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Case study executive summary: examples and tips.

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Case study recaps serve as powerful tools for conveying complex information in a concise, digestible format. These summaries distill the essence of a comprehensive case study, highlighting key insights, challenges, and outcomes. By providing a snapshot of real-world scenarios, case study recaps offer valuable learning opportunities for professionals across various industries. They enable readers to quickly grasp the core elements of a project or initiative, making them ideal for busy executives, decision-makers, and stakeholders who need to absorb critical information efficiently.

Effective case study recaps not only save time but also facilitate knowledge sharing and decision-making within organizations. They showcase successful strategies, innovative solutions, and lessons learned, inspiring others to apply similar approaches in their own contexts. As we delve deeper into the art of crafting compelling case study recaps, we'll explore best practices, examples, and tips to help you create impactful summaries that resonate with your target audience.

Creating Effective Executive Summaries for Case Studies

Creating an effective executive summary for a case study requires a strategic approach to distill complex information into a concise, impactful format. A well-crafted case study recap serves as a powerful tool for decision-makers, offering a quick overview of key findings and insights. To achieve this, focus on highlighting the most critical elements of your research, including the problem statement, methodology, and key outcomes.

Begin by clearly articulating the challenge or opportunity that prompted the case study. This sets the stage for the reader and provides essential context. Next, outline the approach taken to address the issue, emphasizing any innovative methods or unique perspectives employed. Finally, present the results and their implications, ensuring that the value proposition is clearly communicated. By following these guidelines, you can create a compelling executive summary that captures the essence of your case study and engages your audience effectively.

What Makes a Good Executive Summary?

A well-crafted executive summary serves as a powerful tool for conveying the essence of a case study. It distills complex information into a concise, easily digestible format that captures the reader's attention. An effective summary highlights key findings, insights, and outcomes while maintaining a clear narrative structure.

To create a compelling case study recap, focus on presenting the most critical elements. Begin with a brief overview of the client's challenge or problem, followed by the implemented solution and its rationale. Emphasize measurable results and tangible benefits achieved through the intervention. Include relevant statistics or data points to support your claims and demonstrate the impact of the solution. Conclude with key takeaways or lessons learned, providing valuable insights for readers facing similar challenges.

The Role of a Case Study Recap in Summarizing Findings

A case study recap serves as a powerful tool for distilling complex findings into a concise, digestible format. This summary acts as a bridge between the detailed analysis and the key takeaways, allowing readers to quickly grasp the essence of the study. By highlighting the most significant outcomes, challenges overcome, and lessons learned, a well-crafted recap provides valuable insights at a glance.

Effective case study recaps often follow a structured approach, presenting information in a logical flow. They typically begin with a brief overview of the problem or situation, followed by the implemented solution and its results. This format enables readers to understand the context, appreciate the actions taken, and recognize the achieved outcomes. By condensing the most crucial elements of the case study, the recap becomes an indispensable tool for decision-makers, stakeholders, and those seeking to apply similar strategies in their own contexts.

Case Study Recap: Examples of Effective Executive Summaries

Effective executive summaries are crucial for conveying the key insights of a case study concisely. Let's explore some exemplary recaps that demonstrate best practices in summarizing complex information. These examples showcase how to distill essential findings, highlight key metrics, and present actionable recommendations.

One standout case study recap comes from a tech startup that revolutionized customer service. Their executive summary began with a compelling problem statement, followed by a brief overview of their innovative solution. The recap then presented three key performance indicators that demonstrated the solution's impact, including a 40% reduction in response times and a 25% increase in customer satisfaction scores. By focusing on these critical metrics, the summary effectively communicated the project's success in just a few sentences.

Another noteworthy example comes from a healthcare organization that implemented a new patient management system. Their executive summary excelled in presenting a clear before-and-after comparison. It succinctly outlined the challenges faced prior to implementation, then highlighted the improvements achieved, such as a 30% decrease in wait times and a 50% reduction in administrative errors. This approach provided a clear narrative of transformation and results.

Example 1: Comprehensive yet Concise

In the realm of case study analysis, striking the right balance between comprehensiveness and conciseness is crucial. A well-crafted executive summary serves as a powerful tool to capture the essence of a complex case study in a digestible format. This approach allows readers to grasp key insights quickly without sacrificing depth.

To achieve this balance, focus on distilling the most critical elements of your case study. Begin by clearly stating the problem or challenge addressed, followed by a brief overview of the methodology used. Then, highlight the main findings and their implications. Conclude with actionable recommendations or lessons learned. By presenting information in this structured manner, you create a compelling narrative that engages readers while providing valuable insights efficiently.

Example 2: Highlighting Key Metrics and Outcomes

In crafting an effective case study executive summary, highlighting key metrics and outcomes is crucial. This example demonstrates how to present quantifiable results that capture attention and underscore the value delivered. By focusing on specific, measurable achievements, you can quickly convey the impact of your solution or intervention.

Consider structuring this section with clear, concise statements that showcase impressive figures. For instance, "Increased revenue by 35% within six months" or "Reduced operational costs by $500,000 annually" immediately grab the reader's attention. Pair these metrics with brief explanations of how they were achieved, tying them directly to the actions taken. This approach not only validates your success but also provides context for the reader to understand the significance of the outcomes in relation to the client's initial challenges.

Conclusion: Mastering the Art of Case Study Recap in Executive Summaries

Mastering the art of case study recap is crucial for creating impactful executive summaries. By distilling complex information into concise, actionable insights, you enable decision-makers to grasp key findings quickly. Effective recaps highlight the most significant outcomes, challenges overcome, and lessons learned from each case study.

To excel in case study recaps, focus on presenting a clear narrative that emphasizes the value derived from the project. Utilize data visualization techniques to illustrate key metrics and results. Remember to tailor your language to your audience, ensuring that technical jargon doesn't obscure the main takeaways. By honing these skills, you'll create executive summaries that drive informed decision-making and showcase the true impact of your case studies.

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Writing an Executive Summary in Business Docs (+ Examples)

How to write an executive summary for business documents like a business plan, report, marketing plan, proposal, case study, or a project to hook readers.

Jackie Plaza

8 minute read

Short answer

What should an executive summary include.

• Introduction
• Problem or Challenge
• Objective and goals
• Solution or Strategy
• Implementation
• Lessons Learned or Call to Action

There’s an inherent risk to writing a poor executive summary

A poorly written executive summary can lead to missed opportunities, lack of clarity, lost investment, diminished credibility, ineffective decision-making, and wasted time and effort.

I’ve seen it happen too many times… But stick with me and this post will help you avoid these consequences.

Writing an executive summary is an art form. It involves defining a clear objective, condensing key information, writing a great hook, enhancing visual appeal, managing the reader’s expectations, and leaving a gap that piques their interest.

We’ll cover all this and more. Let’s go!

Why are executive summaries important?

An executive summary holds immense significance in effective communication and decision-making processes. It serves as a concise overview of a longer document, capturing the attention of busy executives, stakeholders, or investors.

Let's explore why the executive summary is so crucial and the key reasons you should pay careful attention to its creation:

Concise Communication: An executive summary condenses the main points of a document into a concise format. It allows busy readers to quickly grasp the essential information without having to dive into lengthy reports or proposals.

Capturing Attention: Executives and stakeholders often have limited time and attention spans. An engaging and well-crafted executive summary hooks their interest and encourages them to delve deeper into the details.

Decision-Making Tool: Decision-makers rely on executive summaries to evaluate proposals, make informed choices, and allocate resources. A clear and persuasive summary can significantly impact their decisions and support your desired outcomes.

Alignment and Clarity: An executive summary ensures that all parties involved have a shared understanding of the document's purpose, objectives, and key findings. It helps align perspectives and facilitates efficient collaboration.

Time and Resource Optimization: By providing a succinct overview, an executive summary saves time and effort for both the writer and the reader. It helps streamline communication processes, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

Standalone Value: An executive summary can also function as a standalone document. In situations where a full report might not be required or feasible, a well-crafted summary can effectively communicate the main points and key takeaways.

An effective executive summary is a strategic component that encapsulates key information concisely, maximizing communication impact and achieving desired outcomes.

Executive summary writing best practices

If I could only tell you one thing about writing executive summaries it would be this: there’s no single winning approach to writing those.

Every time you sit down to write an executive summary, you have to reinvent the wheel and make it 100% tailored to that one customer , that one investor, or that one board member. That said… There are some general tips you should always have at the back of your mind.

• Personalize, personalize, personalize.
• Write it last.
• Avoid cliche phrases.
• Use the right language.
• Keep it as short as possible (but not shorter).

How long should an executive summary be?

The ideal length of an executive summary ranges from 1 to 5 pages or around 10% of the full document's length. This depends on the document's complexity and length. But regardless, the goal is to provide a succinct but comprehensive overview that excites the reader to delve deeper.

If you find yourself struggling with the length of your executive summary, considering using a summary generator . The tool will help with the issue.

How to start an executive summary

To start an executive summary, provide a clear and concise overview of the main document. Begin with a compelling introduction, summarizing key points, goals, and outcomes.

Engage the reader from the start, highlighting the document's significance and setting the stage for the subsequent sections.

How to conclude an executive summary

The best way to conclude an executive summary is by highlighting the significant impact and unique value proposition of your business.

Then end by reiterating what the reader has to gain by reading the rest of the document using concrete language tailored to your target audience.

Executive summary format and outline

There’s no one template for executive summaries you can just copy and fill out.

Depending on what your key selling points are, you’ll need to structure each of your executive summaries differently (much like you’d create different versions of project proposals, business plan introductions , or business reports for different audiences).

1. Introduction : Briefly introduce the company or organization involved in the case study. State the industry or market context.

2. Problem/Challenge: Clearly define the problem or challenge that the company or organization was facing. Discuss the implications of the problem or challenge.

3. Objective: Outline the goals or objectives that the company or organization set out to achieve in response to the problem or challenge.

4. Solution/Strategy: Describe the solution or strategy that was implemented to address the problem or challenge. Discuss why this solution or strategy was chosen over others.

5. Implementation: Detail how the solution or strategy was implemented. Discuss any obstacles or difficulties encountered during the implementation and how they were overcome.

6. Results: Present the results or outcomes of the solution or strategy. Use quantifiable metrics where possible to demonstrate the success of the solution or strategy.

7. Conclusion: Summarize the key points of the case study. Discuss the implications of the results or outcomes for the company or organization, and for the industry or market more broadly.

8. Lessons Learned: Discuss any lessons learned from the case study that could be applied to similar situations in the future.

For proposals a Call to Action instead of Lessons Learned:

Encourage the prospect to get in touch or start a free trial to create the email signature their company needs.

Each building block works together to create a concise, impactful executive summary that compels the reader to further engage with your content.

Make sure that you provide a comprehensive overview while remaining enticing and easy to understand.

Example of how to write an executive summary for a case study

We used this template in Storydoc for our Start-Up Nation Central case study :

1. Introduction: Start-Up Nation Policy Institute (SNPI), a think tank operating under Start-Up Nation Central, an NGO aimed at fostering the development of high-tech companies.

2. Problem/Challenge: SNPI was dissatisfied with the presentation of their business analysis reports, which were primarily produced and distributed as static PDFs.

They felt this format was outdated and ineffective for their tech-savvy audience.

Additionally, they lacked any form of report analytics, leaving them in the dark about who was interacting with their reports and how.

3. Objective: SNPI aimed to modernize their reporting system, seeking a more engaging, interactive format that would appeal to their audience and provide valuable analytics.

4. Solution/Strategy: SNPI adopted Storydoc, a platform that allowed them to transition from static PDFs to interactive reports, enhancing reader engagement and providing valuable content performance analytics.

5. Implementation: The implementation of Storydoc enabled SNPI to produce multiple reports per year, access full reader analytics, and perform easy A/B testing to optimize reader engagement.

6. Results: The transition to Storydoc resulted in positive feedback from stakeholders, increased reader engagement, and valuable insights from report analytics.

The platform's flexibility allowed SNPI to customize their reports to meet their exact needs and use cases.

7. Conclusion: The adoption of Storydoc has significantly improved SNPI's reporting capabilities, reinforcing their branding as a high-tech innovation think tank and providing them with valuable insights into reader behavior.

8. Lessons Learned: The case study highlights the importance of adapting to modern technologies and the needs of your audience.

