The idea of creating a pitch-perfect executive summary leaves most of us confused. Professionals usually wonder about the elements that need to be incorporated in a successful executive summary to grab the sponsorship for their new projects.
An executive summary is very crucial for a new and growing business. It is a critical tool that has the power to influence the funding of your venture and can also help empower its potential.
What is an Executive Summary?
An executive summary is a brief document that captures the top highlights of any endeavor - be it a project, an organizational update, a pitch, a business case, or any other topic that requires executive attention.
A good executive summary seizes your reader's attention and lets them know the gist of what you are trying to say. These summaries often appear right at the beginning of a more detailed document or presentation - presenters use it to respect the audience's time and allow adequate opportunity for a vigorous discussion.
Good executive summaries should be written with the intent that the entire discussion time will be spent on the summary itself without the need to go through the rest of the document. The details are made available in the document to review as the need to "double click" on the topic comes up. As such, executive summaries should be very intricately connected to the rest of the presentation.
An excellent way to write an Executive Summary
After doing thorough research, we have found some things to keep in mind while writing an executive summary. These are our tried and tested tips that will help you create an executive summary that is going to steal the show.
a. Think of the story: Executive summaries are all about storytelling. If your story can be told in a coherent way in less than 30 seconds, you have a winner at hand.
b. Carry punch: The opening statement of your executive summary needs to pack a punch. One way to do this is to use numbers showing the extent of the problem you are trying to solve or the impact you are likely to create- this should be done without creating undue hype though by weaving the numbers in your overall story and supporting your key points.
c. Short and Crisp: Make sure to enlist only the key points in your executive summary slides. Long paragraphs and too much information makes people lose interest. The executive summary slides should have plenty of white space and contain pleasing graphics/pictures if possible. Make the summary clear and focused, by using short lines or bullets, and subheadings.
d. Right graphics: In the famous book "Thinking Fast and Slow", David Kahneman argues that the presenter should always appeal to the "Fast" side of the brain so the audience can immediately grasp your message. It can be surprising how much using the right graphics can help you in this effort. In the next section you will see a few examples how the right graphics can reinforce the gist of your message in a package that is easily digested and understood by the audience.
e. Do you really need the summary?: A good question to ask since sometimes, although rarely, you are better off without one. This does not mean that you do not do the necessary work to build the slide and prepare your story. You just do not present it formally using a slide: instead, the story runs behind the scenes as you go about presenting the slides. Situations, where this might be useful, are when you want to show the work as a "work in progress" and want to involve the audience in a more informal way. Adding executive summaries does give an aura of more "formalism" which can on occasions, create a subtle barrier between you and the audience.
Examples of Executive Summary for different business scenarios:
Except in those rare situations just mentioned, in most cases, you will benefit from including executive summaries in your presentations. Here is a list of some scenarios where executive summaries can be immensely powerful in driving your point home.
1. Executive Summary to highlight key imperatives in your strategy presentations:
Executives are extremely interested in seeing the top imperatives of your product or brand to meet key strategic goals. This type of executive summary requires the ability to clearly communicate a top-down approach that is derived from the strategy, into the key imperatives and then leading to top programs within those imperatives.
Here is an example of such an executive summary that ensures the message sinks in right away
This document organizes content in a manner that the hierarchy of ideas is neatly and clearly laid out: and lends clarity which is especially important when dealing with the fuzzy frontiers of business strategy.
2. Executive Summary to highlight long-range planning and roadmap
A roadmap view can be a great executive summary tool to indicate where you are headed and where you have been. In a single executive summary slide, you can convey the direction the business or the project is taking along with key milestones you plan to hit. Here is an example of a roadmap style executive summary
The effective use of icons and diagrams makes this template a successful executive summary template.
3. Executive Summary to highlight your company capabilities in Business Proposal:
To showcase company capabilities, you often need to take a multi-dimensional approach. Infographics is a great and interesting format to present the multi-faceted aspects of your company concisely, that is not overbearing on the user.
Here is an example of such an executive summary
What makes this interesting is that the audience can get a sense of discovery while they see this document by finding interesting tidbits of information. This way, they engage better with your messages.
4. Executive Summary to summarize your project charter:
When starting a project or even to keep people reminded of the focus and highlights of your project, a project charter style summary is a great format. Minimalistic, well-organized graphics give an immense professional appeal to such documents.
The use of square shapes give this executive summary slide a well-organized feel and communicates the methodical approach being taken to drive project scoping, planning, and execution.
4. Executive Summary to summarize your customer profile and his journey:
Executives want to understand their customers better so they can provide direction and guidance to the organization or even make the right resource allocation choices. Marketers have many ways to keep track of who the customers are, their purchase behaviors, etc. Oftentimes, as a part of business reviews, they need to present this information in a digestible manner to the executives, given their interest in this topic. Here is an example from SlideUpLift of how this information can be summarized for executive consumption.
This structure allows the clients to summarize factors such as - customer's tenure, activity status, and demographics.
Executive summary to summarize your product launch:
When you are planning to launch a new project or a product, executives are very anxious to know the launch plan and how it connects with the product strategy. They want to know what would be done before launch, at launch, and post-launch. As you might imagine, this is quite a handful and can quickly become overwhelming. An executive summary can be very handy to elegantly summarize the plan and ease anxieties while building confidence in the presenter's abilities to handle complexity.
Here is an example of an executive summary slide that can be effectively used for product launch.
As you will note, these templates allow you to convey the key details of your new product while keeping the presentation clear and crisp. These create space for you to convey the key information nuggets regarding- key milestones, and planning highlights.
Executive Summary to summarize business updates/reviews:
Executives have a continual, recurring need to review the state of business or key programs in the form of "Business review" presentations. These reviews are necessary to keep them posted on the numbers, progress, challenges, plan, key changes, deviations, risks, and mitigation. As you might imagine, it is easy to drown anyone in detail, with this extent of information needs.
This is where Business Review Executive Summary templates come in handy!
These templates are designed for recurring use, build reviewing habits, and capture dynamic progress on an ongoing basis.
Conclusion:
An effective executive summary perfectly conveys the core message of your presentation and ignites your audience's interest in your business. Building an exciting executive summary shows how you value your audience's time and increases the likelihood of your presentation's success. Check out SlideUplift's presentation template library which hosts hundreds of engaging executive summary templates to help you create an impactful executive summary. You can also sign up for the Free Library of PowerPoint Templates to download a Free Executive Summary to get started.
