for a construction project, the author outlines their vision for the Greenway Residential Complex. This summary captures the essence of the construction project proposal, presenting key information in a concise and structured format.
The growing urban population in Metro City has led to a shortage of affordable, eco-friendly housing options, resulting in increased living costs and environmental concerns. Key Proposition
Our project proposes the development of the Greenway Residential Complex, a sustainable and affordable housing solution. Utilizing innovative construction methods and eco-friendly materials, the complex aims to provide a balanced urban living experience that is both cost-effective and environmentally responsible.
Research indicates a high demand for eco-conscious housing in Metro City, with a market gap in affordable segments. Surveys show that young families and professionals are actively seeking sustainable living options that align with their environmental values and budget constraints.
- Sustainable design incorporating solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and green spaces
- Affordable pricing, targeting middle-income families and young professionals
- Proximity to public transportation and city centers, reducing commute times and the carbon footprint
- High-quality, energy-efficient building materials, ensuring lower utility costs and a smaller environmental impact
- Estimated project cost: Fifty million dollars
- Anticipated revenue from sales: Seventy million dollars, with a projected ROI of 40 percent over five years
- Funding secured from green building grants and private investors
- Finalize construction permits and approvals by Q2 2024.
- Begin construction in Q3 2024, with a projected completion date in Q4 2026.
- Launch a marketing campaign targeting eco-conscious families and professionals. Tip: In this example, notice how helpful it is to use bullet points to convey certain information. Using bulleted lists is a great way to organize and present information in an executive summary.
Construction Project Executive Summary Example
Construction projects have many moving parts, which means executive summaries need to capture a lot of information in a small space. Consider a construction-specific executive summary template to ensure that stakeholders are keyed into the most vital project information.
Download a Blank Construction Project Executive Summary Template for
Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs
Download an Example Construction Project Executive Summary Template for
Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs
This construction project executive summary template allows users to give a high-level overview of the key aspects of a project, such as status, risks, issues, and changes. Available in both blank and sample versions, this editable template condenses complex project information into an easily digestible format. To use it, simply fill in each section with relevant, concise information about the current state and progress of your construction project, ensuring it remains updated and reflective of any changes or developments.
Renewable Energy Initiative Executive Summary Example
A renewable energy initiative executive summary should highlight the project’s objectives, strategies, and potential impact, as well as its contribution to environmental sustainability. In the following example, the summary articulates the project’s vision and its alignment with global environmental goals.
The urgent need to address environmental challenges and the increasing global demand for energy underscore the importance of transitioning to renewable energy sources. The reliance on traditional fossil fuels is unsustainable and contributes significantly to climate change.
The SunWind Project is a pioneering initiative combining solar and wind power to create a robust and sustainable energy solution. This project aims to leverage the strengths of both solar and wind energy, ensuring a continuous and reliable power supply while significantly reducing carbon emissions.
The renewable energy sector is experiencing rapid growth, fueled by global environmental policies and a rising consumer preference for sustainable energy. This shift presents an opportunity for the SunWind Project.
The project is unique in its integration of solar panels and wind turbines, ensuring consistent energy production under varying weather conditions. This scalable approach is designed to adapt to increasing energy demands. By significantly reducing the carbon footprint, the project supports global environmental sustainability goals and has the potential to power thousands of homes and businesses.
The SunWind Project has an estimated cost of two hundred million dollars, with projected revenues from energy sales anticipated to be around three hundred million dollars over the next 10 years. This represents a potential ROI of 50 percent. The project is poised to benefit from green energy grants, government subsidies, and private investments.
Immediate steps include securing the necessary environmental permits and clearances. The construction phase, slated to begin in the second quarter of 2024, will focus on installing solar panels and wind turbines, with a goal to commence energy production by the end of 2025.
One-Paragraph Healthcare Executive Summary Example
An executive summary of a healthcare initiative needs to do the following: concisely identify a pressing healthcare issue, present a tailored solution with its benefits, summarize market needs and competition, and outline the financial viability and next steps.
In the following example, notice how an executive summary can capture all key elements in a single paragraph:
The HealthFirst Community Wellness Initiative addresses the critical problem of rising chronic illness rates in urban areas, focusing on diabetes and heart disease. Our comprehensive solution involves launching community health centers that provide preventive care, lifestyle education, and regular health screenings, as well as cater to the specific needs of urban populations. Market analysis indicates a significant demand for accessible healthcare services in these areas, with a lack of preventive and educational resources being a key gap. The initiative’s main features include state-of-the-art diagnostic tools, personalized health plans, and collaboration with local fitness and nutrition experts, offering benefits such as improved community health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs. Financially, the project is expected to be sustainable, with a mix of funding from public health grants and private partnerships. We are projecting a positive ROI within three years due to reduced hospital admissions. The next steps involve securing funding, establishing partnerships with local health professionals and organizations, and launching a pilot center in the downtown district, with a plan to expand to five more urban areas within two years.
Nonprofit Executive Summary Example
An executive summary for a nonprofit organization should communicate the essence of a project or initiative to donors and volunteers. It should concisely outline the organization’s mission, goals, and key solutions while also detailing strategies, actions, and their impact.
This executive summary example from Doctors Without Borders emphasizes the inadequacy of current Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agendas in meeting the needs of vulnerable populations. It then proposes six key recommendations to address these shortcomings.
This executive summary succinctly identifies the core issue — inequitable access to healthcare — and clearly outlines actionable recommendations. This document helps facilitate advocacy and policy change, which are central to this organization’s goals.
Research Report Executive Summary Example
An executive summary in a research report concisely presents the key findings, conclusions, and recommendations derived from a research project. It covers elements such as the project topic, background, research methods, and critical insights, tailored for quick understanding and decision-making.
In this real-world exampl e from the ASPCA , the executive summary details a study showing that veterinary hospitals’ proactive discussions about pet health insurance positively impacted hospital revenue and increased patient visits.
Notice how this summary concisely outlines the study’s purpose, methodology, and significant findings, providing a clear overview for readers. In addition, it highlights the study’s relevance and implications for veterinary practices, emphasizing the practical benefits of educating clients about pet health insurance.
Research Report Executive Summary Template
Download a Blank Research Report Executive Summary Template for
Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs Download an Example Research Report Executive Summary Template for
To create your own research report executive summary, download this customizable template. Available in blank and example versions and three printable formats, this template serves as a structured guide to organize and present the key components of a research report. Simply fill in each section with specific details about your research, including the project topic, background information, methods used, conclusions, and recommendations.
Research Project Proposal Executive Summary Example
An executive summary for a research project focuses mainly on the research question, methods, and expected outcomes. These summaries often point out how important the research could be and what impact it might have on the field.
Download a Blank Research Project Proposal Executive Summary Template for Microsoft Word | Google Docs
Download an Example Research Project Proposal Executive Template for Microsoft Word | Google Docs
Teams can use this one-page executive summary — available in a blank or sample version — to concisely present the key elements of a research project to stakeholders, potential funders, or academic committees. By structuring the summary with specific sections such as background, objectives, and methodology, you can be sure that you’ve clearly and briefly outlined all critical aspects of your research.
Executive Summary Slide Example
Executive summaries are often documents that one distributes to executives, potential investors, and other stakeholders. However, slideshow presentations can facilitate a more interactive discussion. Plus, the inclusion of charts, graphs, and other images can better illustrate key points.
Download an Example Single Slide Executive Summary Template for
PowerPoint | Google Slides
Download a Blank Single Slide Executive Summary Template for
This executive summary slide template is a versatile tool for succinctly conveying key project information in a single, visually engaging slide. You can enter your project information in the blank template or download the sample version for additional guidance. Input relevant details in each section, such as an overview of your project and next steps. The template allows users to insert their own text, graphics, and data. Copy your completed slide into a longer presentation, or use it on its own as a visual complement to any stakeholder presentation.
How to Improve Your Executive Summary
A poorly constructed executive summary can serve as an instructive example of what to avoid. Ineffective executive summaries might be too detailed or technical, lack focus on key points, or omit a clear call to action.
Here are examples of the three most common mistakes found in executive summaries:
Includes Too Many Details or Technical Information
This example demonstrates one of the most common mistakes, which is including too much detail or overly technical language. It dives deeply into the specific technical specifications of the equipment and financial metrics, which might be overwhelming for readers. A more effective executive summary would focus on the broader objectives, expected impacts, and benefits of the project in a language that is accessible to a non-technical audience.
Lacks Focus on Key Points
Sometimes, summaries fail to clearly highlight the most critical aspects of the project or proposal. This summary lacks focus concerning the key points of the Pathways to Knowledge project. A more effective summary would concisely state the project’s goal, significance, and anticipated outcomes.
Omits a Clear Call to Action or Conclusion
Failing to include a clear conclusion or call to action is another common mistake. The summary should not only inform but also persuade and guide the reader toward the desired action or decision. This summary outlines the project’s goals and structure, but omits a clear call to action. The document doesn’t specify what is expected from the reader or potential stakeholders, such as support, partnership, funding, or involvement in the project.
Corrected Example
To create a more effective example, start by removing overly technical details. (Stakeholders don’t need to know the specific standards with which the training modules are aligned or which types of processors power your computers.) Next, take out unnecessary details that stray from the main point of the project. An executive summary is not the place to discuss the origins of the project idea or the elements your team has not yet decided on. Finally, always conclude your executive summary with a clear call to action.
The Pathways to Knowledge project is a pioneering educational initiative by a nonprofit organization, aimed at bridging the educational divide in underprivileged and remote communities. This project involves the deployment of Mobile Education Hubs: state-of-the-art, solar-powered mobile units that are equipped with educational resources, technology, and internet access. These hubs are designed to travel to various underserved areas, providing children and adults with access to quality educational materials, online learning platforms, and virtual tutoring. Each hub also hosts workshops and seminars led by educators and experts, covering a wide range of subjects from basic literacy and numeracy to vocational training and digital literacy. The initiative seeks to empower communities by enhancing educational opportunities, fostering a culture of lifelong learning, and equipping individuals with the skills necessary for the 21st-century job market. By focusing on accessibility and adaptability, the Pathways to Knowledge project aspires to create a ripple effect of educational advancement and social upliftment across diverse communities.
Master the Art of Writing Executive Summaries with Examples for Business Plans, Project Plans, and Research Projects from Smartsheet
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How to write an executive summary, with examples
The best way to do that is with an executive summary. If you’ve never written an executive summary, this article has all you need to know to plan, write, and share them with your team.
What is an executive summary?
An executive summary is an overview of a document. The length and scope of your executive summary will differ depending on the document it’s summarizing, but in general an executive summary can be anywhere from one to two pages long. In the document, you’ll want to share all of the information your readers and important stakeholders need to know.
Imagine it this way: if your high-level stakeholders were to only read your executive summary, would they have all of the information they need to succeed? If so, your summary has done its job.
You’ll often find executive summaries of:
Business cases
Project proposals
Research documents
Environmental studies
Market surveys
In general, there are four parts to any executive summary:
Start with the problem or need the document is solving.
Outline the recommended solution.
Explain the solution’s value.
Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work.
What is an executive summary in project management?
In project management, an executive summary is a way to bring clarity to cross-functional collaborators, team leadership, and project stakeholders . Think of it like a project’s “ elevator pitch ” for team members who don’t have the time or the need to dive into all of the project’s details.
The main difference between an executive summary in project management and a more traditional executive summary in a business plan is that the former should be created at the beginning of your project—whereas the latter should be created after you’ve written your business plan. For example, to write an executive summary of an environmental study, you would compile a report on the results and findings once your study was over. But for an executive summary in project management, you want to cover what the project is aiming to achieve and why those goals matter.
The same four parts apply to an executive summary in project management:
Start with the problem or need the project is solving. Why is this project happening? What insight, customer feedback, product plan, or other need caused it to come to life?
Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives. How is the project going to solve the problem you established in the first part? What are the project goals and objectives?
Explain the solution’s value. Once you’ve finished your project, what will happen? How will this improve and solve the problem you established in the first part?
Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work. This is another opportunity to reiterate why the problem is important, and why the project matters. It can also be helpful to reference your audience and how your solution will solve their problem. Finally, include any relevant next steps.
If you’ve never written an executive summary before, you might be curious about where it fits into other project management elements. Here’s how executive summaries stack up:
Executive summary vs. project plan
A project plan is a blueprint of the key elements your project will accomplish in order to hit your project goals and objectives. Project plans will include your goals, success metrics, stakeholders and roles, budget, milestones and deliverables, timeline and schedule, and communication plan .
An executive summary is a summary of the most important information in your project plan. Think of the absolutely crucial things your management team needs to know when they land in your project, before they even have a chance to look at the project plan—that’s your executive summary.
Executive summary vs. project overview
Project overviews and executive summaries often have similar elements—they both contain a summary of important project information. However, your project overview should be directly attached to your project. There should be a direct line of sight between your project and your project overview.
While you can include your executive summary in your project depending on what type of project management tool you use, it may also be a stand-alone document.
Executive summary vs. project objectives
Your executive summary should contain and expand upon your project objectives in the second part ( Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives ). In addition to including your project objectives, your executive summary should also include why achieving your project objectives will add value, as well as provide details about how you’re going to get there.
The benefits of an executive summary
You may be asking: why should I write an executive summary for my project? Isn’t the project plan enough?
Well, like we mentioned earlier, not everyone has the time or need to dive into your project and see, from a glance, what the goals are and why they matter. Work management tools like Asana help you capture a lot of crucial information about a project, so you and your team have clarity on who’s doing what by when. Your executive summary is designed less for team members who are actively working on the project and more for stakeholders outside of the project who want quick insight and answers about why your project matters.
An effective executive summary gives stakeholders a big-picture view of the entire project and its important points—without requiring them to dive into all the details. Then, if they want more information, they can access the project plan or navigate through tasks in your work management tool.