It also emphasizes the value of analytics in understanding reader behavior and optimizing content for maximum engagement.

Example of how to write an executive summary for a proposal

Here's an executive summary structure based on an amazing proposal by WiseStamp , one of our SaaS clients.

1. Introduction: Introduction to WiseStamp, a centralized email signature manager solution designed to enhance the impact and efficiency of your company's emails.

2. Problem/Challenge: The challenge of unifying the brand, logo, and messaging across all employees' emails, increasing brand awareness, boosting marketing campaigns, and driving sales and lead generation content.

3. Objective: The objective is to provide a solution that saves time and money while leveraging your emails, leading to more email replies, an increase in leads, and increased social reach.

4. Solution/Strategy: WiseStamp offers a solution that allows you to design, generate, manage, and analyze stunning, customized email signatures for your company in less than 5 minutes.

5. Implementation: The implementation process involves a few simple steps: designing a signature customized to your brand and needs, generating a beautiful email signature in a matter of clicks, managing the signature with an advanced email signature manager, and analyzing the signature's impact to turn it into a powerful marketing tool.

6. Results: The use of WiseStamp has led to a 32% increase in email replies, a 15% increase in leads, and a 10% increase in social reach. It has been trusted by over 5,000 companies worldwide and has a rating of 4.6/5 on Capterra.

7. Conclusion: WiseStamp helps companies create unified, professional, and on-brand signatures, offering a solution from a single signature to an entire company solution.

8. Call to Action: Encourage the prospect to get in touch or start a free trial to create the email signature their company needs.

Essential steps for crafting a compelling executive summary:

Crafting an effective executive summary requires careful attention to certain key steps.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your summary captures attention, communicates key information, and leaves a lasting impact on your readers.

Let's explore the essential steps for creating an executive summary that gets results.

Step 1. Understand Your Purpose: Before you begin writing, clarify your objective. What message do you want to convey? What are the main points you want to highlight? Understanding your purpose will help you maintain focus throughout the process.

Step 2. Capture Attention with a Strong Introduction : The opening of your executive summary is crucial. Consider using a thought-provoking question, a captivating statistic, or a brief anecdote to engage your readers from the start. Make them eager to continue reading.

Step 3. Highlight Key Information: Identify the most critical points, findings, and recommendations from the full document. Focus on the key takeaways that your audience needs to know. Conciseness is key. Keep your summary brief and to the point.

Step 4. Structure and Format for Readability : Organize your executive summary in a logical and coherent manner. Use headings, bullet points, and white space to enhance readability.

A well-structured summary allows readers to quickly navigate and grasp the main points.

Step 5. Craft a Persuasive Conclusion: End your executive summary with a strong concluding statement that reinforces the main message. Highlight the value and benefits of your proposal or document. This is your last chance to leave a lasting impression.

An effective executive summary should include the following components:

1. Background Information: The first section of an executive summary should provide some background information about the topic at hand. This section should give the reader a basic understanding of the context in which the report or proposal was created.

2. Purpose and Objectives: Next, the executive summary should clearly state the purpose and objectives of the report or proposal. This section should explain why the document was created and what it aims to achieve.

3. Methodology: The methodology section should explain how the report or proposal was developed. It should describe the research methods used, the sources consulted, and any data collection techniques used.

4. Key Findings: One of the most critical sections of an executive summary is the key findings section. This section should summarize the most important findings from the report or proposal.

5. Recommendations: After summarizing the key findings, the executive summary should present the recommendations. This section should outline the action that needs to be taken based on the findings of the report or proposal.

6. Conclusion: Finally, the executive summary should end with a conclusion. This section should provide an overall summary of the report or proposal and reiterate its purpose and objectives.

Common mistakes to avoid in writing an executive summary

Writing an effective executive summary can be challenging, and there are common mistakes to avoid.

1. Failing to understand the audience: When writing an executive summary, it's crucial to know your audience. Understanding their needs and interests will help you tailor your summary to meet their expectations.

2. Overlooking the purpose of the summary: An executive summary should provide a brief overview of the main points in the longer document. It should not include any new information or ideas. Make sure to keep the summary focused and to the point.

3. Including too much information: An executive summary is not meant to be a comprehensive document. It should only cover the essential points, so avoid including any unnecessary details.

4. Failing to highlight the main takeaways: The primary goal of an executive summary is to highlight the key points of the document. Make sure to emphasize the most critical takeaways to ensure your audience understands the main message.

5. Neglecting to edit and proofread: Just like any other document, an executive summary should be well-written, error-free, and easy to read. Neglecting to edit and proofread can result in a summary that's confusing or difficult to understand.

Benefits of using templates to create designed executive summaries

Using StoryDoc templates can be a game-changer when it comes to creating visually appealing executive summaries.

Consistency: Templates ensure a consistent and professional look across all your executive summaries, strengthening your brand image.

Time-Saving: Templates provide a framework that streamlines the process, saving you valuable time while maintaining quality.

Visual Impact: Pre-designed templates offer visually appealing layouts, graphics, and typography, making your summary visually engaging and easy to digest.

Customizability : Templates can be customized to fit your specific needs, allowing you to highlight key information effectively.

Don’t waste time - grab a template!

Hi, I’m Jackie, Creative Marketing Specialist at Storydoc, I write on everything business presentations. I love to research and bring to light critical information that helps marketing, sales, and design teams get better results with their collateral.

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How to Write an Executive Summary for a Case Study

Updated July 2024: You’re not going to invest your time and energy in reading a case study unless you know it is relevant to your situation. How do you know if it’s relevant? By reading the executive summary. This is why it is so important for you to learn how to write an executive summary for a case study.

In this post, we show you what makes a compelling executive summary for case studies, and provide you with 4 examples from leading B2B SaaS companies.

Every word counts when writing an executive summary for a case study

Executive summaries can be short and sweet.

• Or executive summaries might need to be longer

Sometimes executive summaries miss the mark entirely

• You can do better with your executive summary

This is the third post in a 9-part series on how to write a case study .

When thinking about how to write an executive summary for a case study, you need to create 2 or 3 crucial sentences that provide a concise overview of the case study. It must be informative and:

• summarize the story by introducing the customer and their pain points
• explain what your organization did
• highlight the key results, including 1 or 2 statistics that drive home the takeaway message

Write the executive summary first to help you focus the rest of the case study. But don’t be too rigid: in the process of reviewing the interview transcript or writing the main copy, another point or statistic may emerge as having more impact than what you’ve chosen to highlight. Revisit your executive summary after writing the case study to make sure it’s as strong and accurate as possible.

If you need a hand with your SaaS case studies, have a look at our case study writing service .

This executive summary example from Segment is just a headline followed by a glorified subhead—but it does the trick!

Source: Segmen t

Here’s another great example of a quick, yet helpful executive summary for Plaid’s case study:

Source: Plaid

And here’s one more example of a quick executive summary for G2’s case study:

Sometimes you may need a longer executive summary

For complex case studies, you may need a more in-depth executive summary to give readers an overview of the case study.

Here’s a more fleshed-out executive summary from Feathr:

Source: Feathr

It effectively introduces the challenge and solution, and the results are impossible to miss.

Here’s another great example from Gong. Notice they just use “Challenge” and “Outcome”.

Source: Gong

Source: Bullhorn

This is not an executive summary. It is merely an introduction. We have no idea what the problem or solution is, and there’s nothing to motivate us to read further.

You can do better with your executive summaries

Be precise. Impress the reader with key results. Let them see that you offer solutions that matter.

Get the help you need

As a SaaS company, you need to partner with someone who “gets it”. We are a SaaS content marketing agency that works with high-growth companies like Calendly, ClickUp and WalkMe. Check out our done-for-you case study writing service .

As the founder of Uplift Content, Emily leads her team in creating done-for-you case studies, ebooks and blog posts for high-growth SaaS companies like ClickUp, Calendly and WalkMe. Connect with Emily on Linkedin

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Learn from Emily’s 17 years of aha moments, mistakes, observations, and insights—and find out how you can apply these lessons to your own marketing efforts.

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• How to write an executive summary, with ...

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 in 10 Steps

Written by: Unenabasi Ekeruke

Whether you're starting a new business or growing an existing one, creating business or project plans puts you in the driving seat for success. According to a study, creating a detailed plan and sticking to it gives you a 30% greater chance of growing and doubling your business.

But how do you craft a plan that captures the attention of investors or stakeholders? Well, it all starts with a compelling executive summary that captures the major points of your plan at a glance.

An executive summary is the most important element of your proposal or project plan. It's the first thing your audience will read and could be the ticket to getting that all-important meeting and funding for your project.

Not sure how to write an effective executive summary for your next business document? We've got you covered.

This article will dig deeper into what executive summaries are, why you need them and how to write one for your business or project.

Before we jump right in, here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit executive summary templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

Table of Contents

What is an executive summary, why you need an executive summary, when to use an executive summary, how long does an executive summary need to be, how to write an executive summary (+ examples).

An executive summary is a brief overview of a larger document. It's usually the first thing readers see before they dive into the other part of your reports, proposals and other business documents.

Essentially, an executive summary is a critical document or section that precedes documents like:

• Project status reports
• Business plans
• Project plans
• Project proposals
• Financial reports
• Academic reports
• Business cases
• Environmental studies
• Market surveys
• Research documents and more

For example, suppose a company performs market research to decide whether to move in a different strategic direction. In that case, they can write a business plan to articulate findings and suggest the next steps.

The business plan would begin with an executive summary like the one in the template below.

When seeking new partners, business loans or funding round for a startup, your executive summary will precede your business plan. It sums up the opportunity, business and execution plan in a brief document.

This is your key to getting initial funding or subsequent investments. And only an effective executive summary will unlock that door or get investors to listen to you.

Executive summaries are also an important component of project proposals or project status reports. They provide a general overview of the project activities, progress, setbacks and next steps.

After your table of contents comes your executive summary. It should briefly:

• Highlight the purpose of the report
• Analyze the problem and solution
• Spotlight key figures and
• Describe results, conclusions or recommendations

The scope and length of your executive summary will depend on what you're summarizing. But generally, it could be one to three pages long.

Regardless of the type or purpose of your document, the executive summary should include the most important information. That's because it could be the only part of your report investors, managers or prospects may read.

Writing a compelling executive summary will enable your readers to digest the entire content without reading it all.

For example, CEOs, managers and supervisors engage in a ton of business activities. Hence, they're pressed for time. So, reading lengthy reports may become tricky, especially when they need the information to make quick decisions.

While writing your executive summary, include everything your readers need to make decisions. Best of all, it should grab attention and convince readers that it's worth their time to read the entire document.

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Your executive summary is the most important element of your project report. And how you write it can make or break your business or project plan.

The primary goal of your executive summary is to get your audience sold on your business proposal. But you need a clear and concise one to capture readers' attention and get them excited about your plan.

On the flip side, many things could go wrong with poorly written executive summaries. It can easily turn off stakeholders and hamper your chances of winning them over.

Let's look at other reasons you should dedicate time to make your executive summary appealing.

Grab Readers’ Attention and Drive Interest

Project plans, business plans and market research reports can get granular and dense. Hence, most readers rely on the executive summary to get the hang of what the document entails.

Think of your executive summary as the hook to the rest of your content. It's a golden opportunity to show who you are, share your company's vision and connect with potential investors.

With an excellent executive summary, you can get the attention you need to clearly describe your business goals. It will also help you figure out how to improve and streamline your business or project plan.

For example, let's say you're having trouble highlighting compelling figures or summarizing your business plan in a few pages. That could indicate that your business plan lacks substance or is missing key details.

Similarly, suppose your executive summary lacks the basic details. In that case, it could mean your project report has loopholes you'd have to address.

In either case, you may need to go back to the drawing board to make it clear, engaging and unique enough. The end goal is to entice top management, potential investors and key stakeholders to read on.

Attract Investment Opportunities

Think about this for a moment. Venture capitalists and angel investors receive tens to hundreds of business plans, each having ten pages or more.

Considering their time, schedule and lineup of activities, reading these documents from cover to cover may be a tall order.

Not only that, they've got lots of lots of potential investment opportunities knocking on their door. Hence they'll make up their mind in a few minutes whether your business proposal interests them or not.

So, what will make an investor choose a business plan over the other? Yes, you guessed right! The executive summary.

