managed by q case study executive summary

Smart. Open. Grounded. Inventive. Read our Ideas Made to Matter.

Which program is right for you?

Through intellectual rigor and experiential learning, this full-time, two-year MBA program develops leaders who make a difference in the world.

A rigorous, hands-on program that prepares adaptive problem solvers for premier finance careers.

A 12-month program focused on applying the tools of modern data science, optimization and machine learning to solve real-world business problems.

Earn your MBA and SM in engineering with this transformative two-year program.

Combine an international MBA with a deep dive into management science. A special opportunity for partner and affiliate schools only.

A doctoral program that produces outstanding scholars who are leading in their fields of research.

Bring a business perspective to your technical and quantitative expertise with a bachelor’s degree in management, business analytics, or finance.

A joint program for mid-career professionals that integrates engineering and systems thinking. Earn your master’s degree in engineering and management.

An interdisciplinary program that combines engineering, management, and design, leading to a master’s degree in engineering and management.

Executive Programs

A full-time MBA program for mid-career leaders eager to dedicate one year of discovery for a lifetime of impact.

This 20-month MBA program equips experienced executives to enhance their impact on their organizations and the world.

Non-degree programs for senior executives and high-potential managers.

A non-degree, customizable program for mid-career professionals.

Categorical thinking can lead to investing errors

How storytelling helps data-driven teams succeed

Financial services’ deliberate approach to AI

Ideas Made to Matter

New case study examines good jobs and growth at Managed by Q

Zach Church

Jun 15, 2016

A new case study from MIT Sloan examines growth strategies for Managed by Q , an on-demand office cleaning and management company where pay above industry standard is a core part of the business model.

Founded in 2014, Managed by Q provides office cleaning, maintenance, and supply services. Headquartered in New York City, Q also operates in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Unlike other on-demand companies like Uber or food delivery service DoorDash, Managed by Q hires employees instead of relying on contractors. Those working 30 hours or more a week receive free health insurance, workers compensation, paid vacation time, and a 401(k).

As of summer 2015, cleaners were starting at $12.50 an hour, with a 25 cent raise every six months. Even without benefits, that put income well above the janitorial industry’s average annual wage of $15,000.

The approach has made Managed by Q stand out in the on-demand industry, where classifying workers as contractors—freeing companies from the need to provide benefits and a minimum wage—is the norm.

Managed by Q’s commitment to workers and operational excellence highlights several elements of “ The Good Jobs Strategy ,” a book by MIT Sloan Adjunct Associate Professor Zeynep Ton. In the book, Ton argues that when a company deploys its workforce in smart ways, its workers can be a driver of profit rather than a driver of cost. Costco, grocery chains Trader Joe’s and Mercadona, and convenience store chain QuikTrip are all detailed as examples.

“The original thesis is, if our people are so amazing and our technology is so amazing, eventually office managers will turn to us for everything,” Managed by Q co-founder and CEO Dan Teran says in the introduction to the case study. “So we’ll effectively aggregate the demand for all of the goods, services, and technology that’s required to run the office. And that’s the bet we’re making.”

The case study, which is available free online , was written by Ton and Cate Reavis, MIT Sloan’s associate director of curriculum development. It examines Managed by Q’s position in July 2015 and offers three paths to growth: acquire more customers and offer more services in the four current markets; expand into new markets; or build its technology platform to offer more services, including some by approved vendors such as information technology firms.

On May 9, Teran visited Ton’s class at MIT Sloan to discuss the case study. Teran told students that Managed by Q was pursuing each of the options, while paying attention to strengthening its technology platform.

Managed by Q has raised more than $40 million in funding, including a $25 million series B round earlier this year. In the class, students said taking on funding may force Managed by Q to make decisions that compromise its commitment to good jobs in exchange for faster growth and greater returns.

“It is true … there are some investors that are too short-term focused, but there are also other investors that are thinking more long term,” Teran said. “But the only way you can satisfy those investors is with operational excellence.”

Related Articles

• Share full article

The Work Issue

Managed by Q’s ‘Good Jobs’ Gamble

Forgoing the gig-economy model, a start-up bets on a strategy that puts cleaning-service workers on a professional path.