How to write a great executive summary, with examples
Every executive summary has four parts. In order to write a great executive summary, follow this template. Then once you’ve written your executive summary, read it again to make sure it includes all of the key information your stakeholders need to know.
1. Start with the problem or need the project is solving
At the beginning of your executive summary, start by explaining why this document (and the project it represents) matter. Take some time to outline what the problem is, including any research or customer feedback you’ve gotten . Clarify how this problem is important and relevant to your customers, and why solving it matters.
For example, let’s imagine you work for a watch manufacturing company. Your project is to devise a simpler, cheaper watch that still appeals to luxury buyers while also targeting a new bracket of customers.
Example executive summary:
In recent customer feedback sessions, 52% of customers have expressed a need for a simpler and cheaper version of our product. In surveys of customers who have chosen competitor watches, price is mentioned 87% of the time. To best serve our existing customers, and to branch into new markets, we need to develop a series of watches that we can sell at an appropriate price point for this market.
2. Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives
Now that you’ve outlined the problem, explain what your solution is. Unlike an abstract or outline, you should be prescriptive in your solution—that is to say, you should work to convince your readers that your solution is the right one. This is less of a brainstorming section and more of a place to support your recommended solution.
Because you’re creating your executive summary at the beginning of your project, it’s ok if you don’t have all of your deliverables and milestones mapped out. But this is your chance to describe, in broad strokes, what will happen during the project. If you need help formulating a high-level overview of your project’s main deliverables and timeline, consider creating a project roadmap before diving into your executive summary.
Continuing our example executive summary:
Our new watch series will begin at 20% cheaper than our current cheapest option, with the potential for 40%+ cheaper options depending on material and movement. In order to offer these prices, we will do the following:
Offer watches in new materials, including potentially silicone or wood
Use high-quality quartz movement instead of in-house automatic movement
Introduce customizable band options, with a focus on choice and flexibility over traditional luxury
Note that every watch will still be rigorously quality controlled in order to maintain the same world-class speed and precision of our current offerings.
3. Explain the solution’s value
At this point, you begin to get into more details about how your solution will impact and improve upon the problem you outlined in the beginning. What, if any, results do you expect? This is the section to include any relevant financial information, project risks, or potential benefits. You should also relate this project back to your company goals or OKRs . How does this work map to your company objectives?
With new offerings that are between 20% and 40% cheaper than our current cheapest option, we expect to be able to break into the casual watch market, while still supporting our luxury brand. That will help us hit FY22’s Objective 3: Expanding the brand. These new offerings have the potential to bring in upwards of three million dollars in profits annually, which will help us hit FY22’s Objective 1: 7 million dollars in annual profit.
Early customer feedback sessions indicate that cheaper options will not impact the value or prestige of the luxury brand, though this is a risk that should be factored in during design. In order to mitigate that risk, the product marketing team will begin working on their go-to-market strategy six months before the launch.
4. Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work
Now that you’ve shared all of this important information with executive stakeholders, this final section is your chance to guide their understanding of the impact and importance of this work on the organization. What, if anything, should they take away from your executive summary?
To round out our example executive summary:
Cheaper and varied offerings not only allow us to break into a new market—it will also expand our brand in a positive way. With the attention from these new offerings, plus the anticipated demand for cheaper watches, we expect to increase market share by 2% annually. For more information, read our go-to-market strategy and customer feedback documentation .
Example of an executive summary
When you put it all together, this is what your executive summary might look like:
Common mistakes people make when writing executive summaries
You’re not going to become an executive summary-writing pro overnight, and that’s ok. As you get started, use the four-part template provided in this article as a guide. Then, as you continue to hone your executive summary writing skills, here are a few common pitfalls to avoid:
Avoid using jargon
Your executive summary is a document that anyone, from project contributors to executive stakeholders, should be able to read and understand. Remember that you’re much closer to the daily work and individual tasks than your stakeholders will be, so read your executive summary once over to make sure there’s no unnecessary jargon. Where you can, explain the jargon, or skip it all together.
Remember: this isn’t a full report
Your executive summary is just that—a summary. If you find yourself getting into the details of specific tasks, due dates, and attachments, try taking a step back and asking yourself if that information really belongs in your executive summary. Some details are important—you want your summary to be actionable and engaging. But keep in mind that the wealth of information in your project will be captured in your work management tool , not your executive summary.
Make sure the summary can stand alone
You know this project inside and out, but your stakeholders won’t. Once you’ve written your executive summary, take a second look to make sure the summary can stand on its own. Is there any context your stakeholders need in order to understand the summary? If so, weave it into your executive summary, or consider linking out to it as additional information.
Always proofread
Your executive summary is a living document, and if you miss a typo you can always go back in and fix it. But it never hurts to proofread or send to a colleague for a fresh set of eyes.
In summary: an executive summary is a must-have
Executive summaries are a great way to get everyone up to date and on the same page about your project. If you have a lot of project stakeholders who need quick insight into what the project is solving and why it matters, an executive summary is the perfect way to give them the information they need.
For more tips about how to connect high-level strategy and plans to daily execution, read our article about strategic planning .
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How to Write an Executive Summary (Example & Template Included)
Here’s the good news: an executive summary is short. It’s part of a larger document like a business plan, business case or project proposal and, as the name implies, summarizes the longer report.
Here’s the bad news: it’s a critical document that can be challenging to write because an executive summary serves several important purposes. On one hand, executive summaries are used to outline each section of your business plan, an investment proposal or project proposal. On the other hand, they’re used to introduce your business or project to investors and other stakeholders, so they must be persuasive to spark their interest.
What Is an Executive Summary?
An executive summary is a short section of a larger document like a business plan , investment proposal or project proposal. It’s mostly used to give investors and stakeholders a quick overview of important information about a business plan like the company description, market analysis and financial information.
It contains a short statement that addresses the problem or proposal detailed in the attached documents and features background information, a concise analysis and a conclusion. An executive summary is designed to help executives and investors decide whether to go forth with the proposal, making it critically important. Pitch decks are often used along with executive summaries to talk about the benefits and main selling points of a business plan or project.
Unlike an abstract, which is a short overview, an executive summary format is a condensed form of the documents contained in the proposal. Abstracts are more commonly used in academic and research-oriented writing and act as a teaser for the reader to see if they want to read on.
Executive Summary Format & Template
To put all of that information together, here’s the basic format of an executive summary. You can find this same information in our free executive summary template :
- Introduction, be sure to know your audience
- Table of contents in the form of a bulleted list
- Explain the company’s role and identify strengths
- Explain the need, or the problem, and its importance
- Recommend a solution and explain its value
- Justify said solution by explaining how it fits the organization
- A strong conclusion that once more wraps up the importance of the project
You can use it as an executive summary example and add or remove some of its elements to adjust it to your needs. Our sample executive summary has the main elements that you’ll need project executive summary.
How to Write an Executive Summary
The pressure of writing an executive summary comes from the fact that everyone will pay attention to it, as it sits at the top of that heap of documents. It explains all that follows and can make or break your business plan or project plan . The executive summary must know the needs of the potential clients or investors and zero in on them like a laser. Fortunately, we’ll show you how to write and format your executive summary to do just that.
Executive summaries vary depending on the document they’re attached to. You can write an executive summary for a business plan, project proposal, research document, or business case, among other documents and reports. However, when writing an executive summary, there are guidelines to ensure you hit all the bases.
Executive Summary Length
According to the many books that have been written about executive summaries, as well as training courses, seminars and professional speakers, the agreed-upon length for an executive summary format should be about five to 10 percent of the length of the whole report.
Appropriate Language
The language used should be appropriate for the target audience. One of the most important things to know before you write professionally is to understand who you’re addressing. If you’re writing for a group of engineers, the language you’ll use will differ greatly from how you would write to a group of financiers.
That includes more than just the words, but the content and depth of explanation. Remember, it’s a summary, and people will be reading it to quickly and easily pull out the main points.
Pithy Introduction
You also want to capture a reader’s attention immediately in the opening paragraph. Just like a speech often opens with a joke to break the tension and put people at ease, a strong introductory paragraph can pull a reader in and make them want to read on. That doesn’t mean you start with a joke. Stick to your strengths, but remember, most readers only give you a few sentences to win them over before they move on.
Don’t forget to explain who you are as an organization and why you have the skills, personnel and experience to solve the problem raised in the proposal. This doesn’t have to be a lengthy biography, often just your name, address and contact information will do, though you’ll also want to highlight your strengths as they pertain to the business plan or project proposal .
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Executive Summary Template
Use this free Executive Summary Template for Word to manage your projects better.
Relevant Information
The executive summary shouldn’t stray from the material that follows it. It’s a summary, not a place to bring up new ideas. To do so would be confusing and would jeopardize your whole proposal.
Establish the need or the problem, and convince the target audience that it must be solved. Once that’s set up, it’s important to recommend the solution and show what the value is. Be clear and firm in your recommendation.
Justify your cause. Be sure to note the key reasons why your organization is the perfect fit for the solution you’re proposing. This is the point where you differentiate yourself from competitors, be that due to methodology, testimonials from satisfied clients or whatever else you offer that’s unique. But don’t make this too much about you. Be sure to keep the name of the potential client at the forefront.
Don’t neglect a strong conclusion, where you can wrap things up and once more highlight the main points.
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What to Include in an Executive Summary
The content of your executive summary must reflect what’s in the larger document which it is part of. You’ll find many executive summary examples on the web, but to keep things simple, we’ll focus on business plans and project proposals.
Getting everything organized for your executive summary can be challenging. ProjectManager can help you get your thoughts in order and collaborate with your team. Our powerful task management tools make it easy to get everything prioritized and done on time. Try it free today.
How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan
As we’ve learned above, your executive summary must extract the main points of all the sections of your business plan. A business plan is a document that describes all the aspects of a business, such as its business model, products or services, objectives and marketing plan , among other things. They’re commonly used by startups to pitch their ideas to investors.
Here are the most commonly used business plan sections:
- Company description: Provide a brief background of your company, such as when it was established, its mission, vision and core values.
- Products & services: Describe the products or services your company will provide to its customers.
- Organization and management: Explain the legal structure of your business and the members of the top management team.
- SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis explains the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business. They describe the internal and external factors that impact your business competitiveness.
- Industry & market analysis: This section should provide an overview of the industry and market in which your business will compete.
- Operations: Explain the main aspects of your business operations and what sets it apart from competitors.
- Marketing plan: Your marketing plan describes the various strategies that your business will use to reach its customers and sell products or services.
- Financial planning: Here, you should provide an overview of the financial state of your business. Include income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements.
- Funding request: If you’re creating your business plan to request funding, make sure to explain what type of funding you need, the timeframe for your funding request and an explanation of how the funds will be used.
We’ve created an executive summary example to help you better understand how this document works when using it, to sum up a business plan.
Executive Summary Example
For this executive summary example, we’ll imagine a company named ABC Clothing, a small business that manufactures eco-friendly clothing products and it’s preparing a business plan to secure funding from new investors.
Company Description We are ABC Clothing, an environmentally-friendly manufacturer of apparel. We’ve developed a unique method of production and sourcing of materials that allows us to create eco-friendly products at a low cost . We have intellectual property for our production processes and materials, which gives us an advantage in the market.
- Mission: Our mission is to use recycled materials and sustainable methods of production to create clothing products that are great for our customers and our planet.
- Vision: Becoming a leader in the apparel industry while generating a positive impact on the environment.
Products & Services We offer high-quality clothing products for men, women and all genders. (Here you should include pictures of your product portfolio to spark the interest of your readers)
Industry & Market Analysis Even though the fashion industry’s year-over-year growth has been affected by pandemics in recent years, the global apparel market is expected to continue growing at a steady pace. In addition, the market share of sustainable apparel has grown year-over-year at a higher pace than the overall fashion industry.
Marketing Plan Our marketing plan relies on the use of digital marketing strategies and online sales, which gives us a competitive advantage over traditional retailers that focus their marketing efforts on brick-and-mortar stores.
Operations Our production plant is able to recycle different types of plastic and cotton waste to turn it into materials that we use to manufacture our products . We’ve partnered with a transportation company that sorts and distributes our products inside the United States efficiently and cost-effectively.
Financial Planning Our business is profitable, as documented in our balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. The company doesn’t have any significant debt that might compromise its continuity. These and other financial factors make it a healthy investment.
Funding Request We’re requesting funding for the expansion of our production capacity, which will allow us to increase our production output in order to meet our increasing customer demand, enter new markets, reduce our costs and improve our competitiveness.
If you’d like to see more executive summary examples for your business plan, you can visit the U.S. small business administration website. They have business plans with executive summary examples you can download and use.
Executive summaries are also a great way to outline the elements of a project plan for a project proposal. Let’s learn what those elements are.
How to Write an Executive Summary for a Project Proposal
An executive summary for your project proposal will capture the most important information from your project management plan. Here’s the structure of our executive summary template:
- Introduction: What’s the purpose of your project?
- Company description: Show why you’re the right team to take on the project.
- Need/problem: What is the problem that it’s solving?
- Unique solution: What is your value proposition and what are the main selling points of your project?
- Proof: Evidence, research and feasibility studies that support how your company can solve the issue.
- Resources: Outline the resources needed for the project
- Return on investment/funding request: Explain the profitability of your project and what’s in for the investors.
- Competition/market analysis: What’s your target market? Who are your competitors? How does your company differentiate from them?
- Marketing plan: Create a marketing plan that describes your company’s marketing strategies, sales and partnership plans.
- Budget/financial planning: What’s the budget that you need for your project plan?
- Timeline: What’s the estimated timeline to complete the project?
- Team: Who are the project team members and why are they qualified?
- Conclusions: What are the project takeaways?
Now that we’ve learned that executive summaries can vary depending on the type of document you’re working on, you’re ready for the next step.