Most venture capitalists and inventors prefer to receive brief executive summaries. It's their best bet since they probably have a stack of business plans waiting for their attention.

Reading a concise executive summary will help them figure out if it is worth reading the whole business plan. It will provide enough information and a good understanding of your idea, team, business and financial projections.

In a nutshell, they want to know what's so special about your idea. So why should they read further? What's in it for them and why should they splash the cash on your business venture?

An excellent executive summary will position your business idea as a juicy investment opportunity. More so, it will pique the investor's interest and earn you that all-important first meeting.

Use the template below to highlight critical details and showcase a digestible version of your business plan.

Boost Stakeholders’ Confidence in Your Project

So, you've probably written your project plan for a proposed project or a status report for an ongoing one. Now you're wondering if you need to write an executive summary. Well, the big answer is yes.

Why does an executive summary matter? First, they highlight everything key stakeholders need to know before digging deeper into the finer details.

At a glance, your readers should get a bird's eye view of project goals and deliverables, status, milestones, risk and financial details and why they're important. In addition, it should highlight how the project impacts the entire organization.

Writing an articulate executive summary can help streamline communication across stakeholders and boost their confidence in the project. Essentially, it shows you have every aspect of the project under control.

The thing is, key project stakeholders like investors, clients and top-level management may not have the time to dive into the full project details. You can use the Visme template below to summarize your project proposal or keep your team in sync with its overall health.

If you want to summarize a large business document, making it readable and foolproof, you need an executive summary. This is because it's concise, and as such, the chances are that many people will read it.

Not only that, it's incredibly easy to get your main points across effectively in an executive summary.

That being said, let's look at some of the different use cases for executive summaries.

Business Plans

An executive summary is a staple for writing a winning business plan . It's the most widely-used application in the business world.

Your executive summary is typically the last section you write in your business plan. And it should embody key elements like:

• Brief description of your business, including products and services
• Summary of business objectives
• The market opportunity and problem your business solves
• A description of your target market, competition and competitive advantage
• Snapshot of funding requirements, growth potential and financial highlights

This may seem like a lot and tough to fit on one or two pages. But your executive summary should be capable of being a standalone document.

Think about it this way. If your audience can make sense of your executive summary on its own, then it has served its purpose.

Project Plans

Executive summaries condense your lengthy project plans into a page or two. They provide a high-level overview of critical information like:

• Project goals, scope and activities
• Summary of the project resources
• Change management plan
• Description of milestones and major deliverables
• Timeline and schedule
• Communication plan
• Success metrics, budget and other financial details

In a nutshell, the executive summary summarizes the project, risk, timeline and more to ensure key stakeholders are on the same page without diving into the full document.

Use the template below to create a project plan that helps streamline operations and keep your project on track.

Project Status Reports

Project status reports describe your project's progress within a specific period and compare it against the project plan. Here, the executive summary covers all the significant attributes of the project status reports in a concise manner.

By reading executive summaries, the project team and key stakeholders can quickly:

• Stay in touch with the overall progress and health of the project
• Monitor project costs, risks and activities
• Mitigate issues before they arise
• Ensure the project is completed within the designated time frame

Communicate your project activities and progress with key stakeholders using the project status report template below.

Case studies are in-depth studies of a subject, person, event or organization. They focus on real-world problems and situations and require a deep understanding of the subject. Whether you're writing case studies for academics, projects or business, at a glance, your executive summary should:

• Describe who the case study is about. For example, if the case study is about your client, It should summarize their mission, the services they offer, their industry and how long they've been working with your organization or using your product.
• Provide insights into the problems they've faced.
• Highlight how your product or solution solved the problem.
• Explain results and progress reports after the client used the solution.

The case study template below can help you showcase your product capabilities, inspire client trust and build credibility.

You can edit it to include key details like problem statement, solution analysis, project description, cost-benefit analysis, results and recommendations, and more.

Academic Studies and Research

For academic research reports, the intended audience is different from business settings. However, the executive summary serves similar purposes.

Academic studies are typically in-depth with complex methodologies and calculations. As a result, they can be difficult to grasp, especially if you aren't an expert in the field.

The job of an executive summary is to provide a brief yet clear understanding of the methodologies, results, statistics, conclusions and recommendations.

Keep in mind that the executive summary is different from the abstract. While both summarize your research study, recommendations in the executive summaries are more explicit, while abstracts rarely have recommendations.

Abstracts are mostly written for the academic community. In contrast, executive summaries are often written for policymakers outside the academic community.

Market Research Reports and Survey

Marketing plans and research reports help companies evaluate the target market and feasibility of a new product or service. They contain valuable studies that help companies chart a new course and improve marketing and business results.

The executive summary, in this case, contains key elements such as:

• Company description
• The objective and purpose of the research
• Key results, statistics and findings
• Conclusions and recommendations
• Next steps and ideas for future research

With this summary, management teams and business leaders can gather valuable insight and make swift decisions to drive the business forward.

In addition, you can use the report template below to visualize market survey findings, analysis and results.

Financial Reports

Whether you're executing a project or starting a business, financial reports help you communicate financial information with investors.

Unfortunately, they often include complex numbers, calculations, ratios and statements that are challenging to interpret. That's why you need an articulate executive summary that provides an overview of your company's financial projections or health without diving into the complex details.

At its best, your financial report executive summary should include necessary details such as:

• Sales and income forecast
• Budget and funding requirements
• Use of funds
• Break-even point

Use the template below to visualize your current and projected revenues and business growth metrics.

There's no hard and fast rule about how long your executive summary should be. However, the general rule of thumb is to keep it as brief as possible.

Here's the thing. Your audience has limited time and wants to get into the main details quickly. So try to keep your executive summary under two pages.

Depending on your project size and scope, you may need to add a page or two.

For example, project plans or status reports for large, complex or highly technical projects are often lengthy. In this case, you may need more than two pages to effectively capture the main points in your executive summary.

Additionally, make sure your executive summary has a similar structure and flow as the rest of the document.

Do your best to keep your paragraphs short and use clear and concise language appropriate for your target audience. Not only will this make your content readable, but it will get the attention it deserves.

So you've got that impressive business idea and you're buzzing to sell it to a potential investor. The question is, how do you create an engaging executive summary that unlocks readers' attention and gets you funded?

Stick with us and you'll learn the easiest way to get it done. We'll also show you practical examples and provide templates to help you create your executive summary on the go.

Step 1: Start With an Attention-Grabbing Intro

Angel investors and investment platforms use executive summaries to gauge interest in investment opportunities. And having a strong opening helps you build a solid case for your business or project plan.

Want to impress your readers and convince them your proposal is worth reading? Then you should hook them in by explaining what your proposal is about and why it matters.

Let's say you've identified a gap in the marketplace; you might start with that. If the driving force for your project is customer feedback or market research, that could be your compelling aha moment.

Utilize thought-provoking statistics or compelling figures to justify why addressing the pain points is critical. The goal is to make your audience see why your proposal is an opportunity they can't afford to miss out on.

Most people try to use inspiring quotes or anecdotes to build excitement. But, unfortunately, this strategy doesn't always work. Stakeholders want to know if your idea is a viable opportunity right off the bat. And capturing their attention begins from the opening sentence.

Here's an excellent example of how to hook your audience right from the start.

FoodPlus is an on-demand food delivery service poised to revolutionize the food industry. With over ten years of experience in the food industry, our goal is to leverage technology to help people access food, beverage and groceries at the comfort of their homes and offices.

Our user-friendly app and wide network of delivery vendors make FoodPus the go-to service and preferred choice in and around our target market. Recently ranked the most popular food delivery app, FoodPlus has 200,000 partner restaurants located in 2000 cities worldwide, about 70% of them in the US.

In less than five years, we've tripled our customer base and amassed over one million followers across our social channels.

We have recently uncovered a significant opportunity to expand our reach to the UK and Canada. FoodPlus is seeking equity investment to help us fund our expansion and achieve our business goals in the next fiscal year.

Notice how this executive summary highlights compelling facts and figures, including:

• Year of experience in the industry
• Large customer base
• Market reach and service coverage
• Social engagement and proof
• Market opportunity

Set your business up for success with the cutting-edge business plan template below.

Step 2: Write for Your Audience

When writing your executive summary, you want to keep your intended audience in mind always and write it for them. First off, you need to consider your reader's current level of knowledge. Then use languages and terms appropriate for your target audience.

If you're writing for financial experts, the language you use should differ greatly from how you would write for project managers or engineers.

For example, investors and financial experts will probably be familiar with financial metrics. In contrast, engineers and project managers are more knowledgeable about the technical details.

The content and depth of explanation should align with your audience's interest and expertise.

Let's face it. People will readily read through content that's valuable to them. So if you're going to grab and hold your audience's attention, you'll have to research to understand who your audience is and what they want to know.

You may need to craft different versions of the executive summary based on the reader's expectations.

Let's say you're writing your executive summary for top-level management or investors. In that case, try answering these questions:

• What do they know about the subject?
• What do my audiences want to know about the subject?
• How much explanation do I need to make?
• What questions would run through the minds of my audiences?

Remember, it's a summary and your audience wants to quickly pull out the main points. Inform them about the fantastic opportunity that awaits them and create a sense of urgency so that they are compelled to read your document further.

Whether you're writing for business or academic purposes, use formal language and guide your audiences through the information.

Showcase your idea and wow investors with the help of Visme's business plan template below.

Step 3: Provide an Overview of Your Project

In the first few paragraphs of your executive summary, provide your audience with an overview of your proposed project.

You should include details of your business, your products and services and years of experience in the industry (if applicable.)

Also, outline your goals and the problem your project or proposal seeks to address. You may want to answer questions like:

• What problem will your project address?
• Why is it necessary for your product or services to enter the market?
• Why is it important for your company to embark on this project?
• What are the events that brought the project to life? Is it a market survey, customer feedback, innovation cycle, product plan, market needs or competitor activities?
• What will be the outcome after the successful execution of this project?

Finally, mention other vital research and industry insights relevant to the project or organization.

Using our earlier example, here's how to define the opportunity or problem.

The on-demand food delivery business will hit around $97 Billion by 2024. This growth is fueled by consumers' demand for convenience and access to meals in the comfort of their homes.

Currently, customers have to walk a certain distance to access meals. This limits their choices and ability to personalize their meals. With the proposed expansion of our business to other cities, we will make it easy for customers to access personalized meals quickly.

Notice how the executive summary in the template below highlights the market opportunity in the fashion industry.

Step 4: Describe the Solution and Expected Outcome

Next, briefly explain your proposed solution and how it will address the problem you've highlighted earlier. Here you should give your audience a mental picture of what their life or business would look like once you've solved the problem.

You want to touch on product features and benefits and how they align with your company goals. For example, product or service benefits could be in the form of:

• Convenience
• Accessibility
• Wide range of product or service options
• Better efficiency and productivity
• Increased sales
• Cost savings
• Brand equity , recognition and brand loyalty
• Industry leadership

Using our on-demand food service example, here's how to highlight your solution and expected outcome.

Having examined our target market, we recognize the need for an on-demand food delivery solution. FoodPlus offers a full-service online food ordering and delivery platform that enables users to order meals on the go. The app comes preloaded with the features like:

• Ability to create and manage orders
• Delivery GPS tracking in real-time
• In-app messaging
• Rating and reviews

It also offers users different ways to make payments, including debit or credit cards, mobile wallets and more. Our promise of value to our customers include:

• Value for money
• Ease of use
• Access to a wide range of meal options

Entice investors by emphasizing the market opportunity and proposed solution using the Visme template below.

Step 5: Explain Proposed Strategy and Operation Plan

Once you've highlighted your proposed solution, the next step is to explain your business strategy.

Who are the major players in your industry? What factors will set your business apart and help you gain a competitive advantage?

Next, explain how you intend to bring the project or product to life. You should include details of your operations, including production or project execution plan.

Are you outsourcing production or building the capacity to handle it in-house? What's your expected daily production or service delivery capacity? You're going to have to explain if you're setting up a brick-and-mortar store or an online service delivery model.

If you write an executive summary for a research report, explain how you will perform experiments or collect data during field surveys. This section should also highlight key activities, milestones, start and end dates.

Define your business model, strategy and operational plan using the Visme template below.

Step 6: Show Off Your Strengths

This is the part where you provide evidence that you can deliver on the value you've promised.

