Writing: Executive Summary

Executive summaries fail when they summarise the document rather than answering the reader's question. A summary of a 40-page analysis is not what an executive needs. They need: what is the situation, what are the three things most important to know, what does it mean for their decision, and what should happen next. In that order. In one page.

The fundamental principle: the executive is not the end reader of your analysis — they are a decision-maker who needs the output of your analysis in a form that enables action. The detail, the methodology, the full data — that stays in the main document. The executive summary gives them what they need to act without reading the full document.

Four common failures:

• Summarising the process, not the answer: "We conducted a comprehensive analysis of three market segments, reviewing 47 data sources over 8 weeks." The executive doesn't need to know how long it took — they need to know what it found.
• Findings without implications: Stating what happened without stating what it means for the decision at hand.
• False balance: Including minor findings to be thorough, diluting the signal with noise. Three things that matter are better than twelve things that range from critical to marginal.
• Passive language on the recommendation: "It may be worth considering..." — the executive summary is where the recommendation is made, not hedged.

Your Process

Step 1: Reader's Role and Actual Decision Who exactly is reading this? What is the specific decision they need to make? Not "the board should be informed" but "the board is deciding whether to approve the $2M market expansion budget." This decision frames everything: what gets included, what gets cut, and how the recommendation is framed.