What to Do After Writing an Executive Summary
As with anything you write, you should always start with a draft. The first draft should hit all the marks addressed above but don’t bog yourself down in making the prose perfect. Think of the first draft as an exploratory mission. You’re gathering all the pertinent information.
Next, you want to thoroughly review the document to ensure that nothing important has been left out or missed. Make sure the focus is sharp and clear, and that it speaks directly to your potential client’s needs.
Proofread for Style & Grammar
But don’t neglect the writing. Be sure that you’re not repeating words, falling into cliché or other hallmarks of bad writing. You don’t want to bore the reader to the point that they miss the reason why you’re the organization that can help them succeed.
You’ve checked the content and the prose, but don’t forget the style. You want to write in a way that’s natural and not overly formal, but one that speaks in the manner of your target audience . If they’re a conservative firm, well then, maybe formality is called for. But more and more modern companies have a casual corporate culture, and formal writing could mistakenly cause them to think of you as old and outdated.
The last run should be proofing the copy. That means double-checking to ensure that spelling is correct, and there are no typos or grammatical mistakes. Whoever wrote the executive summary isn’t the best person to edit it, however. They can easily gloss over errors because of their familiarity with the work. Find someone who excels at copy-editing. If you deliver sloppy content, it shows a lack of professionalism that’ll surely color how a reader thinks of your company.
Criticism of Executive Summaries
While we’re advocating for the proper use of an executive summary, it’d be neglectful to avoid mentioning some critiques. The most common is that an executive summary by design is too simple to capture the complexity of a large and complicated project.
It’s true that many executives might only read the summary, and in so doing, miss the nuance of the proposal. That’s a risk. But if the executive summary follows the guidelines stated above, it should give a full picture of the proposal and create interest for the reader to delve deeper into the documents to get the details.
Remember, executive summaries can be written poorly or well. They can fail to focus on results or the solution to the proposal’s problem or do so in a vague, general way that has no impact on the reader. You can do a hundred things wrong, but if you follow the rules, then the onus falls on the reader.
ProjectManager Turns an Executive Summary Into a Project
Your executive summary got the project approved. Now the real work begins. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that helps you organize tasks, projects and teams. We have everything you need to manage each phase of your project, so you can complete your work on time and under budget.
Work How You Want
Because project managers and teams work differently, our software is flexible. We have multiple project views, such as the kanban board, which visualizes workflow. Managers like the transparency it provides in the production cycle, while teams get to focus only on those tasks they have the capacity to complete. Are you more comfortable with tasks lists or Gantt charts? We have those, too.
Live Tracking for Better Management
To ensure your project meets time and cost expectations, we have features that monitor and track progress so you can control any deviations that might occur. Our software is cloud-based, so the data you see on our dashboard is always up to date, helping you make better decisions. Make that executive summary a reality with ProjectManager.
You’ve now researched and written a persuasive executive summary to lead your proposal. You’ve put in the work and the potential client sees that and contracts you for the project. However, if you don’t have a reliable set of project management tools like Gantt charts , kanban boards and project calendars at hand to plan, monitor and report on the work, then all that preparation will be for nothing.
ProjectManager is online project management software that gives you real-time data and a collaborative platform to work efficiently and productively. But don’t take our word for it, take a free 30-day trial.
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How to Write an Executive Summary for a Report: Step By Step Guide with Examples
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To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .
So you have finally written a great comprehensive business report that took you weeks to create. You have included all the data from the different departments, compared it, done the analysis, made forecasts, and provided solutions to specific problems.
There is just one problem – the key stakeholders in the company don’t have enough time to go through the whole report.
Since the data and the KPIs that you included in the report are necessary for quality decision-making, you can see why this can become a huge issue.
Luckily, there is a way to present all of your key findings and not take too much of their time. This is done through executive summaries.
An executive summary is exactly what the name suggests – a summary. It is essentially a quick overview of all the most important metrics in the report. The purpose of this summary is to bring the attention of the highest-ranking members in the company to the most important KPIs that they will consider when making decisions.
While an executive summary is a rather short section, it doesn’t mean that it’s easy to write. You will have to pay extra attention to every single sentence in order to avoid unnecessary information.
Do you want to learn how to create an informative executive summary? This guide will show you all you need to know.
What Is an Executive Report?
What is an executive summary in a report, how long should an executive summary be, who is the audience of an executive summary, what should be included in an executive summary report, how to write an executive summary report, common mistakes to avoid when writing executive summaries, executive report examples, executive summary templates, create executive reports in databox.
Executive reports are used for keeping senior managers updated on the latest and most significant activities in the company. These reports have to be concise and accurate since they will have a huge impact on the most important business-related decisions.
Working for any sort of company requires writing different types of reports such as financial reports , marketing reports , sales reports , internal reports, and more.
What all of these reports have in common is that they are very comprehensive and typically require a lot of time to go through them –way too much time, if you ask busy managers.
They include a wealthy amount of data and a bunch of different metrics which are more useful for a particular team in the company. However, the highest-ranking members tend to be more focused on only the most essential KPIs that they need for making future decisions and strategies.
This is why executive reports come in handy. They are usually only a few pages long and they include only the most relevant details and data that incurred in a specific period.
An executive summary is the brief overview section included in a long report or document. This part of the report primarily focuses on the key topics and most important data within it. It can include an overall business goal of the company or short-term strategic objectives.
This summary is primarily useful for C-level managers who don’t have time to read the whole report but want to have an insight into the main KPIs and latest business performances.
Bank officials also may use executive summaries since it’s the quickest way for them to estimate whether your company represents a good investment opportunity.
Depending on your company’s practice, executive summaries can either be placed at the beginning of the report or as a formal section in the table of contents.
The length of the summary depends on the type of report, but it is typically one or two pages long.
To know whether you have written a good executive summary, you can ask yourself, “Are the stakeholders going to have all the information they need to make decisions?”
If the answer is yes, you have done a good job.
There is no strict rule about how long executive summaries should be. Each company is unique which means the length will always vary. In most cases, it will depend on the size of the report/business plan.
However, a universal consensus is that it should be anywhere from one to four pages long or five to ten percent of the length of the report.
This is typically more than enough space to summarize the story behind the data and provide your stakeholders with the most important KPIs for future decision-making.
The people most interested in reading the executive summary are typically the ones who don’t have time to read the whole report and want a quick overview of the most important data and information.
These include:
- Project stakeholders – The individuals or organizations that are actively involved in a project with your company.
- Management personnel (decision-makers) – The highest-ranking employees in your company (manager, partner, general partner, etc.)
- Investors – As we said, this could be bank officials who want a quick recap of your company’s performance so they can make an easier investment decision.
- Venture capitalists – Investors who provide capital in exchange for equity stakes.
- C-level executives – The chief executives in your business.
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The components of your executive summary depend on what is included in the overall larger document. Executive summary elements may also vary depending on the type of document (business plan, project, report, etc.), but there are several components that are considered universal.
These are the main elements you should include:
- Methods of analyzing the problem
- Solutions to the problem
- The ‘Why Now’ segment
Well-defined conclusion
The purpose of the summary should typically be included in the introduction as an opening statement. Explain what you aim to achieve with the document and communicate the value of your desired objective.
This part is supposed to grab your reader’s attention, so make sure they pay extra attention when writing it.
Problems are an unavoidable element in modern-day businesses, even in the most successful companies.
The second thing your executive summary needs to outline is what specific problem you are dealing with. It could be anything from product plans and customer feedback to sales revenue and marketing strategies.
Define the problems clearly so all the members know which areas need fixing.
3. Methods of analyzing the problem
Problem analysis methods are key for identifying the causes of the issue.
While figuring out the problems and the methods to solve them is immensely important, you shouldn’t overlook the things that caused them. This will help you from avoiding similar issues in the future.
4. Solutions to the problem
Now that you’ve introduced the stakeholders to the problems, it’s time to move on to your solutions. Think of a few different ways that could solve the issue and include as many details as you can.
5. The ‘Why Now’ segment
This is one of the most important parts of your executive summary.
The ‘Why Now’ segment showcases why the problem needs to be solved in a timely manner. You don’t want the readers to get the impression that there is plenty of time to fix the issue.
By displaying urgency in your summary, your report will have a much bigger impact.
One of the ways to display urgency visually is by adding performance benchmarks to your report. In case your business is not performing well as other companies within your industry, only one image showcasing which metrics are below the median could make a compelling case for the reader.
For example, if you have discovered that your churn rate is much higher than for an average SaaS company, this may be a good indication that you have issues with poor customer service, poor marketing, pricing issues, potentially outdated product features, etc.
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Lastly, you should end your executive summary with a well-defined conclusion.
Make sure to include a recap of the problems, solutions, and the overall most important KPIs from the document.
Okay, so you understand the basics of executive summaries and why they are so important. However, you still aren’t sure how to write one.
Don’t worry.
Here are some of the best practices you can use to create amazing executive summaries that will impress your key stakeholders and high-ranking members.
Write it Last
Grab their attention, use appropriate language, talk strategy, include forecasts, highlight funding needs, make it short.
The most natural way to write your executive summary is by writing it at the end of your report/business plan.
This is because you will already have gone through all the most important information and data that should later be included.
A good suggestion is to take notes of all the significant KPIs that you think should be incorporated in the summary, it will make it easier for you to later categorize the data and you will have a clearer overview of the key parts of the report.
You may think that you already know which data you are going to include, but once you wrap up your report, you will probably run into certain things that you forgot to implement. It’s much easier to create an executive summary with all the data segmented in one place, than to rewrite it later.
While your primary goal when creating the executive summary is to make it informative, you also have to grab the attention of your readers so that you can motivate them to read the rest of the document.
Once they finish reading the last few sentences of the summary, the audience should be looking forward to checking out the remanding parts to get the full story.
If you are having trouble with finding ways to capture the reader’s attention, you can ask some of your colleagues from the sales department to lend a hand. After all, that’s their specialty.
One more important element is the type of language you use in the summary. Keep in mind who will be reading the summary, your language should be adjusted to a group of executives.
Make the summary understandable and avoid using complicated terms that may cause confusion, your goal is to feed the stakeholders with important information that will affect their decision-making.
This doesn’t only refer to the words that you use, the way in which you provide explanation should also be taken into consideration. People reading the report should be able to easily and quickly understand the main pain points that you highlighted.
You should have a specific part in your executive summary where you will focus on future strategies. This part should include information regarding your project, target market, program, and the problems that you think should be solved as soon as possible.
Also, you should provide some useful insights into the overall industry or field that your business operates in. Showcase some of the competitive advantages of your company and specific marketing insights that you think the readers would find interesting.
Related : What Is Strategic Reporting? 4 Report Examples to Get Inspiration From
Make one of the sections revolve around financial and sales forecasts for the next 1-3 years. Provide details of your breakeven points, such as where the expenses/revenues are equal and when you expect certain profits from your strategies.
This practice is mainly useful for business plans, but the same principle can be applied to reports. You can include predictions on how your overall objectives and goals will bring profit to the company.
Related : How Lone Fir Creative Uses Databox to Forecast, Set, & Achieve Agency & Client Goals
Don’t forget to talk about the funding needs for your projects since there is a high chance that investors will find their way to the executive summary as well.
You can even use a quotation from an influential figure that supports your upcoming projects. Include the costs that will incur but also provide profitability predictions that will persuade the investors to fund your projects.
While your report should include all of the most important metrics and data, aim for maximum conciseness.
Don’t include any information that may be abundant and try to keep the executive summary as short as possible. Creating a summary that takes up dozens of pages will lose its original purpose.
With a concise summary and clear communication of your messages, your readers will have an easy time understanding your thoughts and then take them into consideration.
Also, one last tip is to use a positive tone throughout the summary. You want your report to exude confidence and reassure the readers.
PRO TIP: How Well Are Your Marketing KPIs Performing?
Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.
Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:
- Sessions . The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
- New Contacts from Sessions . How well is your campaign driving new contacts and customers?
- Marketing Performance KPIs . Tracking the number of MQLs, SQLs, New Contacts and similar will help you identify how your marketing efforts contribute to sales.
- Email Performance . Measure the success of your email campaigns from HubSpot. Keep an eye on your most important email marketing metrics such as number of sent emails, number of opened emails, open rate, email click-through rate, and more.
- Blog Posts and Landing Pages . How many people have viewed your blog recently? How well are your landing pages performing?
Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics 4 accounts with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
No one expects you to become an expert executive summary writer overnight. Learning how to create great and meaningful summaries will inevitably take some time.
With the above-mentioned best practices in mind, you should also pay attention to avoiding certain mistakes that could reduce the value of your summaries.
Here are some examples.
Don’t use jargon
Avoid going into details, the summary should be able to stand alone, don’t forget to proofread.
From project stakeholders to C-level executives, everyone should be able to easily understand and read the information you gather in your summary.
Keep in mind, you are probably much more familiar with some of the technical terms that your departments use since you are closer to the daily work and individual tasks than your stakeholders.
Read your summary once again after you finish it to make sure there are no jargons you forgot to elaborate on.
Remember, your summary should be as short as possible, but still include all the key metrics and KPIs. There is no reason to go into details of specific projects, due dates, department performances, etc.
When creating the summary, ask yourself twice whether the information you included truly needs to be there.
Of course, there are certain details that bring value to the summary, but learn how to categorize the useful ones from the unnecessary ones.
While you will know your way around the project, that doesn’t apply to the readers.
After wrapping up the summary, go over it once again to see whether it can stand on its own. This means checking out if there is any sort of context that the readers will need in order to understand the summary.
If the answer is yes, you will have to redo the parts that can’t be understood by first-time readers.
Your executive summary is prone to changes, so making a typo isn’t the end of the world, you can always go back and fix it.
However, it’s not a bad idea to ask one of your colleagues to proofread it as well, just so you have an additional set of eyes.
Using reporting tools such as dashboards for executive reports can provide you with a birds-eye view of your company’s most important KPIs and data.