Guillermo Garcia, a cleaning operations mentor at Managed by Q. He previously worked as a juice-bar barista. Credit... Joaquin Trujillo for The New York Times

Supported by

By Adam Davidson

• Feb. 25, 2016

‘B aumol’s cost disease’’ is a phenomenon that economists sometimes cite when they want to underscore the unequal effects of technological change. William Baumol, the New York University economist for whom the concept is named, uses a classical string quartet as his paradigmatic example. As he points out, no matter how fast our computers become or how many people worldwide plug into broadband-Internet access, it will still take roughly 30 minutes for four human beings to play Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14. If your business is playing string quartets for live audiences, there’s a fundamental limit to how much more productive, in raw economic terms, your work can become.

Or — to take an example in which many more livelihoods are at stake — consider office cleaning. In the future, there might be new solvents, new cleaners, better scheduling software. But at the end of the day (usually literally), someone will still have to run a vacuum over a rug, run a rag over a table, empty smaller trash cans into bigger ones. Because of this, it’s almost simple logic that the only ways for an office-cleaning company to make more money will always stay the same: charge clients more or pay workers less. In a big city, filled with competitive office-cleaning companies and a seemingly endless supply of desperate workers, this means that office cleaners as a rule will never make much more than the minimum wage.

Which is why, just over a year ago, Guillermo Garcia was perplexed by a job opening he heard about. He had been unemployed for six months — unable to find even minimum-wage work — when his counselor at Madison Strategies Group, a job-training-and-placement firm for low-income people in New York City, told him about the office-cleaning jobs that a brand-new company had listed. The company was called Managed by Q, and it was paying $12.50 an hour, or more than 40 percent above the city’s minimum wage. Even more unbelievable, the job offered full health care benefits and a 401(k) plan.

Garcia, 24, was born in a small, poor village in central Mexico. His parents brought him to New York City when he was 9. None of them have legal documentation. His father works at a carwash, his mother cleans houses. They don’t make much. Guillermo finished high school in 2010 — something his parents never did — but graduated into an economy that had a brutally low income ceiling for an undocumented worker like him, even one who grew up in the United States. (Because of a 2012 executive action by President Obama, Garcia is permitted to work legally and is protected from deportation.) The New York State Department of Labor recently released a report about salaries in New York City, and it makes for grim reading. Entry-level salaries for the kinds of jobs that someone like Garcia might apply for — retail clerk, food preparer, restaurant server, janitor, unskilled construction worker — are stuck right at or barely above the minimum wage , which is now $18,700 a year.

A few weeks after hearing about the improbable job at Managed by Q, Garcia had it. And today, just over a year later, Garcia’s pay is up to $14.50 an hour, and a remarkable $21.75 when he works overtime, which he does as often as he can. His supervisor is talking to him about a promotion that would come with a higher salary. There are even rumors of stock options. His life has been transformed, almost as if he won the lottery.

The chief executive of Managed by Q, Dan Teran, wants to be clear: His company is not a charity. Its plan is to become enormous and highly profitable. A little more than two years old, the company now cleans more than 2.1 million square feet of office space in New York City. (The fanciest two tiers of buildings, referred to as ‘‘trophy’’ and Class A in corporate-real-estate speak, typically hire their own in-house cleaning services, but Managed by Q currently cleans more than 1 percent of the rest, the so-called Class B and Class C offices.) In addition to cleaning, the company offers a whole suite of other services to its clients — maintenance, I.T. support, security, supplies and others. It has expanded its operations to San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles, with the eventual goal of conquering every major city in the United States and, eventually, the world.

The company pays its staff, like Garcia, considerably more than prevailing market rates not solely because its founders want to be kind to them, but because Teran sees it as crucial to his business model. Teran believes that most American businesses, and especially fast-growing start-ups like Uber, have mistaken short-term gains for long-term value, undercutting the share of revenue that flows to workers in a way that will perversely hurt their bottom line. He believes, even more radically, that decades of rising inequality and stagnant wages in America are not an inevitable byproduct of capitalism; instead, they come from a simple misunderstanding about how best to deploy workers and recognize the value they bring to a company. The future of jobs in the United States would be very different if Teran’s ideas catch on. But first, of course, he has to prove that they actually work.

T he concept behind Managed by Q came when Teran and Saman Rahmanian, friends who met through New York’s tech scene, realized that the various start-ups they had worked for always experienced the same weird problem. The office itself — the physical place in which the start-up worked — could never adapt as quickly as the company needed it to. Why was it such a pain to set up a new work space, or move a wall, or order new desk chairs, or bring in an exterminator? They imagined the dream office manager as something like the character Q in James Bond films, a quiet genius who understands technology and creates the tools that help Bond do his work. Thus the name: Managed by Q.

