Have you ever written reports before? Whether they may be business reports, important notes, or the kinds of reports that are deemed necessary in your field of work? If you have, how lengthy were they and were you told to shorten it up to a point that only the key details should be allowed. All the while the necessary and original writing was still present? If you think that is difficult enough to do, it sometimes is. However, there is a way for that to happen. In addition to that, are you one of those people whose work is to make business reports? If you do, you’re most likely worried about your boss having to go through your long articles. If you want to reduce your worries, you can start by learning how to create an executive summary. It is one of the ways of writing and presenting short but informative business reports.
You may have had experience before as mentioned in the beginning about writing out summaries or reports in your lifetime. May it be as practice while you were in school or may have been taught when you began working. As far as everything is concerned, learning how to write executive summaries should be a necessity. As there are some who do not really know the basis or how to begin writing one. But before we go through that, we must first define what an executive summary is, and the purpose of it. Where can an executive summary be used and just how huge of a deal is it to even write a n executive summary in the first place. Just as anything has its own definition and its own meaning. To keep the ball rolling, let’s find out what an executive summary really is.
An executive summary is a document containing brief and concise information about business reports. It shortens long pieces so that the person who reads it can immediately understand the content without reading the entire range. As mentioned in this article by Forbes, it is a common way to obtain financial support. From real estate loans to connect with experienced business partners.
An executive summary is critical because it is how a person can speed up reading company information. Although long reports are also important, it can take a lot of time to read and comprehend. It helps in determining which part of a business plan needs prioritizing and assessment.
Before you begin to write out your executive summary, it is always best to start with a draft. That way you are able to check which should you place and which sentences are best left out of the summary. This also helps you check how you may word your summary. Seeing as your audience will basically be CEO’s and other executive managers. Writing out a draft first would help minimize any sentence fragments, any misspelled words and it also helps when you are able to control what you plan on writing.
Write an executive summary the same way one writes an introduction. It should be concise since you’re not making a whole report. Do not include infographics and any other images in your summary. Save these tools for the writing itself.
Avoid making your executive summary into an essay, so you must keep watch of what you write. It can also lead to redundancy, which means that you’re repeating the same idea. Remember, you’re trying to aim for an overview and not a whole report. For example, you stated, “Maximizing our profits is our main concern.” and in the next few sentences, “We must focus on increasing our budget.” You need to avoid doing that in your executive summary.
Your executive summary must outline the main points of your report or presentation since it is where the summation is going to focus. You can bullet the essential ideas and briefly discuss the reasons why it is in your report. For example, suppose your executive summary is regarding the investment on a startup project. Focus solely on why it is an excellent opportunity to do so and do not go off-topic from there.
Something to take notice of when you write your executive summary. Since your audience is most likely to be managers and executives, make sure that you write it in a professional tone. Nothing of that flimsy or fancy way of writing. As you are not there to make something so serious look or sound amusing or fun. This shows that you respect your senior employees and conveys that you are sincere in delivering the business plan.
Some might think that an abstract and an executive summary are the same, but both are entirely different. An abstract use is for research purposes and is an insight into a particular topic. But, an executive summary’s use is for business purposes. It is a short version of a specific report or presentation organizational operations.
Given that it is a summary, it should only be one to three pages long, or if it is in a PowerPoint presentation, it should be one to five slides. You must always remember that an executive summary is not a long document and should not contain the whole report itself.
An executive summary is for your superiors because they don’t want to waste time reading a long report since they will discuss it in a meeting later on. They just need insight into what the report or presentation will be about so that they can formulate their opinions and share ideas for that report.
The audience for an executive summary would most likely be CEO’s, executive directors, managers and financial advisors in the company. So what report you may be writing has to be done in a professional and formal matter.
Avoid making the summary too long that it may be mistaken for an essay. Avoid having to write flimsy words that are not part of your summary. In addition to that, you must find a way to summarize the whole report into something smart but keeping in mind to keep the key points in the report.
This is the end of the article. To sum it up, an executive summary is a document that a person writes to summarize everything that has been done in terms of business. This is critical because it is how a person can speed up reading information about business operations. Investors and stockholders usually focus on an executive summary of a presentation or a report to apprehend ideas and decisions regarding the topic. That is why your executive summary must be effective in delivering concise content to your readers.