I've been struggling with executive summaries lately. Clients seem to gloss over them or get lost in the details. What format has worked best for you all? One page? Bullet points? Graphics? Would love to see what's been effective for presenting our findings to C-level folks.
Executive Summary Templates - What Works Best?
Patricia, I swear by the one-page rule. Anything longer and they don't read it. I use three sections: What We Found (dollar amount in big bold), What It Means (impact), and What's Next (action items). Works every time.
I do infographics now. One big circle chart showing total savings, then three smaller boxes below for biggest opportunities. CFOs love visuals - saves $847K looks way better than three paragraphs explaining demand charges.
Both approaches work, but know your audience. Manufacturing clients want the technical details moved to appendix. Healthcare clients want everything front and center. Patricia, are these utility clients or end users?
End users mostly, Randy. Mix of manufacturing and commercial. The manufacturing folks definitely want more detail but the office building owners just want bottom line numbers.
The key is putting ROI timeframe right up top. "This audit will pay for itself in 4.2 months" gets attention fast. Then you can get into the weeds if they want more detail.
I use a dashboard format - looks like a car dashboard with gauges. Green/yellow/red for different meters or accounts. Then one sentence per gauge explaining the finding. Makes it idiot-proof.
Dave, can you share a template? That dashboard idea sounds brilliant. I'm tired of 20-page summaries that nobody reads.