Here you should talk about your industry knowledge, expertise and experience. Also, highlight key team members and their depth of knowledge and experience in the industry.

If you're an existing business, you should talk about how long the company has been in business.

What's more? Talk about other projects you've successfully executed, your accolades, achievements and more.

Here you can include relevant figures, charts and key performance indicators like the one below. This will further boost your reader's confidence in your ability to deliver the project on time and within budget.

Here's an example of how to show proof of your expertise in your executive summary.

FoodPlus has been in business since 2017. Over the past five years, we've launched our service in over 400 cities in the US. We've achieved 50% growth in revenue within the last two years. We have a team of professionals with a combined 40 years of experience in the tech, e-commerce and on-demand space.

In addition, our diverse and robust team of customer success experts is well-positioned to ensure users enjoy incredible service experiences across multiple touchpoints.

Ensure your metrics and numbers are accurate and verifiable. For example, you can use financial management software to track and retrieve key metrics like return on investment and profit margin.

Step 7: Highlight Financials and Funding Requirements

Financial projections reveal whether your business has a chance to generate revenue and profit to survive. These insights help potential investors decide if your idea or project is a worthwhile investment, making them a key part of your executive summary.

Here's the thing. Project stakeholders and investors want to know what's in it for them. Why should they invest in your idea or embark on the project?

This section should highlight key financial and business growth metrics like expenses , revenue, cash flow, profit and loss forecasts for one to three years.

Make sure to show details of your break-even point - the point where cost and revenues are equal. Also, remember to highlight when your business will make a profit.

If you're writing an executive summary for a project or research, highlight the significant cost associated with the project or research.

This section should also mention the amount of money you need for your business or project. Make sure to disclose when investors will get their return on investment or when you'll be able to complete loan repayment.

For projects and academic research, provide details of the funding you need to achieve desired project outcomes. All in all, ensure this figure aligns with your financial projections.

Here's how to highlight financial projections and funding requirements.

At FoodPlus, our financial projections show that we will have steady revenue growth, positive cash flow and profit in the first year. Our forecast is based on two streams of income -commission on sales of meals and deliveries.

The expected revenue in the first year is $5 million and a 50% increase in the second and third years of operations. We expect a net profit margin of 45%, while the return on equity will be 15.37% in the first year. We will break even in the first year of business and by the third year, we expect positive cash after debt repayments.

We are seeking an equity investment of about 10 million dollars to fund our expansion into other cities in the UK and Canada.

The business plan template below cuts across a wide range of industries and is perfect for sharing the future of your business with investors.

Step 8: Wrap Up and Include a Call to Action

You've now presented all the important details with investors and other stakeholders. The next important step is to include key takeaways and a call to action.

Here you should answer questions like:

• How will the funding impact your business?
• Why is it important for you to get the money?
• Why should your audience be interested in this opportunity
• What will they achieve by taking advantage of this opportunity?

Here's an example to conclude our example executive summary:

This funding will help FoodPlus break into new markets, expand our reach and increase our market share. We've achieved success over the past five years. We're confident we can enjoy tremendous growth in the new market and turn FoodPlus into a global success.

If you're ready to move forward, this proposal provides more details about our project and how we'll accomplish it. If you have any questions, I'd be pleased to take your call or read from you (insert your email or phone number).

Step 9: Use a Template

Now that you know what you should write in your executive summary, you're probably buzzing to get to work. We recommend using Visme's business document creator that comes with ready-to-go templates with built-in executive summary pages.

You'll find templates of business plans, project plans,   reports and more to help you get started. Visme has a rich library of images, videos, graphs and other visual aids like the one below to help you get your point across quickly.

Step 10: Write It Last

Although your executive summary is the first content your audience reads from your report, you should write it last. Writing your executive summary at the end provides clarity. It also enables you to prioritize and filter the key information for your executive summary.

Once you're satisfied with your business plan or proposal, pick out the details that matter most to your readers and write them in your executive summary.

Get to Work: Craft a Compelling Executive Summary

Your executive summary is the hottest ticket to driving investors' interest in your business or project. Hence, you can't afford to wing it or take it for granted.

Writing an executive summary requires a whole different approach than the rest of the proposal. You want to ensure it briefly captures the key elements of the documents.

Remember, the goal is to attract interest, get readers' attention and entice them to keep reading.

If you want to craft the perfect executive summary, Visme's document creator has everything you need to get excellent results. The software comes preloaded with a robust library of easy-to-use templates for creating any business documents you can think of.

Whether you're looking to write an executive summary for your business plan, project status report and research proposal, Visme has got you covered. You can leverage millions of premium images, videos, visual aids and other design elements to make your executive summary pack a punch.

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About the Author

Unenabasi is a content expert with many years of experience in digital marketing, business development, and strategy. He loves to help brands tell stories that drive engagement, growth, and competitive advantage. He’s adept at creating compelling content on lifestyle, marketing, business, e-commerce, and technology. When he’s not taking the content world by storm, Unenabasi enjoys playing or watching soccer.

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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What Is a Case Study? How to Write, Examples, and Template

In this post

How to write a case study

Case study template, case study examples, types of case studies, what are the benefits of case studies , what are the limitations of case studies , case study vs. testimonial.

In today's marketplace, conveying your product's value through a compelling narrative is crucial to genuinely connecting with your customers.

Your business can use marketing analytics tools to understand what customers want to know about your product. Once you have this information, the next step is to showcase your product and its benefits to your target audience. This strategy involves a mix of data, analysis, and storytelling. Combining these elements allows you to create a narrative that engages your audience. So, how can you do this effectively?

What is a case study? 

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing a business's success in helping clients achieve their goals. It's a form of storytelling that details real-world scenarios where a business implemented its solutions to deliver positive results for a client.

In this article, we explore the concept of a case study , including its writing process, benefits, various types, challenges, and more.

Understanding how to write a case study is an invaluable skill. You'll need to embrace decision-making – from deciding which customers to feature to designing the best format to make them as engaging as possible.  This can feel overwhelming in a hurry, so let's break it down.

Step 1: Reach out to the target persona

If you've been in business for a while, you have no shortage of happy customers. But w ith limited time and resources, you can't choose everyone.  So, take some time beforehand to flesh out your target buyer personas. 

Once you know precisely who you're targeting, go through your stable of happy customers to find a buyer representative of the audience you're trying to reach. The closer their problems, goals, and industries align, the more your case study will resonate.

What if you have more than one buyer persona? No problem. This is a common situation for companies because buyers comprise an entire committee. You might be marketing to procurement experts, executives, engineers, etc. Try to develop a case study tailored to each key persona. This might be a long-term goal, and that's fine. The better you can personalize the experience for each stakeholder, the easier it is to keep their attention.  

Here are a few considerations to think about before research:

• Products/services of yours the customer uses (and how familiar they are with them)
• The customer's brand recognition in the industry
• Whether the results they've achieved are specific and remarkable
• Whether they've switched from a competitor's product/service
• How closely aligned they are with your target audience

These items are just a jumping-off point as you develop your criteria.  Once you have a list, run each customer through it to determine your top targets. Approach the ones on the top (your "dream" case study subjects) and work your way down as needed.

Who to interview

You should consider interviewing top-level managers or executives because those are high-profile positions. But consider how close they are to your product and its results.

Focusing on an office manager or engineer who uses your product daily would be better. Look for someone with a courtside view of the effects.

The ways to request customer participation in case studies can vary, but certain principles can improve your chances:

• Make it easy for customers to work with you, respecting their valuable time. Be well-prepared and minimize their involvement.
• Emphasize how customers will benefit through increased publicity, revenue opportunities, or recognition for their success. 
• Acknowledge their contributions and showcase their achievements.
• Standardizing the request process with a script incorporating these principles can help your team consistently secure case study approvals and track performance.

Step 2: Prepare for the interview

Case study interviews are like school exams. The more prepared you are for them, the better they turn out. Preparing thoroughly also shows participants that you value their time. You don't waste precious minutes rehashing things you should have already known. You focus on getting the information you need as efficiently as possible.

You can conduct your case study interview in multiple formats, from exchanging emails to in-person interviews. This isn't a trivial decision.  As you'll see in the chart below, each format has its unique advantages and disadvantages. 

You'll also have to consider who will ask and answer the questions during your case study interview. It's wise to consider this while considering the case study format.  The number of participants factors into which format will work best. Pulling off an in-person interview becomes much harder if you're trying to juggle four or five people's busy schedules. Try a video conference instead.

Before interviewing your case study participant, it is crucial to identify the specific questions that need to be asked.  It's essential to thoroughly evaluate your collaboration with the client and understand how your product's contributions impact the company. 

Remember that structuring your case study is akin to crafting a compelling narrative. To achieve this, follow a structured approach:

• Beginning of your story. Delve into the customer's challenge that ultimately led them to do business with you. What were their problems like? What drove them to make a decision finally? Why did they choose you?
• The middle of the case study.  Your audience also wants to know about the experience of working with you. Your customer has taken action to address their problems. What happened once you got on board?
• An ending that makes you the hero.  Describe the specific results your company produced for the customer. How has the customer's business (and life) changed once they implemented your solution?

Sample questions for the case study interview

If you're preparing for a case study interview, here are some sample case study research questions to help you get started:

• What challenges led you to seek a solution?
• When did you realize the need for immediate action? Was there a tipping point?
• How did you decide on the criteria for choosing a B2B solution, and who was involved?
• What set our product or service apart from others you considered?
• How was your experience working with us post-purchase?
• Were there any pleasant surprises or exceeded expectations during our collaboration?
• How smoothly did your team integrate our solution into their workflows?
• How long before you started seeing positive results?
• How have you benefited from our products or services?
• How do you measure the value our product or service provides?

Step 3: Conduct the interview

Preparing for case study interviews can be different from everyday conversations. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Create a comfortable atmosphere.  Before diving into the discussion, talk about their business and personal interests. Ensure everyone is at ease, and address any questions or concerns.
• Prioritize key questions.  Lead with your most crucial questions to respect your customer's time. Interview lengths can vary, so starting with the essentials ensures you get the vital information.
• Be flexible.  Case study interviews don't have to be rigid. If your interviewee goes "off script," embrace it. Their spontaneous responses often provide valuable insights.
• Record the interview.  If not conducted via email, ask for permission to record the interview. This lets you focus on the conversation and capture valuable quotes without distractions.

Step 4: Figure out who will create the case study

When creating written case studies for your business, deciding who should handle the writing depends on cost, perspective, and revisions.

Outsourcing might be pricier, but it ensures a professionally crafted outcome. On the other hand, in-house writing has its considerations, including understanding your customers and products. 

Technical expertise and equipment are needed for video case studies, which often leads companies to consider outsourcing due to production and editing costs. 

Tip: When outsourcing work, it's essential to clearly understand pricing details to avoid surprises and unexpected charges during payment.

Step 5: Utilize storytelling

Understanding and applying storytelling elements can make your case studies unforgettable, offering a competitive edge. 

Source: The Framework Bank

Every great study follows a narrative arc (also called a "story arc"). This arc represents how a character faces challenges, struggles against raising stakes, and encounters a formidable obstacle before the tension resolves.

In a case study narrative, consider:

• Exposition. Provide background information about the company, revealing their "old life" before becoming your customer.
• Inciting incident. Highlight the problem that drove the customer to seek a solution, creating a sense of urgency.
• Obstacles (rising action). Describe the customer's journey in researching and evaluating solutions, building tension as they explore options.
• Midpoint. Explain what made the business choose your product or service and what set you apart.
• Climax. Showcase the success achieved with your product.
• Denouement. Describe the customer's transformed business and end with a call-to-action for the reader to take the next step.

Step 6: Design the case study

The adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" is familiar, but people tend to do just that quite often!

