Definition Definition

What Is Executive Summary? Key Points in Executive Summary with Example

What is Executive Summary?

Executive Summary is a short and quick overview of the entire business plan that provides a busy reader with everything that s/he needs to know about the distinctive nature of the new venture.

Definition 2

It is also seen in research reports or other reporting documents. This section aims to summarize essential aspects for its audience, sparing them time and energy and enabling them to comprehend the study's primary information.

Understanding Executive Summary

An executive summary is a one or two-page snapshot of what the overall business plan entails. An executive summary is supposed to attract the audience's interest in a business plan used to seek investments from financial institutions, investment firms, or angel investors. Its purpose is to get more detail so that the audience may want to look deeper and study all of the proposal's contents.

This isn't meant to be introductory. You don't want to develop an executive summary that serves as a starting point to the entire plan. A complete experience or picture is delivered.

This summary is a great way to catch one's curiosity, educate readers about your company, and make a strong case for why they must put their money into your enterprise. It is the opportunity to sell one's company to private sponsors and demonstrate that it is not just worth their investment, but also their effort. 

Key Points in Executive Summary

Any executive summary should incorporate these few key points:

  • Company Objective
  • Market to target
  • Products and services
  • Ideas for marketing and sales
  • Analyze the competition
  • Distribution of funds and budgets for activities and operations
  • The number of staff that will be recruited and the number of people who will be associated
  • What steps will be taken to carry out the company plan?

Practical Example

Maria is an undergraduate student who has her own venture and needs to write a business plan. Her mentor said that the executive summary must contain necessary info for her reader depending on the aim of her business model. If Maria's business plan's purpose is to attract investment, she should highlight her working capital requirement and also how she plans to use the money. The sort of language used should also be determined by whether the reader is made up of general practitioners or professionals in the field.

In Sentence

  • The executive summary is a part that catches the viewer's interest and provides key information about the firm's outline and projected short- and long-term objectives.
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