These dashboards work as visualization tools that will make all the important metrics much more understandable to your internal stakeholders.
Since executive reports on their own don’t include any visual elements such as graphs or charts, these dashboards basically grant them superpowers.
Executive reporting dashboards also make the decision-making process easier since there won’t be any misunderstandings regarding the meaning of the data.
Not only will you be able to gather the data in real-time, but you can also connect different sources onto the dashboard can use the visuals for performance comparisons.
Interested in giving executive report dashboards a try? Let’s check out some of the best examples.
Marketing Performance Dashboard
Customer support performance dashboard, financial overview dashboard, saas management dashboard, sales kpi dashboard.
To stay on top of your key user acquisition metrics, such as visit to leads conversion rates, email traffic, blog traffic, and more, you can use this Marketing Performance Dashboard .
You can pull in data from advanced tools such as HubSpot Marketing and Google Analytics to get a full overview of how your website generates leads.
Some of the things you will learn through this dashboard are:
- Which traffic sources are generating the most amount of leads
- How to track which number of users are new to your website
- How to compare the traffic you are getting from your email with blog traffic
- How to stay on top of lead generation goals each month
- How to be sure that your marketing activities are paying off
The key metrics included are bounce rate, new users, page/session, pageview, and average session duration.
You can use the Customer Support Performance Dashboard to track the overall performance of your customer service and check out how efficient individual agents are.
This simple and customizable dashboard will help you stay in touch with new conversation numbers, open/closed conversations by teammates, number of leads, and much more.
Also, you will get the answers to questions such as:
- How many new conversations did my customer support agents deal with yesterday/last week/last month?
- How many conversations are currently in progress?
- In which way are customer conversations tagged on Intercom?
- How to track the number of leads that the support team is generating?
- What is the best way to measure the performance of my customer support team?
Some of the key metrics are leads, open conversations, new conversations, tags by tag name, closed conversations, and more.
Want to know how much income your business generated last month? How to measure the financial health of your business? How about figuring out the best way to track credit card purchases?
You can track all of these things and more by using the Financial Overview Dashboard .
This free customizable dashboard will help you gain an insight into all of your business’s financial operations, cash flow, bank accounts, sales, expenses, and plenty more.
Understanding your company from a financial standpoint is one of the most important ingredients of good decision-making.
With key metrics such as gross profit, net income, open invoices, total expenses, and dozens more – all gathered in one financial reporting software , you will have no problems staying on top of your financial activities.
Use this SaaS Management Dashboard to have a clear overview of your business’s KPIs in real-time. This customizable dashboard will help you stay competitive in the SaaS industry by providing you with comprehensive data that can you can visualize, making it more understandable.
You will be able to:
- See how your company is growing on an annual basis
- Have a detailed outline of your weakest and strongest months
- Determine which strategies are most efficient in driving revenue
The key metrics included in this dashboard are recurring revenue, churn by type, MRR changes, and customer changes.
Do you want to monitor your sales team’s output and outcomes? Interested in tracking average deal sizes, number of won deals, new deals created, and more?
This Sales KPI Dashboard can help you do just that.
It serves as a perfect tool for sales managers that are looking for the best way to create detailed overviews of their performances. It also helps achieve sales manager goals for the pre-set time periods.
By connecting your HubSpot account to this customizable dashboard, you can learn:
- What’s the average deal size
- The number of open, closed, and lost deals each month
- How much revenue you can expect from the new deals
- How your business is progressing towards the overall sales goals
Although you probably understand what your executive summary should include by now, you may still need a bit of help with creating a clear outline to follow.
We thought about that too. Here are some template examples that will help you create executive summaries for different kinds of business needs.
Here is an executive summary template for a business plan:
- [Company profile (with relevant history)]
- [Company contact details]
- [Description of products and/or services]
- [Unique proposition]
- [Competitive advantage]
- [Intellectual property]
- [Development status]
- [Market opportunity]
- [Target market]
- [Competitors]
- [Funding needs]
- [Potential price of goods]
- [Projected profit margins for year one and two]
- [Summarize main points]
Executive summary template for marketing plan:
- [Product description]
- [Unique customer characteristics]
- [Customer spending habits]
- [Relationship to product]
- [Access channels]
- [Value and credibility of product]
- [Product competitive advantage]
- [Creative outlook]
- [Goal statement]
- [Forecasted cost]
- [Next week]
- [Next month]
Executive summary template for a research report
- [Project topic]
- [Name | Date]
- [Report introduction]
- [Background]
- [Research methods]
- [Conclusions]
- [Recommendations]
Executive summary template for project executive
- [Project name]
- [Program name]
- [Project lead]
- [Prepared by]
- [Project milestones]
- [Status overviews]
- [New requests]
- [Issues summary]
- [Project notes]
For the longest time, writing executive reports has been seen as a grueling and time-consuming process that will require many sleepless nights to get the job done right.
While there is plenty of truth to this, modern automated reporting software has revolutionized these writing nightmares.
Databox is one of those tools.
With Databox, you will be able to connect data from multiple sources into one comprehensive dashboard. Also, you are going to gain access to different types of charts and graphs that you can use for data visualization and make the report much more understandable to the readers.
Using a modernized tool like Databox will provide you with a faster, more accurate, and more efficient reporting process.
This advanced software allows you easily create your own customizable reports that can be adjusted in real-time as soon as new data emerges.
Who says executive reporting has to be a tedious process? Sign up for our free trial and see how easy creating executive reports can be.
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How to write an executive summary in 10 steps
Whether presenting a business plan, sharing project updates with stakeholders, or submitting a project proposal, an executive summary helps you grab attention and convey key insights.
Think of it as a condensed version of a document, report, or proposal that highlights the most important information clearly and concisely. It's like a "cheat sheet" that gives you a snapshot of the main points without reading the entire thing.
Throughout the article, we'll explore some examples of executive summaries to give you a better understanding of how they can be applied. Plus, we'll provide you with ready-to-use templates and best practices for writing compelling executive summaries.
What is an executive summary?
An executive summary is a concise overview of a longer document or report. It is typically written for busy executives or decision-makers who may not have the time to read the entire document but still need to grasp its key points and recommendations.
An effective executive summary should capture the essence of the document, highlighting the most important information in a brief and easily understandable way. It should provide a snapshot of the document's purpose, methodology, major findings, and key recommendations. The summary should be written in a way that allows the reader to quickly grasp the main ideas and make informed decisions based on the information presented.
Why do you need to write one?
For a business owner , an executive summary is one of the most important documents you will have. Like a business plan , they help you lay out the potential value of your business and your potential for success.
Unlike a business proposal, however, an executive summary is designed to be read in a brief amount of time. That makes them ideal for a variety of uses, like project proposals and research summaries. Sending your strategic plan to a prospective investor or stakeholder likely won’t get you far. But a brief report that clearly states your key findings and what’s in it for them might help you — and your proposal — stand out. It isn't all the details. It's what gets you the meeting to share more.
An executive summary is also a business document that can travel without you. It may be presented to other leaders and potential investors. If it’s written well, it will take on a life of its own. You may find that you get support and resources from places you never imagined.
What should be included in an executive summary?
Your executive summary should include brief descriptions of who your product, service, or proposal is for and your competitive advantage. Be sure to introduce your report concisely yet clearly . Note the most important points and its overall purpose––what do you hope to achieve with this report?
Also, include any necessary background information and statistics about the industry, high-level information about your business model, necessary financial information, or other insights you discuss in the report. Depending on your proposal, you may want to consider summarizing a market analysis of your target market.
Typically, an executive summary follows a structured format, including sections such as:
- Introduction: Provides a brief background and context for the document.
- Objective or purpose: Clearly states the goal of the document and what it aims to achieve.
- Methodology: Briefly describes the approach, data sources, and methods used to conduct the research or analysis.
- Findings: Summarizes the main findings, conclusions, or results derived from the document.
- Recommendations: Outlines the key recommendations or proposed actions based on the findings.
- Conclusion: Provides a concise wrap-up of the main points and emphasizes the significance of the document.
How do you write an executive summary?
When tackling an executive summary, it's all about following a structured approach to ensure you effectively communicate those crucial points, findings, and recommendations. Let’s walk through some steps and best practices to make it a breeze:
Step 1: Get to know the document
Take the time to dive into the full document or report that your executive summary will be based on. Read it thoroughly and identify the main objectives, key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
Step 2: Know your audience
Think about who you're writing the executive summary for. Consider their knowledge level, interests, and priorities. This helps you tailor the summary to their needs and make it relevant and impactful.
Step 3: Outline the structure
Create an outline for your executive summary with sections like introduction, objective, methodology, findings, recommendations, and conclusion. This way, you'll have a logical flow that's easy to follow.
Step 4: Start strong
Kick off your executive summary with a captivating opening statement. Make it concise, engaging, and impactful to hook the reader and make them want to keep reading.
Step 5: Summarize objectives and methodology
Give a brief overview of the document's objectives and the methodology used to achieve them. This sets the context and helps the reader understand the approach taken.
Step 6: Highlight key findings
Summarize the main findings, conclusions, or results. Focus on the juiciest and most relevant points that support the document's purpose. Keep it clear and concise to get the message across effectively.
Step 7: Present key recommendations
Outline the important recommendations or proposed actions based on the findings. Clearly state what needs to be done, why it matters, and how it aligns with the document's objectives. Make those recommendations actionable and realistic.
Step 8: Keep it snappy
Remember, an executive summary should be short and sweet. Skip unnecessary details, jargon, or technical language . Use straightforward language that hits the mark.
Step 9: Review and polish
Once you've written the executive summary, give it a careful review for clarity, coherence, and accuracy. Make sure it captures the essence of the full document and represents its content faithfully. Take the extra step to edit out any fluff or repetition.
Step 10: Dress to impress
Consider formatting and presentation. Use headings, bullet points, and formatting styles to make it visually appealing and easy to skim. If it makes sense, include some graphs, charts, or visuals to highlight key points.
Tips for writing an effective executive summary
- Adapt your language and tone to suit your audience.
- Keep things concise and crystal clear—say no to jargon.
- Focus on the most important info that packs a punch.
- Give enough context without overwhelming your reader.
- Use strong and persuasive language to make your recommendations shine.
- Make sure your executive summary makes sense even if the full document isn't read.
- Proofread like a pro to catch any pesky grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Executive summary template for business plans
Here's a general template for creating an executive summary specifically for business plans:
[Your Company Name]
[Business Plan Title]
Business overview
Provide a brief introduction to your company, including its name, location, industry, and mission statement . Describe your unique value proposition and what sets your business apart from competitors.
Market analysis
Summarize the key findings of your market research. Provide an overview of the target market, its size, growth potential, and relevant trends. Highlight your understanding of customer needs, preferences, and behaviors.
Product or service offering
Outline your core products or services, including their key features and benefits. Emphasize how your offerings address customer pain points and provide value. Highlight any unique selling points or competitive advantages.
Business model
Explain your business model and revenue generation strategy. Describe how you will generate revenue, the pricing structure, and any distribution channels or partnerships that contribute to your business's success.
Marketing and sales strategy
Summarize your marketing and sales approach. Highlight the key tactics and channels you will use to reach and attract customers. Discuss your promotional strategies, pricing strategies, and customer acquisition plans.
Management team
Introduce the key members of your management team and their relevant experience. Highlight their expertise and how it positions the team to execute the business plan successfully. Include any notable advisors or board members.
Financial projections
Summarize your financial projections, including revenue forecasts, expected expenses, and projected profitability. Highlight any key financial metrics or milestones. Briefly mention your funding needs, if applicable.
Funding requirements
If seeking funding, outline your funding requirements, including the amount needed, its purpose, and the potential sources of funding you are considering. Summarize the expected return on investment for potential investors.
Reiterate the vision and potential of your business. Summarize the key points of your business plan, emphasizing its viability, market potential, and the expertise of your team. Convey confidence in the success of your venture.
Note: Keep the executive summary concise and focused, typically within one to two pages. Use clear and compelling language, emphasizing the unique aspects of your business. Tailor the template to suit your specific business plan, adjusting sections and details accordingly.
Remember, the executive summary serves as an introduction to your business plan and should pique the reader's interest, conveying the value and potential of your business in a concise and persuasive manner.
Executive summary examples
Every executive summary will be unique to the organization's goals, vision, and brand identity. We put together two general examples of executive summaries to spark your creativity and offer some inspiration.
These are not intended to be used as-is but more to offer ideas for how you may want to put your own executive summary together. Be sure to personalize your own summary with specific statistics and relevant data points to make the most impact.
Example 1: executive summary for a communications business plan
Introduction:
We're thrilled to present our innovative [insert product] that aims to revolutionize the way people connect and engage. Our vision is to empower individuals and businesses with seamless communication solutions that break barriers and foster meaningful connections.
Market opportunity:
The communications industry is evolving rapidly, and we've identified a significant opportunity in the market. With the proliferation of remote work, the need for reliable and efficient communication tools has skyrocketed. Our extensive market research indicates a demand for solutions that prioritize user experience, security, and flexibility.
Product offering:
At [Company Name], we've developed a suite of cutting-edge communication tools designed to meet the diverse needs of our customers. Our flagship product is a unified communication platform that integrates voice, video, messaging, and collaboration features into a seamless user experience. We also offer customizable solutions for businesses of all sizes, catering to their unique communication requirements.
Unique value proposition:
What sets us apart from the competition? Our user-centric approach and commitment to innovation. We prioritize user experience by creating intuitive interfaces and seamless interactions. Our solutions are scalable, adaptable, and designed to keep up with evolving technological trends. By combining ease of use with advanced features, we deliver unparalleled value to our customers.
Target market:
Our primary focus is on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that require efficient and cost-effective communication tools. We also cater to individuals, remote teams, and larger enterprises seeking reliable and secure communication solutions. Our target market encompasses industries such as technology, finance, healthcare, and professional services.