The business would first present itself to new clients as a cleaning company. That’s because potential customers already know what a cleaning company is, and they’re often looking for a new and better one. But once the clients were sold on the high quality of the cleaning service, they would come to realize that Q (as employees call it) could do so much more. Every new client was given a wall-mounted iPad with an intuitive app. Someone could request through the iPad, say, more paper towels or an exterminator or furniture assembly or a wall’s being put up or taken down. Q would take care of all the details, quietly and quickly.

At first, Teran was worried that his new idea would force him to make a horrible choice. He wanted to create a company that could pay a solid living wage to its workers and offer them good benefits. But he couldn’t figure out how to make the numbers add up. After seeking advice from anyone he could find, he found himself talking to Dervala Hanley, who was then the vice president for global strategy at Starbucks. She told him that the answers to all of his questions were in a book: ‘‘The Good Jobs Strategy,’’ by Zeynep Ton, a professor of operations management at M.I.T. The book offers a careful study of a handful of large companies that have been able to pay their workers well above prevailing wages while also keeping overall costs down and earning a healthy profit. Typically, companies see workers entirely as a cost, something that reduces profit; as a result, many try to minimize the number of workers and the amount they are paid. But as Ton points out, when a company deploys its workers in smart ways, those workers can become a source of profit instead of just a cost. Q is a perfect example: Teran doesn’t see his cleaners as simply cleaners. Instead, they are the essential link between Q and its clients.

Teran told me that the best way to see this was by looking at a spreadsheet he had asked his chief financial officer to create. It was a simplified version of Q’s own profit-and-loss statement alongside that of a fictitious competitor, based on standard industry data. The spreadsheet assumes that Q and its competitor, Non-Q, each begin with 100 clients, meaning 100 offices to clean every day. Non-Q pays $9 an hour for its ­workers; by hiring them as independent contractors rather than as salaried employees, Non-Q is also able to avoid paying Social Security taxes, overtime and other costs. Q, by contrast, pays $12.50 an hour plus benefits and Social Security taxes. This means that Non-Q realizes a total profit, per office, of $9,660, while Q makes a profit of only $7,980. It seems, at first blush, that Q has a terrible business model. The more customers it has, the further Q will fall behind the competition.

But over time, the picture changes. The cleaning industry is famous for steep turnover in employees and customers; as with many commoditized, low-cost businesses, the end of every contract is an opportunity to see if someone else can do the job more cheaply. Industrywide, roughly half of a cleaning company’s customers will choose a different firm every year, and it frequently costs about $1,750 in marketing and sales to acquire a new customer. Also, roughly half of a cleaning company’s employees will leave in any given year, and it costs around $150 in advertising and human resources to refill each slot. Teran believes that by paying workers more — and training them to stay in close contact with customers to make sure they are satisfied — he can drastically reduce both turnover numbers.

Nancy Gonzalez, cleaning operations supervisor. Previous job: Bakery co-owner.

Luis Rondon, handyman. Previous job: Building porter.

Jessica Ranko, cleaning operations supervisor. Previous job: Head housekeeper at Ooba Fresh.

Anthony Knox, cleaning operations supervisor. Previous job: Back-to-work counselor.

Allan Erickson, cleaning operations mentor. Previous job: Carpel Cleaning Corporation.

Tiquanna Lane, cleaning operations mentor. Previous job: Senior group leader for an after-school program.

Percy Forrest, cleaning operations associate. Previous job: Temporary work at the New York State Department of Health.

Erick Lopez, handyman. Previous job: Electrical junior mechanic.

So far, it has worked: Only around 10 percent of clients leave each year, and only 5 percent of employees leave. This means Non-Q has to pay a lot of money every year just to keep the same number of customers and employees. Q can funnel that spending into expansion, acquiring more clients. Teran points out that on the spreadsheet, Non-Q does better in its first year of operation: It makes a net profit of $871,000, compared with Q’s $709,450. It is only after a few years that the advantage of Q adds up. By the fifth year of operation, Q is bringing in 62 percent more profit than Non-Q.

The real secret to Q’s business, though, comes with the other services that it offers and facilitates through its app — maintenance, I.T. support, security and so on, some of which enjoy a significantly higher profit margin than its cleaning services do. With these allied services, Q functions as a matchmaker between its clients and a marketplace of service providers, working with a few carefully screened firms and connecting its clients with them quickly; Q then receives a percentage of their fee. Already, 30 percent of the company’s revenue comes from services other than cleaning.

