A summary is the result of summarizing. This verb refers to making something shorter, eliminating the accessory and limiting itself to the central. Executive, meanwhile, is the one or that which is in charge of executing something.
The idea of an executive summary is linked to the development and presentation of a certain document to a bank or a potential investor. The goal of an executive summary is to present, in a few lines, a project in front of the people who can decide on its financing.
This means that the executive summary is usually a text that serves as a presentation of a commercial project. Like any summary, it must be concise and clear: its purpose, in this case, is to draw the attention of its recipient to inform them about the main aspects of the project. In this way, if the recipient is interested in the idea, the person who prepared the executive summary can expand the information with other documents.
Suppose a musician wants to set up a recording studio to rent. With the intention of obtaining the financial resources that allow him to develop the project, he prepares an executive summary and requests an appointment with the manager of a bank. The objective of the individual is to present you with the executive summary to request a loan: in this way, in the summary you detail what the idea is, what budget you need to achieve, what are the profit prospects, etc. When analyzing the executive summary, the manager may be interested and ask for an extension of the data before deciding to grant the loan.
Key points of an executive summary
In the first place, when presenting a proposal to obtain a loan, we must make the idea very clear, explaining how it differs from the existing alternatives so far and why it will be successful. In addition, as with any revolutionary product or service, if we want someone to pay attention to us, we must begin by pointing out the problem that until now is not possible to solve, and that our idea will leave behind.Within the context of the main idea of the project, the target audience must also be mentioned, the consumers we are targeting. If it is a product or service that intends to compete with others already present in the market, then it becomes imperative to detail the advantages that ours will offer to customers, that which will stand out from the crowd and that will make it a sure success. Here you can also talk about the inventions that will be necessary to conceive it, such as devices or components specifically developed for marketing and that have been patented by us.
Despite seeking the attention of a potential investor, an executive summary must be concise, it must present the most important aspects so as not to generate boredom during the first presentation or overwhelm the other party with overly technical concepts that exceed their knowledge.
Another of the fundamental points that are usually of interest in these cases is the current state of development of the idea; whether it is a product or a service, we must indicate how much progress we have made in its realization since the initial concept emerged. Although the normal thing is that a closed and properly prototyped idea is valued more than one exposed on paper and pencil , there are always exceptions, and in the end everything depends on the impact we cause on our interlocutors.
In addition to the questions that make up the idea itself, it is important to provide information about the human team behind the project. It is not necessary to go into details regarding the academic training of each person, but to explain in a few lines the contribution that each one makes and the value of their presence in the company.