Business model:
To generate revenue, we employ a subscription-based business model. Customers can choose from different plans tailored to their specific needs, paying a monthly or annual fee. We also offer additional services such as customization, integration, and customer support, creating additional revenue streams and fostering long-term customer relationships.
Marketing and sales strategy:
Our marketing strategy centers around building brand awareness through targeted digital campaigns, content marketing, and strategic partnerships. We'll leverage social media, industry influencers, and online communities to reach our target audience. Additionally, our sales team will engage in proactive outreach, nurturing leads and providing personalized consultations to convert prospects into loyal customers.
Team and expertise:
Our team is composed of experienced professionals with a deep understanding of the communications industry. Led by our visionary founder and supported by a skilled and diverse team, we have the expertise to drive innovation, develop robust products, and deliver exceptional customer service. We're passionate about our mission and dedicated to making a lasting impact in the market.
Financial projections:
Based on extensive market research and financial analysis, we anticipate strong growth and profitability. Our financial projections indicate steady revenue streams, with increasing customer adoption and market share. We're committed to managing costs effectively, optimizing our resources, and continuously reinvesting in research and development.
Funding requirements:
To fuel our ambitious growth plans and accelerate product development, we're seeking [funding amount] in funding. These funds will be allocated towards expanding our team, scaling our infrastructure, marketing efforts, and ongoing product innovation. We believe this investment will position us for success and solidify our market presence.
Conclusion:
In summary, [Company Name] is poised to disrupt the communications industry with our innovative solutions and customer-centric approach. We're ready to make a positive impact by empowering individuals and businesses to communicate effectively and effortlessly. Join us on this exciting journey as we redefine the future of communication. Together, we'll shape a connected world like never before.
Example 2: executive summary for a project proposal
[Project Name]
[Project Proposal Date]
Hello! We're thrilled to present our project proposal for [Project Name]. This executive summary will provide you with a high-level overview of the project, its objectives, and the value it brings.
Project overview:
Our project aims to [describe the project's purpose and scope]. It's a response to [identify the problem or opportunity] and has the potential to bring significant benefits to [stakeholders or target audience]. Through meticulous planning and execution, we're confident in our ability to achieve the desired outcomes.
Objectives:
The primary goal of our project is to [state the overarching objective]. In addition, we have specific objectives such as [list specific objectives]. By accomplishing these goals, we'll create a positive impact and drive meaningful change.
Our proposed approach for this project is based on a thorough analysis of the situation and best practices. We'll adopt a structured methodology that includes [describe the key project phases or activities]. This approach ensures efficient utilization of resources and maximizes project outcomes.
The benefits of this project are truly exciting. Through its implementation, we anticipate [describe the anticipated benefits or outcomes]. These benefits include [list specific benefits], which will have a lasting and positive effect on [stakeholders or target audience].
Implementation timeline:
We've devised a comprehensive timeline to guide the project from initiation to completion. The project is divided into distinct phases, with well-defined milestones and deliverables. Our timeline ensures that tasks are executed in a timely manner, allowing us to stay on track and deliver results.
Resource requirements:
To successfully execute this project, we've identified the key resources needed. This includes [list the resources required, such as human resources, technology, equipment, and funding]. We're confident in our ability to secure the necessary resources and allocate them effectively to ensure project success.
A project of this nature requires a well-planned budget. Based on our analysis, we've estimated the required funding to be [state the budget amount]. This budget encompasses all project-related costs and aligns with the anticipated benefits and outcomes.
Our project proposal is an exciting opportunity to address [the problem or opportunity] and create tangible value for [stakeholders or target audience]. With a clear vision, defined objectives, and a robust implementation plan, we're ready to embark on this journey. Join us as we bring this project to life and make a lasting impact.
Is an executive summary the same as a project plan?
While both are important components of project management and documentation , they serve different purposes and contain distinct information.
An executive summary, as discussed earlier, is a concise overview of a longer document or report. It provides a snapshot of the key points, findings, and recommendations. It focuses on high-level information and aims to provide an overview of the document's purpose, methodology, findings, and recommendations.
On the other hand, a project plan is a detailed document that outlines the specific activities, tasks, timelines, resources, and milestones associated with a project. It serves as a roadmap for project execution, providing a comprehensive understanding of how the project will be carried out.
A project plan typically includes objectives, scope, deliverables, schedule, budget, resource allocation, risk management, and communication strategies. It is intended for project team members, stakeholders, and those directly involved in the execution.
In summary, an executive summary offers a condensed overview of a document's key points, while a project plan provides a comprehensive and detailed roadmap for executing a project.
Executive summaries vs. abstracts
An executive summary is not the same as an abstract. Executive summaries focus on the main points of a proposal. They highlight when and why a reader should invest in the company or project.
An abstract, on the other hand, concentrates on what the business does and its marketing plan. It typically doesn’t include detailed information about finances.
While it is usually compelling, it’s less of an elevator pitch and more of a summary. The goal of an abstract is to inform, not to persuade. On the other hand, the goal of an executive summary is to give readers who are pressed for time just enough information that they’ll want to look further into your proposition.
When do you use an executive summary?
An executive summary is used in various situations where there is a need to present a condensed overview of a longer document or report. Here are some common instances when an executive summary is used:
- Business proposals: When submitting a business proposal to potential investors, partners, or stakeholders, an executive summary is often included. It provides a concise overview of the proposal, highlighting the key aspects such as the business idea, market analysis, competitive advantage, financial projections, and recommended actions.
- Reports and research studies: Lengthy reports or research studies often include an executive summary at the beginning. This allows decision-makers, executives, or other stakeholders to quickly understand the purpose, methodology, findings, and recommendations of the report without going through the entire document.
- Project updates: During the course of a project, project managers may prepare executive summaries to provide updates to stakeholders or higher-level management. These summaries give a brief overview of the project's progress, achievements, challenges, and upcoming milestones.
- Strategic plans: When developing strategic plans for an organization, an executive summary is often included to provide an overview of the plan's goals, objectives, strategies, and key initiatives. It allows executives and stakeholders to grasp the essence of the strategic plan and its implications without reading the entire document.
- Funding requests: When seeking funding for a project or venture, an executive summary is commonly used as part of the funding proposal. It provides a succinct summary of the project, highlighting its significance, potential impact, financial requirements, and expected outcomes.
In general, an executive summary is used whenever there is a need to communicate the main points, findings, and recommendations of a document concisely and efficiently to individuals who may not have the time or inclination to read the entire content. It serves as a valuable tool for understanding and facilitates quick decision-making.
5 ways project managers can use executive summaries
Project managers can use executive summaries in various ways to effectively communicate project updates, status reports, or proposals to stakeholders and higher-level management. Here are some ways project managers can use executive summaries:
- Project status updates: Project managers can provide regular executive summaries to stakeholders and management to communicate the current status of the project. The summary should include key achievements, milestones reached, challenges encountered, and any adjustments to the project plan. It allows stakeholders to quickly grasp the project's progress and make informed decisions or provide guidance as needed.
- Project proposals: When pitching a project idea or seeking approval for a new project, project managers can prepare an executive summary to present the essential aspects of the project. The summary should outline the project's objectives, scope, anticipated benefits, resource requirements, estimated timeline, and potential risks. It helps decision-makers understand the project's value and make an informed choice about its initiation.
- Project closure reports: At the end of a project, project managers can prepare an executive summary as part of the project closure report. The summary should highlight the project's overall success, key deliverables achieved, lessons learned, and recommendations for future projects. It provides a concise overview of the project's outcomes and acts as a valuable reference for future initiatives.
- Steering committee meetings: When project managers present updates or seek guidance from a steering committee or governance board, an executive summary can be an effective tool. The summary should cover the important aspects of the project, such as progress, issues, risks, and upcoming milestones. It ensures that decision-makers are well-informed about the project's status and can provide relevant guidance or support.
- Change requests: When submitting a change request for a project, project managers can include an executive summary to summarize the proposed change, its impact on the project, potential risks, and benefits. It helps stakeholders and decision-makers quickly assess the change request and make informed decisions about its implementation.
Using executive summaries, project managers can efficiently communicate project-related information to stakeholders, executives, and decision-makers. The summaries provide a concise overview of the project's status, proposals, or closure reports, allowing stakeholders to quickly understand the key points and take appropriate action.
When should you not use an executive summary?
While executive summaries are widely used in many situations, there are some cases where they may not be necessary or suitable. Here are a few scenarios where an executive summary may not be appropriate, along with alternative approaches:
- Highly technical documents: If the document contains highly technical or specialized information that requires a detailed understanding, an executive summary alone may not be sufficient. In such cases, it is better to provide the complete document and supplement it with explanatory materials, presentations , or meetings where experts can explain and discuss the technical details.
- Personal or creative writing: Executive summaries are typically used for informational or analytical documents. If the content is more personal in nature, such as a memoir, novel, or creative piece, an executive summary may not be relevant. Instead, focus on providing an engaging introduction or book blurb that entices readers and conveys the essence of the work.
- Short documents: If the document itself is already concise and can be easily read in its entirety, an executive summary may be redundant. In these cases, it is more effective to present the complete document without an additional summary.
- Interactive presentations: In situations where you can present information interactively, such as in meetings, workshops, or conferences, it may be more effective to engage the audience directly rather than relying solely on an executive summary. Use visual aids, demonstrations, discussions, and Q&A sessions to convey the necessary information and capture the audience's attention.
Final thoughts on writing a compelling executive summary
An executive summary isn’t the kitchen sink — it’s the bells and whistles. Geared toward busy decision-makers, these one-pagers communicate your case for action and proposed solutions. When it’s written well, your audience will walk away with an understanding of what needs to be done, why it needs to happen, and why they should help it move forward.
But writing it well doesn’t just mean spell-checking. It means tailoring your communication to an influential, yet busy and distracted audience. To be effective, you’ll need to write your proposal with empathy and an understanding of what matters to them .
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Allaya Cooks-Campbell
With over 15 years of content experience, Allaya Cooks Campbell has written for outlets such as ScaryMommy, HRzone, and HuffPost. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and is a certified yoga instructor as well as a certified Integrative Wellness & Life Coach. Allaya is passionate about whole-person wellness, yoga, and mental health.
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How to Write an Executive Summary for an Assignment Right and Neat
Table of Contents
What is an executive summary?
Contents of an executive summary, what is the purpose of an executive summary, how to write an executive summary for an assignment in 6 steps.
- Overview of the Management Team
- The Products/Services
- Your Customers
- Marketing/Sales
- Sales Forecast/Requirements
Executive Summary Tips!
Executive summary example.
We all know the importance of first impressions and an executive summary provides exactly this to your reader. It’s essential to learn how to write an executive summary for an assignment or your coursework well!
An executive summary (or management summary/abstract) is basically a succinct summary for an assignment or report that provides an overview of the assignment’s sections.
When writing an executive summary for an assignment, you generally need to include 3-5 parts:
- An introduction
- An analysis
- Your recommendations
- The implementation (if applicable)
- Your reflection (if applicable)
An executive summary/management summary/abstract is primarily produced for government or business purposes and plans. The summary gives the reader the opportunity to understand an assignment or report quickly and easily without reading the full contents.
Firstly, explain the purpose of the business assignment by providing the company name, location, legal structure, type of service/products, founding date, financial information, and the business’s key milestones that can be used to measure success.
2. Overview of the Management Team
Next, give the reader a brief insight into the management team’s experience/expertise and their individual contributions to the company.
3. The Products/Services
Now, describe the company’s products/services, its competitors and how your product or service is different to its competitors (why it is unique).
4. Your Customers
This section is where you must aim to show that you have carried out extensive market research/analysis and explain your customers’ behaviors. Incorporate statistics to demonstrate your understanding of what the findings have shown customers want.
5. Marketing/Sales
Summarize your marketing plan for key customers and explain why this method is going to work.
6. Sales Forecast/Requirements
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To write a good executive summary, follow these top tips!
- Pay attention to the required length, content, and citation style required by your educational establishment. Different establishments can have very different requirements.
- If you do not understand the assignment brief, be sure to get assignment help from your instructor and ask them plenty of questions. It will waste valuable time and energy if you are unclear on the assignment and start in the wrong direction.
- Write the executive summary only after the rest of the assignment is complete.
- Ask your instructor for a good assignment example if you are unsure of how to write any aspects of an assignment or you can simply key in online ‘ example of introduction for assignmen t’ or ‘example of conclusion for assignment’, to obtain useful examples. Reading an example text is often more valuable than written instructions of how to write things.
- Your conclusion can help you write an executive summary for assignment as essentially the executive summary is a summary of the conclusion. To write a conclusion for an assignment, remember that it is written in the opposite order to an introduction so, it begins with the thesis, moves on to the main points relating to the thesis, and it ends with statements about the general topic.
- Do not claim that your product/service has no competitors. This is almost impossible, and investors may not trust you have carried out sufficient research.
- Aim to show an in-depth understanding (to reassure investors) and remember that great interest from investors can be gained via a tight budget (if possible).
- Provide a logical order for the reader by stating the main points in the order they are covered in the assignment.
- Remember how important your assignment heading is. This will be read even before the executive summary. It needs to be clear, professional, and interesting.
- Have a rest before proofreading. As an executive summary provides the first impression, it needs to be completely free of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Also, see if you can take out any unnecessary words to keep it straight to the point.
In order to gain a deeper understanding, see below for an example of an executive summary for assignment.
Overall, to write an executive summary for a report or assignment is not easy. It requires the ability to mindfully focus on the key information only and write it in an extremely minimalist way. Hopefully, the steps and tips provided in this article can help you on your way to success!
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Executive Summary
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An effectively structured background or context will be able to stand on its own, meaning it breaks down the topic into informative paragraphs. It contains all essential and relevant information and data that will help the reader comprehend your business report as a whole. With that said, it is natural for documents to have an executive summary . It is the compact and precise version of all the essential details on your record. It is more than just an introduction because it is a complete document on its own.