A poor layout can deter readers even if you have an outstanding case study. To create an engaging case study, follow these steps:

• Craft a compelling title. Just like you wouldn't read a newspaper article without an eye-catching headline, the same goes for case studies. Start with a title that grabs attention.
• Organize your content. Break down your content into different sections, such as challenges, results, etc. Each section can also include subsections. This case study approach divides the content into manageable portions, preventing readers from feeling overwhelmed by lengthy blocks of text.
• Conciseness is key. Keep your case study as concise as possible. The most compelling case studies are precisely long enough to introduce the customer's challenge, experience with your solution, and outstanding results. Prioritize clarity and omit any sections that may detract from the main storyline.
• Utilize visual elements. To break up text and maintain reader interest, incorporate visual elements like callout boxes, bulleted lists, and sidebars.
• Include charts and images. Summarize results and simplify complex topics by including pictures and charts. Visual aids enhance the overall appeal of your case study.
• Embrace white space. Avoid overwhelming walls of text to prevent reader fatigue. Opt for plenty of white space, use shorter paragraphs, and employ subsections to ensure easy readability and navigation.
• Enhance video case studies. In video case studies, elements like music, fonts, and color grading are pivotal in setting the right tone. Choose music that complements your message and use it strategically throughout your story. Carefully select fonts to convey the desired style, and consider how lighting and color grading can influence the mood. These elements collectively help create the desired tone for your video case study.

Step 7: Edits and revisions

Once you've finished the interview and created your case study, the hardest part is over. Now's the time for editing and revision. This might feel frustrating for impatient B2B marketers, but it can turn good stories into great ones.

Ideally, you'll want to submit your case study through two different rounds of editing and revisions:

• Internal review. Seek feedback from various team members to ensure your case study is captivating and error-free. Gather perspectives from marketing, sales, and those in close contact with customers for well-rounded insights. Use patterns from this feedback to guide revisions and apply lessons to future case studies.
• Customer feedback. Share the case study with customers to make them feel valued and ensure accuracy. Let them review quotes and data points, as they are the "heroes" of the story, and their logos will be prominently featured. This step maintains positive customer relationships.

Case study mistakes to avoid

• Ensure easy access to case studies on your website.
• Spotlight the customer, not just your business.
• Tailor each case study to a specific audience.
• Avoid excessive industry jargon in your content.

Step 8: Publishing

Take a moment to proofread your case study one more time carefully. Even if you're reasonably confident you've caught all the errors, it's always a good idea to check. Your case study will be a valuable marketing tool for years, so it's worth the investment to ensure it's flawless. Once done, your case study is all set to go!

Consider sharing a copy of the completed case study with your customer as a thoughtful gesture. They'll likely appreciate it; some may want to keep it for their records. After all, your case study wouldn't have been possible without their help, and they deserve to see the final product.

Where you publish your case study depends on its role in your overall marketing strategy. If you want to reach as many people as possible with your case study, consider publishing it on your website and social media platforms. 

Tip: Some companies prefer to keep their case studies exclusive, making them available only to those who request them. This approach is often taken to control access to valuable information and to engage more deeply with potential customers who express specific interests. It can create a sense of exclusivity and encourage interested parties to engage directly with the company.

Step 9: Case study distribution

When sharing individual case studies, concentrate on reaching the audience with the most influence on purchasing decisions

Here are some common distribution channels to consider:

• Sales teams. Share case studies to enhance customer interactions, retention , and upselling among your sales and customer success teams. Keep them updated on new studies and offer easily accessible formats like PDFs or landing page links.
• Company website. Feature case studies on your website to establish authority and provide valuable information to potential buyers. Organize them by categories such as location, size, industry, challenges, and products or services used for effective presentation.
• Events. Use live events like conferences and webinars to distribute printed case study copies, showcase video case studies at trade show booths, and conclude webinars with links to your case study library. This creative approach blends personal interactions with compelling content.
• Industry journalists. Engage relevant industry journalists to gain media coverage by identifying suitable publications and journalists covering related topics. Building relationships is vital, and platforms like HARO (Help A Reporter Out) can facilitate connections, especially if your competitors have received coverage before.

Want to learn more about Marketing Analytics Software? Explore Marketing Analytics products.

It can seem daunting to transform the information you've gathered into a cohesive narrative.  We’ve created a versatile case study template that can serve as a solid starting point for your case study.

With this template, your business can explore any solutions offered to satisfied customers, covering their background, the factors that led them to choose your services, and their outcomes.

The template boasts a straightforward design, featuring distinct sections that guide you in effectively narrating your and your customer's story. However, remember that limitless ways to showcase your business's accomplishments exist.

To assist you in this process, here's a breakdown of the recommended sections to include in a case study:

• Title.  Keep it concise. Create a brief yet engaging project title summarizing your work with your subject. Consider your title like a newspaper headline; do it well, and readers will want to learn more. 
• Subtitle . Use this section to elaborate on the achievement briefly. Make it creative and catchy to engage your audience.
• Executive summary.  Use this as an overview of the story, followed by 2-3 bullet points highlighting key success metrics.
• Challenges and objectives. This section describes the customer's challenges before adopting your product or service, along with the goals or objectives they sought to achieve.
• How product/service helped.  A paragraph explaining how your product or service addressed their problem.
• Testimonials.  Incorporate short quotes or statements from the individuals involved in the case study, sharing their perspectives and experiences.
• Supporting visuals.  Include one or two impactful visuals, such as graphs, infographics, or highlighted metrics, that reinforce the narrative.
• Call to action (CTA).  If you do your job well, your audience will read (or watch) your case studies from beginning to end. They are interested in everything you've said. Now, what's the next step they should take to continue their relationship with you? Give people a simple action they can complete. 

Case studies are proven marketing strategies in a wide variety of B2B industries. Here are just a few examples of a case study:

• Amazon Web Services, Inc.  provides companies with cloud computing platforms and APIs on a metered, pay-as-you-go basis. This case study example illustrates the benefits Thomson Reuters experienced using AWS.
• LinkedIn Marketing Solutions combines captivating visuals with measurable results in the case study created for BlackRock. This case study illustrates how LinkedIn has contributed to the growth of BlackRock's brand awareness over the years. 
• Salesforce , a sales and marketing automation SaaS solutions provider, seamlessly integrates written and visual elements to convey its success stories with Pepe Jeans. This case study effectively demonstrates how Pepe Jeans is captivating online shoppers with immersive and context-driven e-commerce experiences through Salesforce.
• HubSpot offers a combination of sales and marketing tools. Their case study demonstrates the effectiveness of its all-in-one solutions. These typically focus on a particular client's journey and how HubSpot helped them achieve significant results.

There are two different types of case studies that businesses might utilize:

Written case studies 

Written case studies offer readers a clear visual representation of data, which helps them quickly identify and focus on the information that matters most. 

Printed versions of case studies find their place at events like trade shows, where they serve as valuable sales collateral to engage prospective clients.  Even in the digital age, many businesses provide case studies in PDF format or as web-based landing pages, improving accessibility for their audience. 

Note: Landing pages , in particular, offer the flexibility to incorporate rich multimedia content, including images, charts, and videos. This flexibility in design makes landing pages an attractive choice for presenting detailed content to the audience.

Written case study advantages

Here are several significant advantages to leveraging case studies for your company:

• Hyperlink accessibility.  Whether in PDF or landing page format, written case studies allow for embedded hyperlinks, offering prospects easy access to additional information and contact forms.
• Flexible engagement.  Unlike video case studies, which may demand in-person arrangements, written case studies can be conducted via phone or video streaming, reducing customer commitment and simplifying scheduling.
• Efficient scanning . Well-structured written case studies with a scannable format cater to time-strapped professionals. Charts and callout boxes with key statistics enhance the ease of information retrieval.
• Printable for offline use.  Written case studies can be effortlessly printed and distributed at trade shows, sales meetings, and live events. This tangible format accommodates those who prefer physical materials and provides versatility in outreach, unlike video content, which is less portable.

Written case study disadvantages

Here are some drawbacks associated with the use of case studies:

• Reduced emotional impact.  Written content lacks the emotional punch of live video testimonials, which engage more senses and emotions, making a stronger connection.
• Consider time investment.  Creating a compelling case study involves editing, proofreading, and design collaboration, with multiple revisions commonly required before publication.
• Challenges in maintaining attention.  Attention spans are short in today's ad-saturated world. Using graphics, infographics, and videos more often is more powerful to incite the right emotions in customers.

Video case studies

Video case studies are the latest marketing trend. Unlike in the past, when video production was costly, today's tools make it more accessible for users to create and edit their videos. However, specific technical requirements still apply.

Like written case studies, video case studies delve into a specific customer's challenges and how your business provides solutions. Yet, the video offers a more profound connection by showcasing the person who faced and conquered the problem.

Video case studies can boost brand exposure when shared on platforms like YouTube. For example, Slack's engaging case study video with Sandwich Video illustrates how Slack transformed its workflow and adds humor, which can be challenging in written case studies focused on factual evidence.

Source : YouTube

This video case study has garnered nearly a million views on YouTube.

Video case study advantages

Here are some of the top advantages of video case studies. While video testimonials take more time, the payoff can be worth it. 

• Humanization and authenticity.  Video case studies connect viewers with real people, adding authenticity and fostering a stronger emotional connection.
• Engaging multiple senses.  They engage both auditory and visual senses, enhancing credibility and emotional impact. Charts, statistics, and images can also be incorporated.
• Broad distribution.  Videos can be shared on websites, YouTube, social media, and more, reaching diverse audiences and boosting engagement, especially on social platforms.

Video case study disadvantages

Before fully committing to video testimonials, consider the following:

• Technical expertise and equipment.  Video production requires technical know-how and equipment, which can be costly. Skilled video editing is essential to maintain a professional image. While technology advances, producing amateurish videos may harm your brand's perception.
• Viewer convenience.  Some prospects prefer written formats due to faster reading and ease of navigation. Video typically requires sound, which can be inconvenient for viewers in specific settings. Many people may not have headphones readily available to watch your content.
• Demand on case study participants.  On-camera interviews can be time-consuming and location-dependent, making scheduling challenging for case study participants. Additionally, being on screen for a global audience may create insecurities and performance pressure.
• Comfort on camera.  Not everyone feels at ease on camera. Nervousness or a different on-screen persona can impact the effectiveness of the testimonial, and discovering this late in the process can be problematic.

Written or video case studies: Which is right for you?

Now that you know the pros and cons of each, how do you choose which is right for you?

One of the most significant factors in doing video case studies can be the technical expertise and equipment required for a high level of production quality. Whether you have the budget to do this in-house or hire a production company can be one of the major deciding factors.

Still, written or video doesn't have to be an either-or decision. Some B2B companies are using both formats. They can complement each other nicely, minimizing the downsides mentioned above and reaching your potential customers where they prefer.

Let's say you're selling IT network security. What you offer is invaluable but complicated. You could create a short (three- or four-minute) video case study to get attention and touch on the significant benefits of your services. This whets the viewer's appetite for more information, which they could find in a written case study that supplements the video.

Should you decide to test the water in video case studies, test their effectiveness among your target audience. See how well they work for your company and sales team. And, just like a written case study, you can always find ways to improve your process as you continue exploring video case studies.

Case studies offer several distinctive advantages, making them an ideal tool for businesses to market their products to customers. However, their benefits extend beyond these qualities. 

Here's an overview of all the advantages of case studies:

Valuable sales support

Case studies serve as a valuable resource for your sales endeavors. Buyers frequently require additional information before finalizing a purchase decision. These studies provide concrete evidence of your product or service's effectiveness, assisting your sales representatives in closing deals more efficiently, especially with customers with lingering uncertainties.

Validating your value

Case studies serve as evidence of your product or service's worth or value proposition , playing a role in building trust with potential customers. By showcasing successful partnerships, you make it easier for prospects to place trust in your offerings. This effect is particularly notable when the featured customer holds a reputable status.

Unique and engaging content

By working closely with your customer success teams, you can uncover various customer stories that resonate with different prospects. Case studies allow marketers to shape product features and benefits into compelling narratives. 

Each case study's distinctiveness, mirroring the uniqueness of every customer's journey, makes them a valuable source of relatable and engaging content. Storytelling possesses the unique ability to connect with audiences on an emotional level, a dimension that statistics alone often cannot achieve. 

Spotlighting valuable customers

Case studies provide a valuable platform for showcasing your esteemed customers. Featuring them in these studies offers a chance to give them visibility and express your gratitude for the partnership, which can enhance customer loyalty . Depending on the company you are writing about, it can also demonstrate the caliber of your business.

Now is the time to get SaaS-y news and entertainment with our 5-minute newsletter,   G2 Tea , featuring inspiring leaders, hot takes, and bold predictions. Subscribe below!

