What is an Executive Summary?

An Executive Summary is a document that rounds up all the points of a report in a structured way so that the report’s gist can be read quickly and effectively.  An executive summary is a formal and official document, same goes for the language of an Executive Summary. An Executive Summary is also called Management Summary.

Why write an Executive Summary?

Writing an Executive Summary is a formal task and requires working hard. The reasons to write an executive summary are listed below:

1. As a Precap – Many times Executive Summary is written before the actual report or business plan. This gives an insight into the business plan or report beforehand and helps make decisions. Many businesses need funds or before forming a business partnership, this type of executive summary is submitted.

2. To Save Time – An executive summary contains an abstract of the detailed report and is quick to understand and read. When the executive summary is written before a detailed report, it will save time as it can be decided whether to take the plan further or not. In case of an after-report Executive Summary, it helps to rectify problems of the project and acts as a lesson for mistakes not to be repeated next time.

3. Better Understanding of the report – An Executive Summary contains various graphics and other visual data to make a shorter version of the detailed report. This data type ensures that report is easy to understand and too much grovelling is not required to go through it.

4. As a Recap – When an Executive Summary is written as a recap of the main project report or a business plan, it includes all the points and some additional points as an after- thought of the main report. This not only covers the entire plan but any changes if required or done.

Types of Executive Summary

Writing an executive summary is important but before that types of Executive Summary need to be understood. It is divided into two types:

• Executive Summary of a Business Plan  with an example – A Business Plan consists of all the areas of a Business that is Marketing, Sales, Operations, Management, and Finance. While making an executive summary all the components are taken into consideration. It can also happen that an executive summary of all the areas is made on different pages to get a clear division-wise view. This text format view helps to understand.

Executive Summary of a Report with example – A Report is the presentation of what happened which means Report of a Business will give details of things and feats already achieved or problems already faced by the company. The Executive Summary of a Report whether it is a Business Report, Project Report, or Technical Report is on the same steps. Below is an example of an Executive Summary of a report in text format.

How to write an effective executive summary 

1. Complicated to simple – To make an effective Executive Summary, it is very important to break it into an easily understandable format. Detailed reports or Business Plans are often complicated with a lot of text. No one has the patience to read it over and over and that is why an Executive Summary of a business plan is made.

2. Length – Length is important to be taken into consideration before writing an executive summary. A good length of an executive summary is One page for up to 20 pages of a detailed report, which will be a short executive summary.

3. Type – Understanding the type of executive summary to be written is important. If it is written before the detailed plan then it requires a different template which is given above. Precap executive summary caters to projections and plans more. On the other hand executive summary written after the long reports focus more on things done by the company or things that were done during the project.

4. Cover page – the cover page of an executive report gives it a professional outlook and aesthetic look. The cover page of an executive summary also covers the facts and figures of the first page which are generally intended for the proper recipient. 

5. Graphics – An Executive summary is shortened on purpose for ease of reading. For the same reason, it is inevitable to use graphics or charts to portray statistics properly. One graphic will reduce the text considerably and make for a short executive summary.

6. Facts and Figures – Facts and figures are highlighted in a long-form report but in an executive summary of a business plan,  or an executive summary of a project report, facts and figures are the majority part. To make an effective Executive Summary, facts and figures are to be included.

Sample of an Executive Summary

Executive Summary ABC Travels CO. – “To Travel is to be Alive” Falling revenue in electric buses within city limits. Established in 1983, ABC travels Co is a big name in the world of city tours. The company has been catering to all needs of customers with regards to city tours and short one-day intercity tours.  The company launched electric buses for city-wide tours in 2021. There have been some problems with the ticket machines at the company’s private bus stops which has led to a downfall in revenue through bus fares. The company engineers and technicians have visited the sights and found a solution to the problem. Every ticket counter at all bus stops will be enabled with the internet to get the reports of any problems encountered. Reports will be run every 2 hours to fix the problem quickly. This will also add a feature of passenger help and safety which will in turn increase the number of tourists opting for ABC travels co. The total number of bus stops owned by the company is 100.  Costs involved in implementing the solution will be 200 k and it will be recovered in a span of 3 months.  The problem has been recognized and the solution has been found. This Executive summary of business reports  establishes the projections of the last financial report of the company.

End Note

The Executive Summary is an important document that when written properly can provide vital information about a company, a project, or a business proposal. An executive summary for a Project Report can give valuable insights about problems and solutions for the project. An Executive summary for a Business Proposal gives an idea of the future of the company’s ventures.

Writing an Executive Summary requires some practice but with time the skills to write it becomes better. Even after searching google and practicing, writing an executive summary is hard then do get in touch with us for professional content writing for your requirements.