25+ Executive Summary Samples
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What is an Executive Summary?
An executive summary is a section found in most consolidated documents. It is a brief yet comprehensive synopsis of the major points in the document as a whole. It provides the readers a background about what the purpose of the proposal or report without going further in. It basically highlights the key points made in the document and is intended to stand on its own without needing supporting pages.
Importance of an Executive Summary
According to the article posted by Accion, the importance of an executive summary includes highlighting the strengths and accomplishments, making the company motivated to thrive further. So, as you develop a business plan , it should provide the executive summary at all costs. With this, writing a comprehensive and relevant executive summary report will save the rest of the plan. This will lead you a long way.
How To Write an Executive Summary
Some companies may employ a standard about writing a business plan or reports. Therefore, you must first consult the organization you are writing so that you can tailor it to their requirements. Professional report writing has various considerations. Nevertheless, we give you the most common and effective ways of writing an executive summary. Read on.
1. Keep It Short
For every startup or small business , you have to remember that your executive summary is supposed to be short, but complete. It is meant to stand on its own. Although there is no set standard when it comes to the length of a professional report , as a rule of thumb, it is substantial to make it not longer than 10 percent of the entire document, or simply put; it should be one to two pages only.
2. Use Easily Understandable Language
The language and tone you should use when preparing your executive summary should be professional. Emphasizing the language, it should be easily understandable for your readers. Avoid using technical language as your readers may not understand them since they don’t belong to the same industry as you. You should also avoid using business buzzwords and jargon in this type of annual report .
3. Use Bullet Points and Subheadings
Create an outline using bullet points and subheadings in your executive summary. This will help your readers easily and efficiently scan the contents on your executive summary. It will make it easier for them to find what they are looking for. Aside from that, it makes your executive summary look clean and professional. Remember that a clean format will be one of the deciding factors for your management and business plan.
4. Avoid the Use of First-Person Pronouns
The main goal of your business plan as a whole is to write for your audience and convince them of your smart goals. Even if you’ve done your research for a project report , but the content is all over the place, you will still likely miss the point. Too much usage of the first-person pronoun “I” makes the executive summary less personal. Also, it can undermine your persuasiveness; it can discourage your readers since it can make you look like you are more centered and focused on your own personal goal instead of focusing on helping the consumers and the business goals.
5. Organize in Order of Importance
There is no set rule when it comes to the appearance of your content. Visual representations are not mandatory. But it is essential to organize your content to emphasize your points. Use the first part of your executive summary to highlight what you want to get the most attention. Then, use the next paragraphs to emphasize other points according to their importance. This can also make your report more cohesive and easy to read.
6. Proofread and Edit
You should never let your readers read an unedited document. Proofreading your proposal executive summary and the whole document as a whole will make you spot what things can be left out, spot misspellings, grammatical errors, etc. Generally, it’s a strategy that you must comply with. So, editing it to perfection will help leave an impression to your readers that you have taken your time to produce a well-written document.
What are the elements of an executive summary?
An executive summary is divided into different sections. It includes the key points, the purpose of the monthly report , significant points, evaluation of results, and conclusions.
How long must an executive summary be?
An executive summary’s length depends on how long the business plan is. So, check your investment proposal for reference.
How is an excellent executive summary defined?
A good executive summary is defined as short yet informative. It must be professional and error-free. But more than that, it must be an overview of the whole document you are trying to create.
Preparing a document for business purposes is crucial. Aside from it being comprehensive, it must be relevant and direct. So, when you start to create your executive summary, you can always look and read the steps above. Whether for strategic plan or marketing projects , it must be straight to the mind of the management.
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How To Write an Executive Summary (with examples)
An effective executive summary can mean the difference between a client win and the recycle bin. It's arguably the most valuable component of any business proposal , but many people get confused when it comes time to put pen to paper.
An executive summary is not actually about summarizing at all; it’s about selling. Here’s how to write a proposal executive summary that seals the deal, including the 5 key components you need and some helpful dos and don'ts.
(This article was originally published on 7/4/2017 and updated on 05/16/2023)
There is so much dissent surrounding the executive summary of a proposal— Where does the executive summary go? How long should an executive summary be? How do you format an executive summary? These uncertainties can add to the already stressful task of getting a winning proposal written, designed, and delivered to the prospective client on time. It’s time to set things straight.
What is an executive summary?
The executive summary is arguably the most valuable component of any proposal. It serves as an introduction, allowing readers to quickly get acquainted with your proposal by outlining what’s to come. It gives you an opportunity to sell your proposed solution and explain why the prospective client should choose you over the competition.
The purpose of an executive summary
First of all, the term “executive summary” needs a rebrand. The name itself speaks of stuffy suits, boring, jargon-filled reports, and boardrooms filled with cigar smoke and people ready to say no.
They can’t wait to read your executive summary.
In all seriousness, the word “summary” can be misleading, and this is the first mistake people often make when it comes to writing their executive summary. They think that the purpose of an executive summary is to explain the entire proposal in 250 words. But it’s not.
The real purpose of an executive summary is to engage your prospective client. It helps the prospect quickly decide whether they're going to read the rest of the proposal, pass it on to other decision-makers, or if it's destined for the recycle bin.
So you better make it good.
The executive summary of your proposal needs to grab the reader’s attention and pique their interest. Even though you and your team spent painstaking hours writing this proposal, selecting just the right graphics, and coming up with the best solution for your potential client’s problem, they may only read this one page and then flip to your pricing table.
That’s why this section needs to be specific and persuasive, with a focus on results and benefits of your company/product/service, rather than describing features. You can save the features for the body of the proposal.
When should you write the executive summary?
Whether you write the executive summary before or after the rest of the proposal is as contentious as the debate about the best part of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup: the chocolate or the peanut butter.
Some people feel that you should write the executive summary first because it can help you outline your concept and organize your thoughts for the entire proposal. That way, it acts as a guide for members of your team who are tasked with preparing sections of the proposal, ensuring that the big idea is consistent throughout, and that all necessary components are included.
Others feel strongly that you should write the executive summary after you’ve prepared the rest of the proposal because you’ve had a chance to work through the objectives and the solutions, and you’ll have a better idea of what to say and how to say it. Plus, things may have changed since you first started the proposal, so you might need to adjust your approach.
How to format an executive summary
The format of an executive summary is an important consideration that many people overlook. What do you include? How do you arrange the sections? To help you get started, here are the components of a good proposal executive summary:
The Opener: Capture their attention
You need an opener that's compelling. A way to get the potential client’s attention right away, and you do that by talking about THEM, not about you. Focus on the issue and the result, but be direct, concise, and evocative.
This is the time to hook them in — get them excited about what they’re going to read next.
The Need: We get it
Before a client hires you, they want to know that you get them. You can’t solve a problem that you don’t understand. This section of the executive summary is where you demonstrate your grasp of the situation. You could include a bit of your own research or a brief reference to your company’s experience dealing with a similar situation. You should also talk about how the client will benefit from solving the problem — what will change, the positive outcomes, the results.
Again, the focus here is on the prospect and their challenge, not on you and your company.
The Proposed Solution: We’ve got it
Now you’re in the spotlight. This section is where you talk about the brilliant solution you’re proposing and why it will work. But remember, this is just an overview. The prospect can read all the delicious details in the proposal, so keep it high level but still provide enough detail to convince them you have something specific and well thought out for them.
This section should start to provide your prospect with a sense of relief and get them excited about the result.
The Evidence: We can do it
It's time to show your stuff. Talk about why your company, your team, or your product is not only willing to take this challenge on, but how and why you're qualified to do so. Demonstrate what sets you apart and why they should choose you over the competition.
Maybe this is your niche market and you have lots of experience helping other companies with a similar issue. Maybe it’s a particular skill set your team possesses, your research, your algorithm, or your project management process. Or maybe you’ve won 27 Academy Awards for best picture, and you know you can make this a hit.
Talk about WHY you can make this a successful project and deliver results, but (broken record) keep it brief.
The Call to Action: Let’s do it
Keeping in mind that the purpose of the executive summary is to sell, it’s now time to close the deal.
Make the client feel like they have no other chance for happiness than to hire you and proves your solution is the one that will make their dreams come true.
Talk about why you want to work with them — a little flattery goes a long way — and about how, as partners, you will be successful.
Executive Summary Examples
Without further adieu, here are four (fictional) business proposal executive summary examples that will get your prospects excited to work with you.
1. Example of Ecommerce Executive Summary
Prospect: Gyuto -- Japanese chef knife brand Sender: ThinkBig -- Shopify design agency Project title: Shopify ecommerce Proposal
Gyuto sells what is arguably the coolest line of artisanal, sustainably-sourced kitchen knives in the world. They're handmade in Japan, capable of slicing tomatoes as thin as paper, and surprisingly affordable, considering the attention to detail. But as impressive as Gyuto knives are, you've got a static website that merely showcases low-res photos of your product line and requires customers to pick up the phone and place orders manually.
As you're well aware, placing orders manually is not sustainable. It’s severely limiting your potential for sales, and it's negatively affecting the way your customers perceive and experience the Gyuto brand. You need an ecommerce store so that customers can easily buy products from you directly at any time, from anywhere, however they want. This is the only way to grow your business online.
Lucky for you (and 1,000,000 other retailers around the world) there's Shopify. Shopify is an awesome hosted ecommerce app that empowers retailers with an easy-to-use, easy-to-manage, customizable online store and secure checkout. Shopify gives you control over the look and feel of your store and allows you to add products, manage inventory, track sales, and more. It's hassle-free ecommerce that allows you to focus on other aspects of your business.
We'll focus on implementing Shopify and leveraging its features to help drive Gyuto revenue and improve your customer experience. We'll also include powerful search and categorization so customers can easily and quickly find what they're looking for. We use best practices so that product pages convert users to add more items to their shopping cart. And then, most importantly, we’ll guide people down the conversion funnel to complete the checkout process. With this solution, we aim to grow your monthly sales by 50% within the next six months.
Here at ThinkBig, we're proud to be Shopify experts. That means we're among an elite group of developers who have been trained and approved by Shopify to help businesses like yours grow their online presence. Our Shopify status only enhances our already extensive knowledge of ecommerce trends, functionality, customer behaviour, and design. We've helped many businesses transform underperforming sites to an all-out sales boom just by improving their online shopping experience.
We love working with companies like Gyuto. Those who embrace the changes required for growth while still honouring their brand values and customer loyalty. With this attitude, a partnership with ThinkBig can transform Gyuto from mom and pop shop to family-run global online enterprise in a way that is manageable, sustainable, and profitable. We've done it for superstar brands like Dollar Shave Club, and for soon-to-be star brands like Rum Runners Rum Cake Factory.
If you're ready to increase your monthly sales by 50% in 6 months, we're ready to take you there. This proposal outlines in more detail how we'll do it, and what you can expect along the way. But your biggest expectation should be one of success.
As you can see, ThinkBig addresses all five aspects of a winning executive summary. They focus on the client with the opener, identify the prospect's need in the second paragraph, offer a solution with evidence to back it up, and include a clear call-to-action. While this sample executive summary is on the longer side, it tells the prospect exactly why ThinkBig is right for the job before they even get to the meat of the proposal.
2. Example of Marketing Executive Summary
Prospect: Pete’s Pizzeria -- Toronto pizza restaurant Sender: uGrow -- Social media marketing agency Project title: Social Media Marketing Proposal
Pete’s Pizzeria has been our favorite restaurant since the very first day we moved our offices to Toronto. The crispy-yet-fluffy crust is to die for, the sauce is otherworldly, and don’t even get us started on that fresh buffalo mozzarella you use. Surely this isn’t the first time you’re hearing this, but we have a feeling that you don’t hear it often enough. We noticed that you don’t have much of a social media presence, which is unfortunate because we think that everyone in the city should be lining up to eat at Pete’s Pizzeria.
If you weren’t already aware, social media is one of the most effective ways to expand your reach and grow your business. Without it, you’re leaving a giant, untapped pool of potential customers on the table and you risk losing existing, hungry customers to other restaurants that they follow. What you need is a social media marketing strategy to showcase your delicious restaurant in order to increase sales and customer loyalty.
Fortunately, uGrow can help. We’ll leverage Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to get your name out to millions of users. Here’s how: First, we’ll get you set up on each of the platforms and work with you to establish the Pete’s Pizzeria brand and voice. Then, we’ll take some stunning pictures of your food and write captions with trending hashtags. After that, we’ll create a consistent content calendar and posting schedule to maximize engagement. And to top it all off, we’ll manage all of the accounts to grow follower counts and increase traffic to your website. With this approach, we expect to increase your sales by 25% before year end.
At uGrow, we specialize in helping small, Toronto restaurants like Pete’s Pizzeria reach their full potential and grow their business. We’ve worked with over 75 restaurants across the city and throughout the GTA, and every one of our clients saw an increase in sales within three months of us taking over their social media. We’ve had several posts go viral, which resulted in our clients’ restaurants being completely sold out for the following weeks. All this to say: we love Pete’s Pizzeria and want to help you get the attention you deserve.
If you’re interested in increasing your sales by at least 25% by the end of the year, we can make it happen. This proposal goes into more detail on how exactly we plan to execute on your social media marketing strategy, and what you can expect once we start. Let’s get Pete’s Pizzeria trending.
In this sample executive summary, uGrow does a great job at playing to Pete’s Pizzeria’s pain points (whew!), and offers specific solutions and outcomes to build credibility with the prospect. uGrow also makes a great use of social proof to demonstrate its effectiveness with evidence from past clients.