It's important to consider limitations when designing and interpreting the results of case studies. Here's an overview of the limitations of case studies:

Challenges in replication

Case studies often focus on specific individuals, organizations, or situations, making generalizing their findings to broader populations or contexts challenging. 

Time-intensive process

Case studies require a significant time investment. The extensive data collection process and the need for comprehensive analysis can be demanding, especially for researchers who are new to this method.

Potential for errors

Case studies can be influenced by memory and judgment, potentially leading to inaccuracies. Depending on human memory to reconstruct a case's history may result in variations and potential inconsistencies in how individuals recall past events. Additionally, bias may emerge, as individuals tend to prioritize what they consider most significant, which could limit their consideration of alternative perspectives.

Challenges in verification

Confirming results through additional research can present difficulties. This complexity arises from the need for detailed and extensive data in the initial creation of a case study. Consequently, this process requires significant effort and a substantial amount of time.

While looking at case studies, you may have noticed a quote. This type of quote is considered a testimonial, a key element of case studies.

If a customer's quote proves that your brand does what it says it will or performs as expected, you may wonder: 'Aren't customer testimonials and case studies the same thing?' Not exactly.

Testimonials are brief endorsements designed to establish trust on a broad scale. In contrast, case studies are detailed narratives that offer a comprehensive understanding of how a product or service addresses a specific problem, targeting a more focused audience. 

Crafting case studies requires more resources and a structured approach than testimonials. Your selection between the two depends on your marketing objectives and the complexity of your product or service.

Case in point!

Case studies are among a company's most effective tools. You're  well on your way to mastering them.

Today's buyers are tackling much of the case study research methodology independently. Many are understandably skeptical before making a buying decision. By connecting them with multiple case studies, you can prove you've gotten the results you say you can. There's hardly a better way to boost your credibility and persuade them to consider your solution.

Case study formats and distribution methods might change as technology evolves. However, the fundamentals that make them effective—knowing how to choose subjects, conduct interviews, and structure everything to get attention—will serve you for as long as you're in business. 

We covered a ton of concepts and resources, so go ahead and bookmark this page. You can refer to it whenever you have questions or need a refresher.

Dive into market research to uncover customer preferences and spending habits.

Kristen McCabe

Kristen’s is a former senior content marketing specialist at G2. Her global marketing experience extends from Australia to Chicago, with expertise in B2B and B2C industries. Specializing in content, conversions, and events, Kristen spends her time outside of work time acting, learning nature photography, and joining in the #instadog fun with her Pug/Jack Russell, Bella. (she/her/hers)

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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 (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.

Related: 10 Essential Excel Report Templates

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 Effective Executive Summary to Yield Results

By Kate Eby | April 3, 2018

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In this article, you'll learn how to craft an organized, well written executive summary the next time you have to gain the attention of a time-strapped audience.

Included on this page, you’ll find information on how to write an executive summary that wins the proposal, how to format your executive summary , an executive summary checklist , and more. 

What Is the Purpose of the Executive Summary?

An executive summary should be clear and concise (typically one to two pages long) and present the main points in a formal tone. The purpose of an executive summary is to pique the reader’s curiosity by presenting facts from the larger piece of content it is summarizing.

The executive summary can be either a portion of a business document (a business plan, project proposal, or report) or long articles and documents common in research-driven communities and academia. When crafted correctly, the executive summary provides an overview of the information and objectives in the larger document. The executive summary stands alone from the content it summarizes, and should include the essential information, the recommendations, the findings, and the conclusion of the more extensive document.

The Benefits of a Well Written Executive Summary

A well planned, well written executive summary is a valuable tool because it prioritizes the reader’s time and reduces the effort required to learn the critical aspects of the content. The summary can convey the purpose of your business plan, project proposal, product launch presentation, or sales pitch to keep the reader engaged and reading further, or empowered to take action. Even if it is the only thing your audience reads, a strong executive summary creates value for the reader as a first impression. Use the executive summary to make a business case, support a position, or tell a story. The reader should know how the subject of your content impacts them, benefits their work, their company, or their projects after reading the executive summary.  

Various industries use executive summaries as a communication tool, including healthcare, education, government, technology, real estate, finance, law, the nonprofit sector, and more. One of the benefits of using an executive summary is that it is not exclusive to one type of communication. Executive summaries show up in a variety of use cases, including the following:

Business plans

Legal briefs

Product launch plans

College campus surveys

Market research reports

Environmental studies

Project proposals

Hospital planning and evaluation

How to Write an Executive Summary

Crafting a useful executive summary requires more than simply cutting and pasting vital information from the body of your report or proposal. The executive summary may be the only part of the report your target audience reads, so you should spend the time to make it valuable.

It doesn’t have to be an intimidating process, but before you begin writing, you should ask the following critical questions:

Who depends on the information? When you write the executive summary, decide who you are targeting and the critical information that audience needs. What do they need to know to make a decision? What would they already know? Do you have a specific customer you want to reach with your message or story? Writing the executive summary with that audience in mind will make it useful because the story you’re telling about your business, project, or proposal will resonate.

What is the objective? While it’s true that an executive summary recaps essential information from the body of the content it summarizes, that is its function, not its purpose. Write the summary to your intended audience and include the crucial information that supports your objective for creating the document. What do you need the reader to understand? Is the aim to recommend change based on the results of your research? What needs to happen for the project plan to succeed based on your proposal? Let your objectives determine the content and context of your summary.  

What are you recommending? Use the executive summary to draw conclusions and make recommendations to the reader. If your report presents the need for change, recommend the actions that the body of your document supports in the summary. State the benefits of your product or service, or the solutions you provide more detail on in the proposal. Ultimately, don’t make the reader work to find out what action they need to take: Make your recommendations clear in the executive summary.

How will you make an impression? The “executive” summary earned its name from the need to get the upper management’s attention. Executives did not have the time to read every word of every document. The summary had to make an impression because it might be the only part of the material that would be read. Regardless of its origins, the principle of using the summary to make an impression on the reader is sound, as that impression might encourage the reader to keep reading or take action. Consider how you shape the message, organize the sections of your summary, or present research to stand out in a brief space.

Executive Summary Checklist

After you answer these questions and begin writing your document, refer to the following checklist as you develop the executive summary.

Download Executive Summary Checklist

What Is the Format of an Executive Summary?

Every executive summary intends to distill information to the reader upfront, so it is typically placed first in the document. (Sometimes it is a separate section of a formal business document listed in the table of contents.)

When used in a less formal manner, the executive summary is an opening paragraph, a separate one-page summary memo, or the first page of a report. For example, if your goal is to raise capital, use the executive summary like an investor profile that provides the reader the information necessary to land the meeting or get the funding, without further reading.

The format and length vary based on the purpose of the content that you are summarizing; there is no set structure to follow. Here are some formatting tips that you can use for any executive summary, regardless of the style:

Order of Appearance : Beyond the introduction, decide what sections of the summary are most important to the purpose of the document. Organize your subheadings or sections in that order. Use bullet points and plenty of spacing between the different parts of the summary to make the content more accessible to scanning eyes. By doing so, you naturally discard information better left to the body of the document, and you honor the reader’s time by prioritizing the message, recommendations, conclusions, or solutions in the longer document.  

How Much Is Too Much : Executive summaries vary in length based on the type of content they summarize or their purpose. Some recommend keeping the summary to a specific percentage of the overall document, while others advocate a set number of pages. Focus on keeping the summary brief but comprehensive, with the most important information available to the reader.

Audience Aim : The tone and language of the executive summary should match that of the target audience. Avoid using technical jargon that requires definitions, and present the information in an accessible manner based on the knowledge and expertise of your intended audience. Do not include acronyms or highlight data that need an extensive background for context, and avoid using casual, informal tones. That said, an executive summary used in internal communications will have a different tone and style than one used in external communication tools.

One-page Executive Summary Template

This template is designed to fit your executive summary on one page. Take advantage of the short sections and bullet points to keep the document concise and hook the reader with the information that will keep them reading. Organize the key points by customizing the subheadings to emphasize their importance based on your purpose for the document.

Download One-page Executive Summary Template

Excel  |  Word  |  PDF

What Are the Common Pitfalls of Executive Summaries?

When formatting and organizing the executive summary, beware of the following pitfalls that plague poorly written and poorly planned summaries:

Fact or Persuasion : Support your motives and the objective of the executive summary with the facts. If the summary is for a sales proposal or pitch deck, persuade your reader up front with data and information, not buzzwords and cliches. If the executive summary includes generalizations or opinions that you don't support within your material with market research, project examples, independent data, testimonials, etc., you risk misleading the reader. Avoid writing a summary that leads clients, policy makers, or management to an unsupported recommendation or conclusion for the sake of persuasion — instead, focus on the facts.  

Relevance Over Repetition : By nature, the executive summary is a repetitive summary of content. Therefore, only include the most relevant details — those that summarize the true purpose of the overall content. Use the rest of your business plan, research report, or client proposal to cover topics relevant background information at length. If you try to cut and paste too much information and context from your longer business or research document into the summary, the details might overshadow the impression you want to make on the reader. The background becomes the introduction, and you risk losing a reader’s attention (especially an online audience).

Consistency Is Key : The executive summary highlights the substance of the larger piece of content. Don’t feature information here that is not covered in the body of the proposal. Avoid using different subheadings to organize copy in the body of the report. For example, if you highlight “Project Milestones” in the executive summary, do not list them in a new section for “Project Goals” in the business proposal. Use the tone and language you establish in the summary throughout the material. If you target an audience without expertise in the subject matter, don’t switch to highly technical analysis in the body copy. Finally, if you cover something in the executive summary, cover it again in the report. Don’t make the reader work to learn more about something you highlighted in the summary.

Draw a Clear Conclusion : Write an executive summary that comes to a conclusion and supports your purpose for creating the document. Keep the reader’s interest in mind when you summarize a lengthy project proposal or report. Does the reader have a clear understanding of the solutions you propose? Can they identify the problems you solve? If the executive summary is the only thing they read, can they take action on your recommendations or anticipate a desired outcome based on the information you included?

Executive Summary Outline Template - PowerPoint

Use this free template to outline your next big presentation, or keep it updated as a live meeting record to keep up with your evolving internal business plans or funding needs. The slides are formatted to outline the important elements of a formal business plan summary. You can customize the slides to fit the order of importance for your content’s purpose or extend each. Use the slides as an outline to keep track of the content you want to summarize after every update or draft of the report.

‌ Download Executive Summary Outline Template - PowerPoint

What to Include in an Executive Summary

You will determine the components of each executive summary you write based on the reason for writing it and your target audience.

For example, a business plan for an external audience includes financial information and details on the size and scale of a company; startups seeking funding and investors will highlight specific financial requirements and how they impact the business strategy. Executive summaries vary in the content they cover, but here is a common framework:

Introduction : This opening statement, paragraph, or section should clearly state the document’s purpose and the content to follow. How you will use this section depends on the desired outcome for the reader or audience, who should immediately find value in the information you present. Therefore, the details included in the introduction should grab and hold the reader’s attention.  

Company Information : When writing an executive summary for an external audience, include your company name, a description of your mission or purpose, contact information, location, and the size and scale of your operations. In some cases, the summary introduces the founders, investors, and corporate leadership. It might include background information of each that outlines previous industry or startup experience, or historical context on the current state of the company. When used in a presentation or research report, introduce the team presenting or responsible for the report’s findings.

Products and Services : The executive summary is the place to highlight the problem you solve or the need you fulfill. For a report, this is where you might highlight what you researched and what the reader should know about your findings. For a project proposal, include what you’re planning to accomplish and what you need to make it successful. For marketing plans or product launch presentations, tell the reader why your service or product is relevant at this particular moment in time.

Market Analysis : The executive summary of a business plan might profile the target customer and explain the market opportunity for a product or service. Consider answering questions like: Is there a five year plan for this market? How do you anticipate growing the customer base and improving market share? What stands out from your research about your customers that the reader should know?

Competition Analysis : This section should include answers to the following questions:

What is the competitive advantage of your proposed solution or product and who or what do you compete with in this market?

What are the opportunities now and in the future?

What are the risks in your market and your product or service?

Do you have relevant experience with major competitors?

What are the future plans for growth and what obstacles do you anticipate addressing?

Financials : The executive summary might summarize key financial data that is relevant to the reader or data that supports your research. If the purpose is to secure funding, include the specific amount you are requesting. Be sure to provide context for the financial data or any number you highlight in the executive summary. This section is a great way to highlight growth, or to use metrics to provide perspective on the company.