The whole model works only if the clients trust Q. And the main contact with Q is that cleaner, or operator, who goes to the office every day. One reason Q pays its cleaners so much is that they effectively become a sales rep, smuggled every day inside the office of the customer. The better the cleaner is — the better trained and motivated and paid — the more effective a representative she can be, and the more money she can generate.

F or this reason, a main challenge — and one that will increase as the company grows — is selecting employees. Teran has invested heavily in data technology that allows the company to study the correlation between specific operators and clients and assess what sorts of relationships work best. Teran and his team learned that traditional markers of success — education, experience in the industry, recommendations from employers — were not tightly correlated with success at Q. Instead, Teran said, the two crucial personal characteristics are optimism and empathy.

When I asked what he meant, Teran suggested I spend a shift with Nancy Gonzalez, one of the most successful workers at Q. She is now a supervisor, which means she visits several different offices each night to check on the operators and offer help. She also works with the administrative staff, matching operators to clients. For example, one of her accounts is quite meticulous, she said, so she always makes sure the operator assigned to it is quiet and diligent; another account, by contrast, prefers a more engaging operator with a bigger personality.

Teran remembers when Gonzalez came in to interview; he was still able to meet all new recruits at the time. He gathered a group of recruits in a circle and asked them to describe a deeply negative experience. Gonzalez talked about facing the collapse of the bakery that she and her boyfriend owned in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The goal was to see what kinds of words she used to describe the fallout of the negative experience — to see if she was able to think positively even when recalling the most painful time in her life. Gonzalez’s answer scored quite highly for optimism.

After that, she was invited to a group exercise to explore her ability to work well with others. Several potential employees were asked to describe embarrassing incidents from their past. As Teran explained, the real goal of the exercise was to see how others behave when a person is presenting themselves in a vulnerable way. Gonzalez consistently showed enormous empathy, leaning forward, nodding along, unconsciously saying quiet, encouraging words. So she got the job, despite that fact that she had no ­cleaning experience, other than cleaning up her bakery and a home with seven kids.

Her first assignment, when she joined in September 2014, was at the offices of a growing health-and-wellness company. The firm had a regular cleaning company that did a thorough job each night and used Q only for supplemental tidying during the day. Teran says the revenue from the firm was around $400 a month. The Q app allows customers to rate an operator’s performance on any given day and, right away, Gonzalez was receiving the highest grades every day — five stars, five stars, five stars. The client would put notes in the review about how Gonzalez was a joy to be around, how she repeatedly went beyond the call of duty. Twice, she spent her cleaning shift filling in for a sick receptionist. Soon, the client replaced its nighttime firm with Q. Then it asked Q to clean its other offices, as well as provide other services, like maintenance and supply management. Today, the client pays around $7,000 a month to Q over all. So, in this one case, Gonzalez was central to bringing in an additional $79,200 in revenue per year.

W hy don’t more chief executives see the math the way Teran does? In large part because all the short-term incentives of corporate America point them in the opposite direction. Suppose that in 10 years, Teran’s ambitions are realized and Q is a multibillion-dollar company with a million employees worldwide. By then, Teran might no longer be C.E.O., and the company would be overseen by a board selected by its top investors. Just imagine the pressures on that chief executive. If the company cut worker pay by $1 a week, the firm would instantly realize a profit of $52 million a year. Then imagine that the company cut wages by $1 an hour. That would mean additional profit of $2.1 billion. Maybe the chief executive would realize that cutting pay would inspire many to quit. But he could cut the working time in each office by, say, 10 percent, allowing Q to lay off — or not hire — 100,000 workers worldwide.

This is how lousy jobs and stagnant wages arrive. Each company makes a series of relatively small decisions, based on what competitors are doing and what customers and investors are demanding. Soon, a new, lower norm is established, and the pressures are on everybody else to follow. In standard economic models, it’s simply assumed: Wages fall to the point where supply meets demand. This is why Teran plans that by the time Q is publicly traded — if it ever is — he will have so fully built out the model that even the most hardheaded successor will continue to implement it. And it’s why he is also working hard to persuade other chief executives to take his ideas seriously.

This month, I sat in on a phone call Teran had with Colin Barceloux, the chief executive of ConvoyNow, a service that sends I.T. workers to private homes to fix computer emergencies. Barceloux had assumed that he would use the Uber model, allowing independent I.T. professionals to receive a message any time somebody wanted help. Barceloux explained to Teran that his company is so new that he has no idea how much demand there will be in any given city at any given time, so he can’t hire people and pay them a fixed wage.