3. Example of Cleaning Services Executive Summary
Prospect: ELC Holdings -- Property management company Sender: CLEAND -- Commercial cleaning services company Project title: Cleaning Services Proposal
With over 15,000 rentals in 3 states, ELC Holdings is one of the biggest property management companies in the midwest. Your growing portfolio of residential and commercial properties is seriously impressive, but we heard you could use some help keeping your commercial spaces in good shape. As people begin to return to the office, it’s essential that your properties are clean, safe, and compliant to public health guidelines.
As you know, maintaining commercial spaces is no walk in the park. It takes a lot of time and effort to clean even one floor, let alone 4. And that’s just one of your many buildings. But now more than ever, it’s important that your spaces are well-maintained so that your tenants feel safe and secure. It’s not an easy task, especially if you lack the staff and equipment. This is why you need commercial cleaning services.
Having spent over 25 years in the cleaning services industry, we’ve built an experienced team and an arsenal of cleaning equipment that will leave your building absolutely spotless. We offer daily, weekly, and biweekly cleaning arrangements to ensure that your buildings are always in perfect shape for your tenants. From the carpets to the ceilings and everything in between, we can help you clean and sanitize every last corner of your properties so you can rest assured that your tenants are happy.
CLEAND specializes in commercial cleaning services, and has worked with over 200 businesses across the Midwest. We currently have contracts with the United Center and the Auditorium Building in Chicago, and haven’t had a single complaint in the 10 years they’ve been using our services. We provide consistent, reliable results, and stand by our commitment to quality. In fact, if you aren’t happy with our services, we’ll pay the first month’s bill if you switch to another cleaning services company.
ELC Holdings is one of the biggest property management companies in the Midwest, and CLEAND is one of the best cleaning services companies in the area. What do you say we join forces? This proposal outlines how our services could benefit your company, and details what to expect if you choose to seize this opportunity.
This sample cleaning services executive summary immediately highlights the prospect’s pain points and explains why CLEAND is uniquely positioned to help relieve them. It incorporates all five components of a well-written executive summary and even highlights different service offerings before the prospect digs into the solutions section of CLEAND’s cleaning services proposal .
4. Executive Summary Template Example
Here's an example of an executive summary made using a customizable proposal template from Proposify's gallery.
Of course every executive summary needs to be tailored to your specific project, your potential client's needs, and your brand voice. But if you're looking for more inspiration, we have many other business proposal templates that you can customize yourself.
Executive summary tips: The Do’s and Don’ts
Some other important points and guidelines to keep in mind when writing your executive summary:
Do: use a template for your executive summary Getting started is the hardest part of writing a proposal executive summary. If you’re struggling to get the ball rolling, consider using a business proposal template that includes a sample executive summary. This can help ensure that you cover everything an executive summary should include.
Don’t: make it too long
Some people recommend that the executive summary should be 10% of your entire proposal, but it’s best if you try to keep it to one page, two tops if it’s a larger proposal. Be mindful that if you’re working on an RFP, they may already set out a particular length limit, so you’ll want to stick to that.
Don’t: use jargon
This rule applies to everything but is especially important when writing proposals. Jargon can act as a smokescreen to mask the fact that someone doesn’t really know what they’re talking about, or it can confuse people if they’re not familiar with the same terms.
Don’t: use overly technical language
Unless you are absolutely sure that the only person who will read the executive summary is an engineer or a developer or someone who will understand exactly what you’re talking about, don’t get too technical. In some situations, you may need to reference certain details, but remember that this is a persuasive document—sell the benefits, not the features. Save the tech stuff for the proposal.
Don’t: talk about your company history
The history of your company does not belong in the executive summary. After all, the executive summary is about your prospective client, not about you. However, if it is appropriate and relevant, put it in the body of the proposal under “About Us” or something.
Do: focus on your prospective client
Think about what they want to know, not what you want to tell them. Like any piece of copy, you need to write for your audience, so make sure you think about them; what turns them off and what turns them on.
Do: mention your potential client’s company name
People like to hear their names and the same holds true for businesses. Make sure you reference your prospect’s full company name several times in the executive summary, so they feel like you’re focused on them.
Do: use plain language
The regular rules for writing apply to executive summaries. Use simple, short sentences that are clear and can be understood at almost any reading level, especially if you might be writing for people whose first language is not English. Don’t be pretentious - you’ll come off like an ass. Be concise, and be persuasive. Here are some more writing tips for writing an effective business proposal .
Do: proofread and edit
This probably goes without saying, but you really, really don’t want any typos in your executive summary. Get more than one set of eyes on your document before it goes out, and preferably someone who wasn’t involved in its creation.
We hope this executive summary guide will help turn your ho-hum executive summaries into wicked pitches of excellence. Remember to be persuasive, not pedantic. And if anyone has a suggestion on a new name for executive summary, bring it on.
Director of Communications @proposify. Channeling Maria Von Trapp, Queen Elizabeth II, and my taxi-driving, yard-sale-obsessed grandmother. Professional word nerd and unapologetic disciple of the Oxford comma. Connect on LinkedIn
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How to Write an Executive Summary Execs Can't Ignore [+ 5 Top Examples]
Published: May 30, 2024
Early in my career, I was intimidated by executive summaries. They sounded so corporate and formal. But, proper name aside, they’re really just the elevator pitch or the TL;DR (too long, didn’t read) of a document.
Writing an executive summary is an important leadership skill, whether you're an entrepreneur creating a business plan or a CEO delivering a quarterly report.
So, let’s sharpen that skill.
What is an Executive Summary?
An executive summary is a brief overview of a longer professional document, like a business plan, proposal, or report. It's commonly at the beginning of a document and aims to grab a reader’s attention while summarizing critical information such as the problem or opportunity being addressed, objectives, key findings, goals, and recommendations.
Ultimately, an executive summary gives readers a concise overview of the most important information in a document, so they don't have to read the entire thing.
Think of it like the SparkNotes of the business world.
Documents that frequently have an executive summary include:
- Business plans
- Research reports
- Project proposals
- Annual reports
How does it differ from other business statements? Let’s compare.
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Executive Summary vs. Business Plan
All business plans have an executive summary, but not all executive summaries belong to business plans.
A business plan includes a company overview, short-term and long-term goals, information on your product or service, sales targets, expense budgets, your marketing plan, and even team information
Business plans are very detailed and comprehensive. They can be as short as a dozen pages or as long as 100 pages. The executive summary is the first section of the business plan.
An in-demand CEO or investor might not have the bandwidth to read your full business plan without first understanding your company or goals. That’s where an executive summary comes in handy.
Note: Need help putting together your business plan? We’ve got a template for you.
Executive Summary vs. Mission Statement
Mission statements and executive summaries are typically found in business plans, but they serve different purposes.
A mission statement defines your organization’s purpose, values, and vision. It’s your company’s North Star and communicates your core identity and reason for existence. On the other hand, an executive summary provides a high-level overview of the document.
I also love how we define key terms to help readers understand the rest of the report. This is an excellent example of setting the tone for the rest of your document in an executive summary and making it easier to navigate.
3. ClickUp: Product Update Release Notes
Now, I know this article is about writing an executive summary, but I love ClickUp’s unique approach with its product release notes videos.
This digital report from research firm McKinsey Global Institute features an executive summary titled “At a Glance.”
Here, the organization recaps the key findings from its 56-page research report in six easy-to-skim bullet points.
It’s compelling, easy to digest, and makes it easy to jump into the full report with download links.
5. UN: World Economic Situation and Prospects 2024
Finally, we have a fairly traditional approach to an executive summary from the United Nations (UN) , clocking in at 16 pages.
Now, I know. Sixteen pages seems lengthy, but the full report is just shy of 200 pages.
The executive summary highlights the report’s largest conclusions with headers. Then, it expands on those headers with relevant statistics. It also uses bold font to draw attention to the countries or regions affected (something the reader will likely be most interested in).
The tone and visual design are both formal, which matches the esteem of the United Nations. Overall, this executive summary does an admirable job of making the report's information more approachable.
Make your executive summary memorable.
Make sure your executive summary is strong. Tell your story. Include compelling data and facts. Use easy-to-understand and digest language. If you can, get visual.
An executive summary should be concise, but also memorable. After all, this may be the only part of your proposal, report, or analysis that actually gets read.
Use the guidance above to ensure your executive summary resonates with your audience and opens the door to the opportunities you crave.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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Free Printable Executive Summary Templates [Excel, PDF, Word]
In today’s fast-paced business world, decision-makers require succinct and impactful information to stay ahead of the curve. An effective Executive Summary is an essential tool that provides a quick overview of a business plan, project report, or any other complex document . It highlights the key points, objectives, and outcomes, and offers a glimpse into the essence of the document.
A well-written Executive Summary serves as an attention-grabbing introduction that can make or break an opportunity for success. In this article, we will delve into the essential components of an Executive Summary and provide tips for crafting an impactful summary that will leave a lasting impression.
Table of Contents
Why is it important to write an executive summary?
An executive summary is an important tool because it provides a quick overview of the key information contained within a larger document, such as a business plan, project report , or research paper . This summary is intended for busy executives, investors, and stakeholders who may not have the time to read through the entire document but still need to understand its main points. Writing an executive summary allows you to effectively communicate the most important aspects of your work in a concise, clear, and memorable way.
Additionally, an effective executive summary can help build credibility, showcase your expertise, and set the tone for the rest of the document. It can also be used to capture the reader’s attention and persuade them to take a particular action, such as making an investment or approving a proposal. In short, a well-written executive summary is a valuable asset that can help you achieve your goals and reach your target audience more effectively.
Executive Summary Templates
Executive Summary Templates are essential for summarizing lengthy business reports or proposals. These templates provide a brief overview of the main points, objectives , and strategies of the report. They are commonly used to pitch a new idea to stakeholders, or to provide a snapshot of the company’s performance. With an Executive Summary Template , you can easily communicate complex information in a clear, concise manner. These templates often include sections such as the company’s mission statement , goals, financial analysis, and market analysis . They can be customized to fit the needs of any business , regardless of industry or size.
What to include in an executive summary
An executive summary should include the following key elements:
Objectives: A clear statement of the purpose and goals of the project, business plan, or other document being summarized.
Background: A brief overview of the context and background of the project or business, including relevant history and current situation.
Key findings: A summary of the main findings, results, or recommendations from the document being summarized.
Recommendations: A brief explanation of the proposed course of action or solution to the problem addressed in the document.
Benefits: A clear and concise description of the expected outcomes and benefits of the proposed solution.
Key data: Highlighting the most important data and statistics used to support the findings and recommendations in the document.
Methodology: A brief description of the methods and techniques used to gather and analyze data, if applicable.
Next steps: A discussion of the next steps or actions to be taken in implementing the solution or plan.
Conclusion: A final statement summarizing the main points and outlining the significance of the findings and recommendations.
It’s important to note that the length and detail of each section will depend on the specific purpose and audience of the executive summary . The goal is to provide a clear and concise overview that accurately reflects the key information contained in the full document.
What should you avoid in an executive summary?
When writing an executive summary , it’s important to avoid the following:
Technical jargon: Keep the language simple, clear, and easy to understand. Avoid using technical terms or specialized language that may be confusing to the reader.
Overloading with details: Remember that an executive summary is a condensed version of a larger document, so only include the most important information. Avoid including too many details or going into excessive depth.
Exaggerating or misleading information: The executive summary should be truthful and accurate, and not overstate the results or benefits of a proposal or project.
Ignoring the target audience: Consider the specific audience for the executive summary and tailor the content to their needs and expectations.
Leaving out key information: Make sure to include all of the key information that the reader needs to understand the purpose and significance of the document being summarized.
Being too brief: While it’s important to keep the executive summary concise, make sure to include enough detail to give the reader a complete understanding of the document.
Ignoring the design: The executive summary should be well-designed, visually appealing, and easy to read. Use headings, bullet points, and other formatting tools to make the information easy to digest.
By avoiding these common mistakes, you can ensure that your executive summary is clear, concise, and effective in communicating the key information and messages of your document.
How to write an executive summary
Writing an effective executive summary can be a challenging task, but with the right approach, it can be done easily and efficiently. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you write an effective executive summary:
Step 1: Read the full document carefully
Before you start writing the executive summary, you need to understand the content of the document you are summarizing. Read the full document carefully and take notes on the key points, objectives, and results. This will help you identify the most important information to include in the executive summary.
Step 2: Identify the purpose and audience
Consider the purpose and audience of the executive summary. Who will be reading the summary and what is their primary interest in the document ? Understanding the purpose and audience will help you determine the tone and style of the executive summary, and ensure that it meets the reader’s expectations.
Step 3: Outline the main points
Organize the information you have gathered into a clear and concise outline. Identify the main points and results from the full document, and prioritize them in order of importance. Use headings and bullet points to make the information easy to read and understand.
Step 4: Write the introduction
The introduction should provide a brief overview of the purpose and background of the document being summarized. It should also set the tone for the rest of the executive summary, and grab the reader’s attention. Keep the introduction concise and avoid going into too much detail.
Step 5: Summarize the key findings
In the next section, provide a brief summary of the key findings and results from the document. Highlight the most important information, and use statistics and data to support your points. Be concise, and focus on the main results, rather than the methods used to obtain them.
Step 6: Present the recommendations
Explain the proposed course of action or solution to the problem addressed in the document. Be clear and concise, and avoid going into too much detail. Highlight the expected benefits of the solution, and use data and evidence to support your recommendations.
Step 7: Include key data
Include key data and statistics that support the findings and recommendations in the document. Use charts, graphs, and other visual aids to make the information more engaging and easier to understand.
Step 8: Conclude with next steps and significance
Conclude the executive summary with a discussion of the next steps and the significance of the findings and recommendations. Provide a final statement summarizing the main points and the purpose of the document.
Step 9: Review and revise
Once you have completed the executive summary, review it carefully to make sure it is clear, concise, and easy to understand. Check for spelling and grammar errors, and make sure that the information is accurate and up-to-date. Revise the executive summary as needed to ensure that it effectively communicates the key information and messages from the full document.