Conclusions : Recap your findings, the problem and solution discussed, or the project and work proposed. If there is a decision the reader needs to make, be direct about it. Make the outcomes obvious, but leave enough intrigue for the rest of the content to follow.

How Do You End An Executive Summary?

Although the executive summary begins a document, it concludes so that it can stand alone from the rest of the content and still be of value. Use the conclusion to recap your findings, make recommendations, and propose solutions to the problem.

If there is a decision you want the reader to make, ask make a call to action in this section. If you are summarizing a research report, summarize the findings and the research methods used to conclude the work. Make the outcomes or recommendations visible, but leave enough out to incentivize the audience to continue reading. Close the executive summary with a strong statement or transition that sets up the theme or central message to the story you tell in the report or proposal.

What Should Be in the Executive Summary of a Business Plan?

Traditional business plans differ in context and content based on if the audience is internal or external. Both audiences benefit from some of the previously discussed elements of the executive summary (like a substantial introduction).

However, the summary of an internal business plan does not require a section that introduces management or key personnel. An external business plan targets an audience that expects to find crucial financial information in the summary. When you develop the executive summary of the business plan, determine the information to include based on the audience and purpose of the document.

Business Plan Executive Summary Template

This executive summary template is designed to get your business plan noticed and reviewed. In this scenario, you’re presenting to an external audience and therefore should include more attention to detail with a standard business plan document. Use bullet points and clear, formal language to guide the reader to the most important information about your company.

Download Business Plan Executive Summary Template

Excel  |  Word  |  PDF  | Smartsheet

You can find a variety of templates for various industries and needs by reading “Free Executive Summary Templates.”

What Should Be in an Executive Summary of a Report?

Josh Bernoff spent 20 years writing and editing reports for Forrester Research. He is an advocate of creating actionable reports that tell a story. He believes that the executive summary is crucial.

“If the report is a story, the right executive summary is the same story, written briefly,” writes Bernoff . He recommends imagining that your readers ask you questions like, “What’s the coolest stuff in this report?” and “What did you find out?” while writing the report.

“Your answer, written directly to the reader, is the executive summary,” Bernoff explains in his book.

The executive summary of a report requires vivid details that grab online readers’ attention in a hurry. According to Bernoff, the summary recaps the story you want to tell behind all the words in the report. Using this advice as a guidepost, consider including the following answers to these questions to create your report’s summary:

What is the central plot of your report?

Why is this story important?

What are the most memorable scenes (examples, data, case study results, etc.) from the different sections of the report?

How does your research address the story’s central conflict (the problem solved)?

How does your research support the story’s conclusion?

What actions does the story recommend the reader be aware of?

The executive summary of lengthy research reports — especially those used in academic articles, scientific journals, government studies, or healthcare initiatives — require additional formatting considerations and elements not found in business plans or proposals. Consider the following guidelines when developing the executive summary of a research report:

Present the sections of the executive summary in the same order as in the main report.

Do not include information or research that is not supported and presented in the body of the report.

Draw a conclusion with the executive summary that justifies the research and provides recommendations.

Use a tone and language to describe technical information that readers without advanced knowledge or expertise of the subject matter can understand.

Remember that an executive summary of a report is distinct from an abstract. Abstracts are shorter overviews of a report and are common in academia. They familiarize the reader with a synopsis of the research that is much shorter than an executive summary. You can also think of an abstract as a standalone statement that helps the reader determine if they will read on. The executive summary, by contrast, summarizes the research in a structure that includes the summary, methods, results, conclusions, and recommendations for the reader without necessarily having to read further.

Research Report Executive Summary Template

Use this template to create a synopsis of research results for reports — these will typically be longer than an executive summary for a business plan and proposal. The template is formatted to accommodate in-depth reports that need space for charts and tables to illustrate research data. It is designed to summarize technical information in a concise manner, with clear subheadings that communicate key findings to readers with various expertise and interest.

Download Research Report Executive Summary Template

Word  |  PDF

Get Funding with Your Executive Summary

Startups seeking capital investment from venture capital funds and angel investors can repurpose the executive summary from a business plan as a more concise, less formal investor profile.

This type of summary memo is stripped down and focused on the specific financial requirements and how the funding makes an impact on the business strategy. It is the perfect template to create a profile on investor platform websites like AngelList and Gust . Use the following tips to transform traditional business plan summaries into the pitch that lands you a meeting or funding:

Include the specific dollar amount you’re requesting, the purpose for the funds raised, and any relevant data such as repayment terms, collateral, equity share information, etc.

Keep the financial data simple and round to the nearest whole dollar amount.

List founders, partners, and key management personnel and highlight specific domain expertise or previous startup experience.

Describe your company’s growth plan and the proposed exit strategy.

Remove any industry buzzwords, meaningless phrases, and cliches (for example “the Uber of…,” “game-changing,” “disruptive,” “next Facebook,” “world-class,” etc.).

Mention noteworthy achievements, intellectual property, important business partnerships, or information on product development stages in test markets.

Describe work in progress and highlight relevant information about customer growth, market demand, and product development.

Startup Executive Summary Template

Transform your executive summary into an investor document with this template. It acts as a one-page pitch that serves as your company profile on investor platforms. You can repurpose this template and save it as a PDF summary memo to land future meetings with investors. For more information on business plans for startups, including free budget templates, read “ Free Startup Plan, Budget & Cost Templates .”

Download Startup Executive Summary Template

Seamlessly Track the Progress of Your Executive Summary with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Case Study Templates

How to write the executive summary for case studies.

The Executive Summary of your Case Study must make the right impression on your readers. It’s the first section they read. However, the Executive Summary must be the last part of the document you write.

How to Write a Case Study

When writing this section, remember this is your best chance to interest the reader—and get them to take action! For example: call your Sales team and get more information about your products, sign up for a newsletter, download a trial product, or request more information about your product line.

What’s the Purpose of an Executive Summary?

Executive Summaries should give readers a high-level overview of your Case Study.

This is NOT the introduction to your document; rather this sets the scene and describes your company, vision and product offering. In your mind’s eye, see the Executive Summary and the Case Study are two separate documents. Approach each one with a different ‘writer’s hat’.

The tone, style, and language may be different. In general, the Executive Summary will be tightly-written, direct, and high-level. You dive into these points in the case study itself. This applies to in-depth case studies over five pages. Shorter case studies may not require the same background information.

Best Practice: Writing your Executive Summary

Write your Executive Summary as though it were standalone document . It’s usually best to do this when the proposal is finished as you will then have digested the material and have a fuller grasp of the business objectives.

The Executive Summary as a ‘document’ introduces your business, principles, products, and people.

When writing your Case Study’s executive summary provide brief summaries of the following:

• Business operations
• Company’s background
• Competitors
• Customer list
• Financial projections
• Flagship products
• Industry awards
• Key services
• Management team
• Market share
• Marketing and sales objectives
• Office locations
• Partnerships
• Strategic alliances
• Vision Statement

Case study for Architecture projects

Guidelines: Writing the Executive Summary

The Executive Summary should be no more than one or two pages.

I’ve seen very concise and persuasive introductions that were less than three-hundred words. The business writers knew how to introduce the key points, ignore/relegate less important material, and use a writing style that made the reader want to read the rest of the document.

This applies to in-depth case studies over five pages. Shorter case studies may not require the same background information.

Don’t resort to clichés and hackneyed phrases. Your customers read business documents all day. Make sure yours stands out.

Note : This applies to in-depth case studies. Shorter case studies may not require the same background information.

• Company – Describe your company background, with details of your industry position, physical location and number of employees.
• Management – Introduce the key members of the senior management team. Where possible, give their name, position, age, prior employer, experience in similar activities, degrees etc. Use common sense here and move these to a later section in the document if it takes too much space. When writing a Case Study, I often add a section called Pen Portraits and add profiles of the management team in there.
• Product Offering – If you’re discussing a specific product offering, for example, software for selling digital goods online, then outline the three main benefits. Where appropriate, discuss key features, customers, competitors and industry awards.
• Value Proposition – Describe what is unique about this product, for example, if it can it be patented, localized, scaled, used over the web, on mobile devices.
• Financials – This is required if you’re seeking funding, looking for partners, or applying for a grant. Keep it short. Check the figures more than once!
• Funding – Describe your current position, use of funds to date, prior funding. Also break out the investment you’ve received to date, investors’ names, business valuation, and details of the exit strategy. (This section may not apply to all Case Studies.)
• Contact Information – Add your name, position, company, address, phone, fax, email and website address.

What else should go into the Executive Summary?

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Case Study Executive Summary Template

• Great for beginners
• Ready-to-use, fully customizable Doc
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When it comes to presenting your case study to busy executives, you need to make a lasting impression in a short amount of time. ClickUp's Case Study Executive Summary Template is here to help you do just that!

With this template, you can create a concise and impactful executive summary that highlights the most important points of your case study, including:

• A clear description of the problem or situation you addressed
• The approach you took to analyze and solve the problem
• The key findings and insights derived from your study
• Actionable recommendations and outcomes for decision-makers

Say goodbye to lengthy reports and hello to a streamlined and effective executive summary that will capture the attention of even the busiest executives. Try ClickUp's Case Study Executive Summary Template today and start impressing your stakeholders with your concise and compelling case study summaries.

Benefits of Case Study Executive Summary Template

When it comes to presenting a case study to busy executives, an executive summary template can be a game-changer. Here's how it can benefit your organization:

• Saves time by providing a concise overview of the case study's main points and findings
• Allows executives to quickly grasp the problem, approach, analysis, and recommendations of the study
• Facilitates informed decision-making by presenting key information in a clear and organized manner
• Enhances communication and collaboration among team members by providing a structured format for sharing case study insights

Main Elements of Case Study Executive Summary Template

ClickUp's Case Study Executive Summary template is the perfect tool to showcase the highlights and key findings of your case study in an organized and professional manner. Here are the main elements of this template:

• Custom Statuses: Stay on top of the progress of your executive summary by using custom statuses such as In Progress, Review, and Completed.
• Custom Fields: Capture important details about your case study, such as Client Name, Objective, Methodology, Results, and Conclusion, using custom fields. This allows for easy data entry and retrieval.
• Different Views: Choose from various views to work with your executive summary. Use the Doc view to write and format your summary, the Table view to organize data and findings, and the Calendar view to set deadlines and milestones.

With ClickUp's Case Study Executive Summary template, you can streamline the process of creating professional and impactful case study summaries.

How to Use Executive Summary for Case Study

To create a compelling and effective case study executive summary, follow these five steps:

1. Understand the purpose

Before you start writing your executive summary, it's important to understand its purpose. The executive summary is a concise overview of the case study that highlights the key points and findings. It should provide enough information to give the reader a clear understanding of the case study without having to read the entire report.

Use the Docs feature in ClickUp to familiarize yourself with the purpose and structure of an executive summary.

2. Identify the main sections

To create a well-organized executive summary, identify the main sections of your case study that need to be included. This typically includes a brief introduction, the problem or challenge, the solution implemented, the results achieved, and any key takeaways or lessons learned.

Use the Table view in ClickUp to outline the main sections and structure your executive summary.

3. Summarize the key points

In each section of your executive summary, summarize the key points from the corresponding section of the case study. Focus on the most important information and findings, and avoid including unnecessary details. Use clear and concise language to effectively communicate the main points.

Use the tasks feature in ClickUp to create individual sections for each key point and summarize them concisely.

4. Highlight the results and impact

One of the most important aspects of a case study is the results achieved and the impact it had. In your executive summary, highlight the key results and their significance. Use data and metrics to support your claims and provide evidence of the success of the case study.

Use custom fields in ClickUp to track and showcase the specific results and impact of the case study.

5. Review and refine

Once you have completed your case study executive summary, take the time to review and refine it. Look for any areas that can be improved or clarified, and ensure that the summary is cohesive and flows smoothly. Consider seeking feedback from others to get a fresh perspective.

Set a recurring task in ClickUp to review and refine your executive summary periodically to keep it up-to-date and relevant.

