How to Write an Executive Summary: A Step-by-Step Guide

An executive summary is a brief synopsis that serves as a stand-alone document at the beginning of another larger document. It is created such that an executive, an investor, or a board member could get all of the information out of the document necessary to act on it without having to read any of it. This document exists for the reason that most decision makers lack the time to read all of the pages in all of the documents that come across their desk, making this document independent of itself.

However, this will normally be found right at the front of the business plan, report, grant proposal, or project proposal, and will precede the table of contents and even the introduction. Because it serves as a stand-alone document, it must never presuppose that the person reading it has read other parts of the document, so references to figures, charts, or appendixes are not appropriate.

Executive Summary vs. Abstract vs. Regular Summary: What's the Difference? 

It is not uncommon for individuals who write in both academic and business contexts to get mixed up between these three styles of writing, despite their obvious differences.

For those engaged in research and seeking help on writing an abstract in this particular format, our article titled How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper will provide detailed guidelines on how to do that. In case the assignment requires summarizing a book, essay or any other document for your course, you may refer to our comprehensive guide on How to Write a Summary for more information.

In practice, the difference is simple; if the document is academic or scientific, an abstract will be needed; otherwise, it is the executive summary that is required.

What to Include in an Executive Summary (The 4 Core Parts) 

Without considering style or language, first construct an outline based on four essential components that appear repeatedly in practically every good executive summary.

• What the problem or need is – the reason the document was created and what gap it tries to fill.
• Solution or approach – what you are proposing, developing or doing in response to it.
• Results or findings – the most significant facts or findings from the work.
• Action item – what you want your audience to do about the information you have just shared.

View this as the minimum criteria that your draft must meet before polishing your prose or cutting it down to size. Any missing element makes the executive summary incomplete no matter how well-written.

How to Write an Executive Summary: 6 Steps 

Preparing an effective executive summary becomes much easier when you have a proper sequence of writing as opposed to drafting it in a single stretch.

Step 1: Prepare the Whole Document First

• Only prepare your executive summary after the preparation of the underlying document that has to be summarized. 
• It is impossible to give correct summarization of your findings, costings, and recommendations when they can still be altered. 
• It is just not worth going through the waste of time of rewriting a whole summary.

Step 2: State the Problem or Opportunity First

• Begin by setting up some background information, and then clearly state what problem, need, or opportunity your document addresses. 
• It’s precisely this statement that will draw the reader’s attention within the first few seconds, so you should not lose it on unnecessary background information.

Step 3: Summarize the Solution or Approach

• Tell the reader what you have done, created, proposed in simple terms. 
• Do not get into too much detail at the executive summary stage; give the reader enough information to get an idea of what your approach was all about.

Step 4: Highlight the Key Results or Findings

• Provide the reader with a couple of your most important pieces of data and specify them. 
• In other words, a generalization “performance is better” tells nothing to your reader; “year-on-year revenue growth is 12%”, in contrast, conveys your message more effectively.

Step 5: End With a Clear Recommendation or Call to Action 

• Specify the actions you want your readers to take after they have read your executive summary. 
• You can ask your readers to approve a budget, finance a project, or just go through the whole document. 
• It is crucial that an executive summary without any call for action does not give any direction for action to your reader.

Step 6: Trim, Format for Skimming, and Cut Jargon 

• Avoid using lengthy paragraphs and complicated sentences but instead use short paragraphs and bullet points, eliminate any obscure abbreviations and technical terms from your executive summary. 
• And do not mention any table, figure, or appendix which is unknown to your reader. 
• The main thing about writing an effective executive summary is proper editing of the summary in addition to drafting it because otherwise you will end up with an executive summary.

How Long Should an Executive Summary Be?

There are quite a lot of different recommendations regarding length, but it is mostly due to the fact that the type of assignment is not what decides this.

While some groups and foundations will put down a maximum number of words or pages in relation to this section only. So, be sure to verify the exact details that you have received before fixing your length according to any of the above figures.

How to write for a Business Plan, Report, or Marketing Plan

Though every executive summary is always structured in the same four sections, the content that you focus on varies according to the type of document being summarized. A business plan must sell an opportunity; a report must justify its worthiness of your time and a marketing plan must convince someone of your budget and strategy. Here is how each one puts their own twist on the basic structure.

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

Purpose of Company, Market Opportunity, Business Operation, Funding Requirement

Executive summary of the business plan should contain the purpose of the business, market opportunity addressed, how the business operates and, if applicable, the sum of money required for the financing of the venture. This particular executive summary is intended for those who will make the financial decision based only on this executive summary.

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Report

The executive summary of the report should contain the purpose of the report, the process by which the information was obtained, the findings of the report, and any recommendations made from the findings. This version of the executive summary is intended for people who have to decide if the report is worth reading in full.

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Marketing Plan

An executive summary in the marketing plan needs to address four important aspects of the campaign. These include the objective of the entire campaign, the target group, the strategy that will be used in order to achieve the objective, and the key performance indicator for measuring success. The current version of an executive summary is meant for approval purposes only.

Example of an Executive Summary

Having an actual, annotated example helps understand the structure much faster than plain verbal explanation. 

• [Problem] Our medium-sized software company has seen an increase in customer support response times of 40% for the last two quarters, resulting in higher customer churn rate and lower satisfaction scores. 
• [Solution] This proposal suggests the introduction of a tiered support system along with a new ticketing system, enabling automatic resolution of simpler queries, whereas complicated cases can be directed straight to senior customer support personnel. 
• [Key results] The use of this system on trial basis for four weeks with just one product line decreased the average response time from 18 hours to 4 hours and improved customer satisfaction scores by 22%. 
• [Recommendation] It is suggested to implement this system company wide within the next quarter with the budget of $85,000, which will decrease the losses due to customer churn by $340,000 per year.

The above example fits the requirements of an example for several distinct reasons. First, the problem is stated right from the start, not preceded by any irrelevant introduction to the topic. Second, the solution is presented using specific numbers instead of vague generalizations such as "there was an improvement in response time." Finally, the conclusion presents a decision with a price tag.

Executive Summary Template (Copy This Outline)

This light and easy structure, which only requires filling in the blank spaces, can be used as a starting point for creating your own version in accordance with the four-point outline discussed in this tutorial.

• [Problem/Need] Mention in one or two sentences the exact problem or gap or opportunity that your document solves.

• [Proposed Solution] Talk about what you are proposing/building/creating in plain English.

• [Results/Findings] Mention two to three results or findings to validate your proposed solution.

• [Recommendation/Next Step] Say what you need from your reader.

It is an overall structure but definitely not a formula, It is important to establish whether the format is required because the organization/funding agency may require it to be done when creating the business plan/proposal.

Common Executive Summary Mistakes to Avoid

There are many mistakes that may happen even in case of very careful research, and if you know these mistakes beforehand, you will know how to avoid them.

• Writing it beforehand: It means creation of the executive summary before finishing writing the entire document.
• Referring to tables/appendixes: As a result of the fact that reader is not familiar with the above mentioned, all the information should be included in the executive summary.
• Jargon and unfamiliar acronyms: Remember that your target audience is usually a non-academic decision-maker who is not familiar with the subject.
• Vague findings: If you write something like "performance improved," there is nothing for the reader to gain from it. Mention the actual outcome/number instead.
• No follow-up actions: Executive summaries must include a recommendation that tells the reader what to do with this information.

In case your document is not business oriented but rather a research document, it would be very wise to revisit the table of the differences between an abstract and executive summary provided above when seeking Research Paper Help. This comparison can make it easier to understand which format best suits your research document and present its key information clearly.