20 Executive Summary Examples & Tips on Crafting an Effective Summary
Explaining your business and making angel investors and stakeholders believe in it isn’t an easy process. Giving them a detailed description of your business, its performance, and how it can bring money is very important. But, including all of these into a document will be a tiresome activity, and it would become very long.
However, you can turn them into executive summaries. These summaries are one to two-page descriptions of your business. While this executive summary is a great option to convince your investors, and stakeholders, writing down your business goals, and thoughts on paper can also help you understand what you can do.
This blog is all about executive summaries, what it is, and how to craft a perfect executive summary, and 20 examples that you can modify as per your requirement.
What is an executive summary?
An executive summary is a short form of a longer document or report. Its main purpose is to give investors, stakeholders, or decision-makers a clear understanding of the key points, findings, and recommendations shared in the full document.
Despite being short and precise, the executive summary sums up all the important details present in the document and helps readers grasp the main essence quickly without the need to read an entire document.
How to write an executive summary
While it is important to keep all the above aspects in your mind to curate a summary, here are some tips on how to write an executive summary:
- Understand the purpose: Clearly understand the purpose of the executive summary and its intended audience. Consider what information the readers need and what actions they might take based on the summary.
- Read the full document: Spend a considerable amount of time reading the document once you are done with the curation, proofreading, and editing. Read through all the key points, recommendations, and findings. This will give you an idea of what needs to be included in the summary or removed from it.
- Prioritize the main points: Identify the main objectives, key findings, and essential recommendations of the full document. Prioritize these points and ensure they are prominently featured in the executive summary.
- Keep it concise: Aim for brevity and keep the executive summary concise. Remove any unnecessary details, background information, or tangents. Focus on providing a clear and condensed overview of the most critical aspects.
- Use clear and simple language: Use clear and straightforward language to ensure the summary is easily understood by a diverse audience. Avoid complex technical jargon, acronyms, or industry-specific terminology. Explain any specialized terms that are necessary to include.
- Provide context: Offer enough context for readers to understand the problem or issue addressed in the full document. Briefly explain the background, Project scope, and significance of the topic. However, avoid excessive details or extensive background information.
- Summarize key findings: Summarize the main findings and results of the report concisely. Focus on the most important data, statistics, or research outcomes. Provide enough context for readers to comprehend the significance of the findings.
- Highlight recommendations: Emphasize the key recommendations derived from the findings. Clearly articulate the proposed actions or strategies that should be considered based on the report's conclusions. Ensure the recommendations are actionable and specific.
- Seek feedback: Share the executive summary with colleagues or stakeholders to get their feedback. They can provide valuable insights into clarity, comprehensiveness, and effectiveness. Incorporate their suggestions to enhance the quality of the summary.
- Review and update regularly: Review and update the executive summary periodically, especially if the full document undergoes revisions or updates. Keep the summary relevant and aligned with the most current information.
20 examples of an executive summary
Let us see some of the examples of an executive summary. You can use these examples and customize the summary as per your requirement.
1. Executive summary template from GetGuru
This is a simple executive summary template discussing the overview, problem and solution summaries along with market analysis for a business.
2. Executive summary template from Asana
This one page template gives the clear idea of the new watch series. It covers the problem statement, proposed solution, value and endnotes discussing future plans.
3. Executive summary template from SlideShare
This template has a business description, the project review, sustainable design concept, development timeline, and initial investment details clearing various doubts that investors usually have. The template is simple and precise.
4. Executive summary template from TemplateLab
This template is very simple and can be used by companies to give a brief description about their services to the angel investors and stakeholders.
5. Simplified executive summary template from TemplateLab
This executive template can be used to explain a business plan. It has multiple sections covering details about the product, its market at present, the competition, management and various other details. It is a simplified version of a business plan.
6. Executive summary example from Examples.com
This editable template is usually used for proposal submission.
7. Executive summary example from TemplateLab
This is another interesting template that you can use for sending business proposals.
8. Project executive summary template from TemplateLab
This template is perfect to describe any project along with its outcome.
9. Executive summary for company pitch deck from TemplateLab
This is an example for an executive summary discussing a business plan. The template is very simple and easy to use.
10. Project launch executive summary from Template.net
This is an executive summary that businesses can use during their product launches. The summary is simple and is an easy to understand format.
11. Company pitch deck executive summary from Examples.com
If you are someone who doesn’t want a parawise template for your business plan, you can try this. The template is properly organized and has tabular columns dividing and discussing various things.
12. Research report executive summary from Examples.com
This is a research report executive summary that students can use for their papers. The template is simple and easy to use.
13. One page simple executive summary from Examples.com
This is a one page executive summary discussing business plans. The template has used a different color palette to stand out.
14. Tabular executive summary from TemplateLab
This is a simple executive summary that you can use for business plan or proposal purposes.
15. Minimalist Executive Summary from Template Lab
This is a unique executive summary for those who want to show some variation with their design. The summary is simple yet attractive.
16. Unique executive summary template from TemplateLab
This project summary has utilized tabular columns to divide each section.
17. Executive summary example from TemplateLab
This is an executive summary sample discussing the problem and solution in detail and tailored to fit in one page.
18. Construction project executive summary from Template.net
This sample is very simple and has covered all the important points in just one page. It also has some design elements. You can download the sample
19. Simple executive summary template from TemplateLab
This is a template for a simple executive summary. It is easy to use and can be customized as per your requirement.
20. One page executive summary from TemplateLab
This is another simple template for executive summary.
Wrapping up
Executive summaries are a great way to convince investors and stakeholders about your business in a precise way. These high-level executives won’t have time to sit and read an entire pitch deck or description of your business. T
hey just need to look at some of the most basic things that will represent your business, and that’s about it. You can easily curate an executive summary for your business using the templates and examples shared in this blog.