Get Started with ClickUp’s Case Study Executive Summary Template

Companies and consultants can use this Case Study Executive Summary Template to quickly summarize the key points of a case study for busy executives or decision-makers.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create effective executive summaries:

• Use the Summary View to provide a concise overview of the case study, including the problem, approach, analysis, and main recommendations or outcomes
• The Key Findings View will help you highlight the most important insights and conclusions from the study
• Use the Recommendations View to outline specific actions or strategies recommended based on the case study findings
• The Visuals View will allow you to include charts, graphs, or other visual representations to support your summary
• Customize the template by adding sections or fields that are relevant to your specific case study
• Update the summary regularly as new information or developments arise
• Share the executive summary with the intended audience in a clear and easily accessible format

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Crafting a Powerful Executive Summary

by John Clayton

Responding to a request for proposals (RFP) is pretty straightforward. You describe your company's history, your product or service, its implementation schedule, and the support you'll provide. The one stumbling block is the one section that everyone will read: the executive summary.

What is its purpose? If you answered, to summarize the proposal , think again.

Thus the executive summary demands a whole different approach to writing than the rest of the proposal, one that balances efficient delivery of key information with a persuasive, well-substantiated pitch. Above all, the executive summary must demonstrate a clear understanding of the potential client's needs. A good way to do this is to include in it the ROI your services will deliver. "You need to describe outcomes," Sant says. "Describe the impact on performance—ideally a measurable impact."

Write with an eye to the audience A strong executive summary is crafted with the audience firmly in mind: busy executives interested in bottom-line deliverables, not details. "An executive reads for certain keywords, and for the price," says Stacia Kelly, president of Catklaw, a Woodbridge, Va.-based writing boutique. "If he likes it, he'll hand it to an assistant and ask them to read the whole thing."

For that reason, advises Bud Porter-Roth, author of Proposal Development: How to Respond and Win the Bid (PSI Research/Oasis, 1998), put the most critical information in the first couple of paragraphs. "The executive may not read any more," he says. But, he cautions, "the RFP writers will read the whole thing." Thus the executive summary has an additional, secondary audience: the middle managers who will make presentations about you and your proposal to senior management. So make sure the executive summary gives them the tools to act on your behalf, Porter-Roth says. To reach both of these audiences, an executive summary should do three things:

1. Establish the need or problem. This might be more challenging than first appears. Often, says Porter-Roth, "RFPs are poorly written. You may have to define the business issues, because the RFP was written by technical people who saw only technical issues."

"You need to convince them that this is a problem worth doing something about," Sant says. "Your biggest competitor may be that they do nothing, that they spend this money on something else."

2. Recommend the solution and explain its value. "Be sure to make a firm, clear recommendation," advises Sant. For example, say something along the lines of "We recommend that integrated content management software be implemented across the company." Then you need to explain the value of your solution. Here you're not focusing on what it is, but on what its return or benefits will be.

"Rather than technical details, you need to say things like 'This solution will reduce your work staff by five people' or 'This CRM will allow you to answer questions while online, rather than in a call back,'" says Porter-Roth.

3. Provide substantiation. Give the key reasons why your company is the right company to deliver the solution. Here's where you can differentiate yourself—highlight a unique methodology, for instance, or provide a quick case study of your past work. Another idea: Include testimonials from satisfied clients. Just don't get carried away and turn the focus away from the potential client and onto your company. "It's not about the vendor—it's about the customer," says Sant. His rule of thumb: Make sure the executive summary mentions the customer's name three times as often as your company's name.

Making it pitch-perfect Experts offer these other tips for putting together an executive summary that gets attention and gets business:

Use formatting and graphics to highlight your message. Bullets and headings will make the executive summary easier to skim, and a well-chosen graphic can drive a key point home. If you can find the information in the public record, use a graphic illustrating the client's dilemma.

"This can really rivet their understanding of how bad a situation is," says Sant.

Keep it clear, clean, and to the point. Strike out jargon, advises Catklaw's Kelly. Her pet peeves include world-class, turnkey, value-added , and leverage (as a verb). And proofread carefully, says Porter-Roth. "Always have a fresh pair of eyes review the executive summary for grammar, selling themes, and especially overall consistency. Too often the executive summary is a cut-and-paste job and it shows."

While you're in editing mode, make sure your executive summary stays true to its name. "Keep your executive summary short—one to two pages for the first twenty-five pages of proposal text and an additional page for each fifty pages thereafter," Sant says.

Reprinted with permission from "Writing an Executive Summary That Means Business," Harvard Management Communication Letter , August 2003.

See the latest issue of Harvard Management Communication Letter

John Clayton is an independent business writer based in Montana. He can be reached at [email protected] .

Home | News & Insights | How to Write an Executive Summary

How to Write an Executive Summary

3rd Sep, 2024

Depending on the type of organisation you’re in and the work involved, an executive summary can be an incredibly useful way to quickly and clearly communicate the key takeaways of a larger document. With a greater understanding of how to effectively compose an executive summary, you can ensure that any project documents, proposals or surveys provide the relevant information for stakeholders, and convey the intended message. In this guide, we will explain how to write an executive summary, with all the best tips and details to ensure you can successfully create tailored summaries for your business.

What is an executive summary?

Before we look at how to write one, it’s important to know exactly what an executive summary is. An executive summary is essentially an overview of a document, more detail-rich and often long documents . The exact length of your executive summary and its contents will depend on what document it is summarising. However, executive summaries typically range from one to two pages long. Your summary should share all the information that your readers and stakeholders need to know about the document, providing them with the details they need to succeed before they have even read the main body of the document.

When are executive summaries used?

Executive summaries are most commonly used in the following types of documents:

• Research reports
• School reports
• Environmental studies
• Project proposals
• Market surveys
• Business cases
• Project plans

Why are executive summaries important?

If you’re writing any of the above documents an executive summary should be an essential component. This is because your readers might not have time to go through the full document straight away after initially receiving it. Therefore, a strong executive summary should be able to provide a clear overview of the contents of the document, and when they do intend to go through it fully, it should keep their attention and motivate them to continue reading .

Additionally, the summary might contain important details for stakeholders, ensuring they can prepare for future meetings and quickly follow up on specific areas of the document.

What should an executive summary include?

A high-quality executive summary should offer a brief statement of the key topics being covered within the document. It’s important to keep in mind that it is a summary, meaning you should keep the language succinct and to the point, aiming to stay within the one to two-page range referenced earlier in this guide. The main elements that you will want to include in your executive summary are:

• An overview of what the document is about, such as the challenges a business is currently having, or a proposal for a new product.
• A clear analysis of the problem.
• Background information that applies to the reader.
• Conclusions the author has reached.

How to write an executive summary

Your executive summary should be written in a professional manner , as well as being clear and concise. It can be beneficial before you start writing it to do some research and potentially find a template that reflects the type of summary or document you’re writing. For example, E-Sign has a wide range of useful templates that our clients can utilise, including a grant proposal template , that features an executive summary section. Also, you should ask any questions to your colleagues or management prior to writing, to ensure that you format and style the summary appropriately to your organisation . Follow the steps below to write a great executive summary.

1. Start with the problem and proposed solution 

First, make sure that you have read the document in its entirety multiple times, so you can quickly highlight the main points, problems, and advice. You should begin your executive summary by explaining why the document and the project it discusses are important . 

Clearly explain the background detail of what the problem is, including any relevant research or feedback that supports this. This should be followed by why it is essential to solve the problem, including how the resolution will benefit your customers and other stakeholders. 

For example, if your document is proposing an environmental study, you should establish the value of the study, what information it can provide in order to make crucial sustainable changes, who will benefit from the outcome of the study etc.

2. Detail the project’s objectives or the solution it intends to provide

After presenting the problem in the first part of your executive summary, you will want to follow up by outlining your solution . This includes explaining and convincing your readers why this solution is the best option to solve the problem. You can support these claims by broadly describing what will happen during the project and the intended outcomes. 

However, the executive summary will be situated at the start of the proposal/project plan. So it’s ok not to have all your deliverables and milestones mapped out at this stage, more details will be provided to the reader as they progress through the document. If you want to include an overview of the project’s core deliverables and timelines, it may be beneficial to create a project roadmap before writing this part of your executive summary.

3. Explore the value of the solution

For this part of the summary, you will start to go into more detail about how the solution will impact and improve upon the challenges discussed at the beginning of the document. This is likely to include any expected results, relevant financial details, project risks, and potential benefits. It’s common in this section of the summary to relate the project to your overall company goals, objectives, and values.

4. Conclude with the importance of your work

Once you have provided the key information to your readers and stakeholders, you should close your executive summary by emphasising the impact and importance of this project on your organisation and the wider community overall . It should leave a lasting impression on the reader, resonating with their values and encouraging them to support the proposed plan. Incorporating a call to action and leaving the reader wanting to continue the document are good ways to conclude your executive summary.

Executive summary example template

Every executive summary might look different, depending on the type of document you are creating the summary for, your industry and organisation etc. When considering how to format your executive summary, you should keep the intended audience in mind and whether your company has any set requirements. Whilst the above details the elements you will want to include in terms of written content, below is a brief executive summary template, showing how you may want to lay out your content when writing your own.

[Introduction/problem statement]

Example – The city of (city/town name) has been facing a steady decline for various reasons including (increased unemployment rates, and increased crime rates amongst young people). According to recent research by (well-known institution) (relevant statistics, e.g., anti-social behaviour by young people has risen by 10%). In correlation with this (more relevant statistics, e.g., 1 in 3 families say that they would benefit from having more activities for their kids to do outside of school) .

[Proposed solution]

Example – Our architectural project has been effectively planned to address the core issues discussed above, and avoid the deficiencies of previous attempts at bringing a community building to the local area. The project is not just about constructing the building itself, but also ensuring that an infrastructure is in place that actively encourages the community to utilise the space and services it will provide. It will create job opportunities and support families that are looking for positive activities their children can become involved in.

Example – Our objectives for this project are (list objectives) with regular reviews to ensure we are meeting the targets we set out. Following the successful completion of this project, our next step is implementing our work on a wider scale to make a difference in the lives of individuals and communities around the world. The total cost to carry out this work is (total figure) and your investment of (figure) is the ideal amount to complete our funding and get the project started.

[Conclusion and next steps]

Example – There is a growing need for a modern community centre where children and young people can go to give them purpose, and activities that are relevant to their interests. It’s important to invest in projects that will support younger people, allowing them to successfully flourish and positively transition into the working world. By the end of this project, we anticipate (outcomes including data estimates, e.g.10,000 people can benefit from the community centre we build). Find out more about our organisation and this project here.

A well-written executive summary can set the tone for the rest of your proposal/project plan , and make a significant difference in achieving the intended outcomes of the document. For example, if you’re sending a proposal to potential investors, your executive summary will provide them with the initial facts that might influence their decision before they have read the full document. 

As an electronic signature and digital document solutions provider, E-Sign understands the importance of creating and sending high-quality documents for signature, like proposals and plans that feature executive summaries. There are many benefits to implementing an e-signature platform like E-Sign into your document workflows including increased efficiency, cost savings, reduced carbon emissions and more . 

Contact us today to discuss your requirements and our digital transformation team can help to provide you with a tailored plan that meets your needs. You can also get started with E-Sign by registering for our 14-day free trial , allowing you to try the features and functionality of the platform yourself, and see how it can support your organisation’s document processes.

Luke Garrett

Head of digital transformation.

Luke works with organisations to evaluate their existing processes, assessing the organisational change and change management processes that a business may require. He leads organisations through the process and ensures a smooth transition to the most effective operations.

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Business Case Executive Summary Example Template

A business case executive summary example is an executive summary for a business report format. Check out this customizable template from Venngage.

• Design style modern
• Colors light
• Size Letter (8.5 x 11 in)
• File type PNG, PDF, PowerPoint
• Plan business

A business case executive summary example is a document that helps users to write their executive summaries. Business case executive summary examples provide a general template for writing a succinct and effective executive summary, as well as give examples of how to use it in real-world situations. Business case executive summary examples help users by providing them with a guide for what to include in an executive summary, as well as how to organize that information into a clear and convincing document. After reading through the example, users will be able to easily create their executive summaries by following the guidelines provided. There are several benefits of using business case executive summary examples: they save time, they are easy to understand, they are versatile enough to be used across many different types of business cases, and they allow users to create their custom templates based on what works best for them. Anyone who needs an easy way to create an effective executive summary can use this business case executive summary example! This infographic from Venngage is a great way to make sure you're communicating

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