Important tips for writing an effective executive summary
Here are some tips for writing an effective executive summary:
Keep it concise: An executive summary should be brief and to the point. It should be no more than one or two pages in length and should avoid using excessive technical jargon or complex terms.
Highlight the key information: The executive summary should provide a clear overview of the business idea, target market, competition, marketing and sales strategy, and financial projections .
Use a clear and compelling tone: The executive summary should be written in a professional and engaging tone that inspires confidence in the reader. It should clearly communicate the potential benefits of the business and why it is a good investment opportunity.
Be specific and quantify results: Whenever possible, use specific and quantifiable data to support your claims. For example, instead of saying “we expect to grow quickly,” specify “we expect to grow at a rate of 20% per year.”
Showcase your expertise: The executive summary is an opportunity to showcase your expertise and knowledge of the industry. Demonstrate your understanding of the market, the competition, and what it takes to succeed.
Review and revise: Finally, be sure to review and revise your executive summary several times to ensure that it is clear, concise, and effective. Get feedback from others, including potential investors, to help refine and improve your executive summary.
Executive summary/business plan example:
Here is an example of an executive summary for a fictional business plan:
Executive Summary
Introducing [Company Name], a start-up that aims to revolutionize the [Industry Name] industry with its innovative approach and cutting-edge technology. Our goal is to provide [Customers] with [Product/Service] that is not only of the highest quality, but also affordable and accessible.
Company Overview
[Company Name] was founded by [Founders Names], a team of experts in the [Industry Name] industry with a passion for improving the way [Product/Service] is delivered. Our team has extensive experience in [Key Skills/Expertise] and a track record of success in the industry. We are committed to providing [Customers] with a [Product/Service] that is designed to meet their specific needs and requirements.
Market Opportunity
The [Industry Name] industry is growing rapidly, with a projected annual growth rate of [X%] over the next five years. However, despite this growth, there is a significant gap in the market for [Product/Service] that is affordable, accessible, and of high quality. Our market research has shown that [Customers] are looking for a better solution, and we are confident that [Company Name] is well-positioned to fill this gap.
Product/Service
[Company Name] offers a [Product/Service] that is designed to meet the specific needs and requirements of [Customers]. Our product/service is unique in the market, as it combines [Key Features] with [Key Benefits]. We are committed to using the latest technology and innovative approaches to ensure that our [Product/Service] is of the highest quality and provides [Customers] with a superior experience.
Marketing and Sales Strategy
[Company Name] will focus on a multi-channel marketing and sales strategy, leveraging [Key Marketing Channels]. Our marketing and sales efforts will be focused on building awareness and generating leads among [Target Market], with a particular emphasis on [Key Segments]. We will also work to establish strategic partnerships with [Partners] to reach new customers and expand our reach in the market.
Operations and Management
[Company Name] will be headquartered in [Location], with a team of [Number of Employees] dedicated to delivering the highest quality [Product/Service]. Our team is composed of experienced professionals with a proven track record of success in the [Industry Name] industry. We are committed to providing a supportive and collaborative work environment that fosters innovation and growth.
Financial Projections
[Company Name] is seeking [Funding Amount] in seed funding to support the launch and growth of the business. Our financial projections show that we will reach break-even in [Timeframe] and generate [Revenue] in the first year of operations. Over the next five years, we anticipate significant growth, with projected revenue of [X] and a net profit margin of [X].
[Company Name] is poised to revolutionize the [Industry Name] industry with its innovative approach and cutting-edge technology. With a talented team of experts, a focus on customer satisfaction, and a commitment to using the latest technology, we are confident that we will achieve our goal of providing [Customers] with [Product/Service] that is affordable, accessible, and of the highest quality.
This executive summary provides a high-level overview of [Company Name] and our plans for the future. With the support of our investors, we are confident that we will be able to bring our vision to life and make a positive impact in the [Industry Name] industry.
Who should write an executive summary?
The executive summary should be written by the person or team responsible for the larger document. In the case of a business plan, this might be the entrepreneur or the business owners.
How long should an executive summary be?
An executive summary should be no more than one or two pages in length. It should be concise and to the point, avoiding the use of excessive technical jargon or complex terms.
Can an executive summary be used as a standalone document?
An executive summary can be used as a standalone document, but it is typically used in conjunction with a larger document, such as a business plan or a research report. The executive summary serves as an introduction and overview of the content of the larger document.
Can an executive summary be used for marketing purposes?
Yes, an executive summary can be used for marketing purposes. It can be used to provide a brief overview of a business or product and to highlight its key features and benefits. This can be useful in attracting potential customers or investors.
How often should an executive summary be updated?
The frequency with which an executive summary should be updated depends on the purpose of the document. If it is part of a business plan, it should be updated whenever there is a significant change to the business, such as a new product launch or a change in market conditions. If it is part of a research report, it may be updated when new data becomes available.
Can an executive summary be used as an elevator pitch?
Yes, an executive summary can be used as an elevator pitch, which is a brief and concise pitch that can be delivered in the time it takes for an elevator ride. An executive summary can be used to quickly and effectively convey the key information about a business or product.
Is an executive summary the same as an abstract?
No, an executive summary is not the same as an abstract. An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding, or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject or discipline, and is often written for academic purposes. An executive summary is a brief, comprehensive summary of a larger document, such as a business plan or a research report, and is written for a more general audience.
What is the difference between an executive summary and a conclusion?
An executive summary provides an overview of the key information and main points of a larger document, serving as an introduction and overview of the content. A conclusion provides a summary of the main points and findings of a document, and often includes recommendations for future actions or steps to be taken. While an executive summary serves as an introduction, a conclusion serves as a wrap-up of the content of the document.
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Business Plan Executive Summary Example & Template
Updated: Jun 3, 2024, 1:03pm
Table of Contents
Components of an executive summary, how to write an executive summary, example of an executive summary, frequently asked questions.
A business plan is a document that you create that outlines your company’s objectives and how you plan to meet those objectives. Every business plan has key sections such as management and marketing. It should also have an executive summary, which is a synopsis of each of the plan sections in a one- to two-page overview. This guide will help you create an executive summary for your business plan that is comprehensive while being concise.
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The executive summary should mimic the sections found in the business plan . It is just a more concise way of stating what’s in the plan so that a reader can get a broad overview of what to expect.
State the company’s mission statement and provide a few sentences on what the company’s purpose is.
Company History and Management
This section describes the basics of where the company is located, how long it has been in operation, who is running it and what their level of experience is. Remember that this is a summary and that you’ll expand on management experience within the business plan itself. But the reader should know the basics of the company structure and who is running the company from this section.
Products or Services
This section tells the reader what the product or service of the company is. Every company does something. This is where you outline exactly what you do and how you solve a problem for the consumer.
This is an important section that summarizes how large the market is for the product or service. In the business plan, you’ll do a complete market analysis. Here, you will write the key takeaways that show that you have the potential to grow the business because there are consumers in the market for it.
Competitive Advantages
This is where you will summarize what makes you better than the competitors. Identify key strengths that will be reasons why consumers will choose you over another company.
Financial Projections
This is where you estimate the sales projections for the first years in business. At a minimum, you should have at least one year’s projections, but it may be better to have three to five years if you can project that far ahead.
Startup Financing Requirements
This states what it will cost to get the company launched and running. You may tackle this as a first-year requirement or if you have made further projections, look at two to three years of cost needs.
The executive summary is found at the start of the business plan, even though it is a summary of the plan. However, you should write the executive summary last. Writing the summary once you have done the work and written the business plan will be easier. After all, it is a summary of what is in the plan. Keep the executive summary limited to two pages so that it doesn’t take someone a long time to peruse what the summary says.
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It might be easier to write an executive summary if you know what to expect. Here is an example of an executive summary that you can use as a template.
Bottom Line
Writing an executive summary doesn’t need to be difficult if you’ve already done the work of writing the business plan itself. Take the elements from the plan and summarize each section. Point out key details that will make the reader want to learn more about the company and its financing needs.
How long is an executive summary?
An executive summary should be one to two pages and no more. This is just enough information to help the reader determine their overall interest in the company.
Does an executive summary have keywords?
The executive summary uses keywords to help sell the idea of the business. As such, there may be enumeration, causation and contrasting words.
How do I write a business plan?
If you have business partners, make sure to collaborate with them to ensure that the plan accurately reflects the goals of all parties involved. You can use our simple business plan template to get started.
What basic items should be included in a business plan?
When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business, an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.
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Kimberlee Leonard has 22 years of experience as a freelance writer. Her work has been featured on US News and World Report, Business.com and Fit Small Business. She brings practical experience as a business owner and insurance agent to her role as a small business writer.
Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.
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How to Write an Executive Summary . An executive summary is a concise document, demonstrating the problem, findings and recommendation of a longer policy report. Writing an executive summary will help your audience quickly understand the policy problem and proposed solution of your report. It is intended for a busy reader; and is a
morales-understanding-muslim-populations.pdf o This policy analysis paper synthesizes and prioritizes its findings, offering recommendations as subsets. Many clients are more fascinated by a PAE-writer's survey of the problem than they are interested in the writer's conclusions and recommendations. This paper offers a way of meeting
A business plan consists of your company's mission, vision, product or service description, brand identity, goals, target market, and financial projections. In turn, an executive summary should be a short version of your business plan. It should contain the following details: Your company's name and office locations. Mission and vision.
1000 words - a stand-alone document. Usually, 1-2 pages in. PAEs. Writing: concise sentences, active voice, jargon-free (define terms). Key components: Problem statement (1-2 paragraphs, not all factors) Problem statements answers "what's wrong" and will possibly quantify the scope of the problem with 1-2 data points.
The executive summary is not an abstract for your assignment. An extract is neither stand-alone nor a comprehensive synopsis of the assignment An executive summary should be focused. It needs to be written clearly and concisely and should only contain information which is directly relevant to your assignment.
Executive summaries are common in the Walden MBA program, but they are also found as part of some government and business documents. As a student, you should complete an executive summary when specifically requested to do so. An executive summary is a comprehensive review of a larger document. For example, a 35-page report may begin with a ...
Prepare a One Page Executive Summary After Downloading a Free Download Sample in Word, PDF, or Google Docs. Use a Doc Example for a Project Report, Business Plan, Management Assignment, Comprehensive Proposal, Research Paper, or Case Study. Format an Executive Summary Now.
Typically, your executive summary should be a one-pager (one and a half pages at worst). To summarise a 3000 - 5000-word document into one page is no easy task, so you'll need to: Present only the most important information (key insights, recommendations, etc). Write concisely - i.e. with brevity and completeness.
An executive summary in a business plan is a concise overview that provides a snapshot of the key elements of the plan as it pertains to the business overall. It outlines the business concept, objectives, market analysis, financial projections, and other essential information. The executive summary serves as a summary and introduction to the ...
This construction project executive summary template allows users to give a high-level overview of the key aspects of a project, such as status, risks, issues, and changes. Available in both blank and sample versions, this editable template condenses complex project information into an easily digestible format.
In general, there are four parts to any executive summary: Start with the problem or need the document is solving. Outline the recommended solution. Explain the solution's value. Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work. Free cross-functional project template.
Here's the good news: an executive summary is short. It's part of a larger document like a business plan, business case or project proposal and, as the name implies, summarizes the longer report. Here's the bad news: it's a critical document that can be challenging to write because an executive summary serves several important purposes.
The purpose of the summary should typically be included in the introduction as an opening statement. Explain what you aim to achieve with the document and communicate the value of your desired objective. This part is supposed to grab your reader's attention, so make sure they pay extra attention when writing it. 2.
An executive summary provides the essential information of the report as a whole. There are many types of report, so the following table describes the main features of the beginning, middle and end that would be included in an executive summary. You need to be aware of the type and purpose of your report, and which of these elements are relevant.
In summary, an executive summary offers a condensed overview of a document's key points, while a project plan provides a comprehensive and detailed roadmap for executing a project. Executive summaries vs. abstracts. An executive summary is not the same as an abstract. Executive summaries focus on the main points of a proposal.
Provide a logical order for the reader by stating the main points in the order they are covered in the assignment. Remember how important your assignment heading is. This will be read even before the executive summary. It needs to be clear, professional, and interesting. Have a rest before proofreading.
Here are several general steps to consider when writing an executive summary: 1. Research effective executive summaries. Before you write your own executive summary, it may be helpful to review summaries written by others. This is especially true for those writing an executive summary for the first time.
An executive summary is a section found in most consolidated documents. It is a brief yet comprehensive synopsis of the major points in the document as a whole. It provides the readers a background about what the purpose of the proposal or report without going further in. It basically highlights the key points made in the document and is ...
In this sample executive summary, uGrow does a great job at playing to Pete's Pizzeria's pain points (whew!), and offers specific solutions and outcomes to build credibility with the prospect. uGrow also makes a great use of social proof to demonstrate its effectiveness with evidence from past clients. 3.
Make sure you state that objective or hypothesis early and concisely. Once again, that will set the tone for the rest of your summary and the document at large. In the case of this article, I'd summarize the objective as helping you write an exceptional executive summary. 5. Highlight critical facts and information.
And if you like, you can use the templates that this post can provide. It has 8+ SAMPLE Best Executive Summary in PDF. Download now! The elements of an executive summary, the tips on best executive summary, the steps on how to write the best executive summary, and FAQs on best executive summary.
Executive Summary Templates. Executive Summary Templates are essential for summarizing lengthy business reports or proposals. These templates provide a brief overview of the main points, objectives, and strategies of the report. They are commonly used to pitch a new idea to stakeholders, or to provide a snapshot of the company's performance.
Table of Contents. A business plan is a document that you create that outlines your company's objectives and how you plan to meet those objectives. Every business plan has key sections such as ...
The document proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and calls for the next president to "stop the war on oil and natural gas".