But Teran countered that Barceloux was thinking about the issue in the wrong way. If his customers had a different I.T. person each time they used the app, and the providers didn’t end up giving the same level of service, the customers would fall away. To follow the Q strategy, Teran acknowledged, Barceloux might need to rethink his business: Focus on fewer cities, or even start with just one, and build up the model locally. Perhaps there were other related services that ConvoyNow could provide, to take advantage of its trained workers.

I followed up with Barceloux a few weeks later. He was still convinced by Teran’s argument, and he hoped to shift his business to a model closer to Q’s, in which the people serving customers are employees, not independent contractors. But he wouldn’t be able to offer those employees full-time work, or maybe even predictable schedules. As he pointed out, the peculiarities of the cleaning business — that it’s a service that clients contract for every day, on a regular basis — are crucial to why Managed by Q can offer truly good jobs. Will the strategy really work for other industries, including his own? Barceloux was not entirely sure, but he planned to spend this year trying to figure out if it can.

An article on Page 40 this weekend about a start-up, Managed by Q, that tries to put cleaning-service workers on a professional path refers incompletely to the legal status of Guillermo Garcia, one of its employees. While he and his parents do not have formal legal status in the United States, he is permitted to work legally and is protected from deportation because of executive action taken by President Obama in 2012.

How we handle corrections

Adam Davidson is co-host of the podcast ‘‘Surprisingly Awesome’’ and a contributing writer for the magazine.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of The New York Times Magazine delivered to your inbox every week.

Explore The New York Times Magazine

The Retirement Issue : For many relationships, life after work brings  an unexpected set of challenges.

When Yanks Came for Soccer : American investors are gobbling up the storied teams of the English Premier League — and changing the stadium experience  in ways that soccer fans resent.

Brittney Griner Is Ready to Talk : In an interview, the basketball star reveals her humiliation  — and friendships — in Russian prison, and her path to recovery.

‘Where Is the Palestinian Gandhi?’ : Issa Amro, who has been arrested and beaten for simple acts  of defiance, is trying to pursue nonviolent resistance in the West Bank at a time when violence has become inescapable.

‘History and Tradition’ Rulings : A new legal standard is gaining traction  among conservative judges — one that might turn back the clock on drag shows, gun restrictions and more.

Advertisement

• Material Detail: Managed by Q Case Study

Material Detail

Managed by Q Case Study

In July 2015, Managed by Q co-founder and CEO Dan Teran was trying to decide how best to grow the 15-month old on-demand office cleaning and maintenance company. As Teran saw it, Q, which differentiated itself from the competition by leveraging people and technology, could grow by acquiring customers in its existing markets of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco; expanding into new markets; or, diversifying the range of services it offered in...

• Business  / Management  / Production and Oper Mgnt

• Under Review
• User Rating
• Learning Exercises
• Bookmark Collections
• Course ePortfolios
• Accessibility Info
• Report Broken Link
• Report as Inappropriate

More about this material

Disciplines with similar materials as Managed by Q Case Study

People who viewed this also viewed.

Other materials like Managed by Q Case Study

Full Description

In July 2015, Managed by Q co-founder and CEO Dan Teran was trying to decide how best to grow the 15-month old on-demand office cleaning and maintenance company. As Teran saw it, Q, which differentiated itself from the competition by leveraging people and technology, could grow by acquiring customers in its existing markets of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco; expanding into new markets; or, diversifying the range of services it offered in the office management space. No matter which path Q chose, Teran was committed to protecting the company’s unique business model and culture.

Leaerning objective:

To demonstrate how a start-up can disrupt an established industry known for mediocre service and bad jobs with a good jobs strategy—a human-centered operations strategy that combines investment in frontline employees with carefully made operational choices and strong commitment to values; provide an opportunity to discuss growth in the context of a young business that has a human-centered operations strategy; and, highlight the importance of aligning investors and their expectations with a business that has a human-centered operations strategy.

A watermarked copy of the case can be viewed here. If you are an instructor you can complete the form to obtain an educator's copy. Note: You can obtain multiple educator copies with one form.

Edit Comment

Edit comment for material Managed by Q Case Study

Delete Comment

This will delete the comment from the database. This operation is not reversible. Are you sure you want to do it?

Report a Broken Link

Thank you for reporting a broken "Go to Material" link in MERLOT to help us maintain a collection of valuable learning materials.

Would you like to be notified when it's fixed?

Do you know the correct URL for the link?

Link Reported as Broken

Link report failed, report an inappropriate material.

If you feel this material is inappropriate for the MERLOT Collection, please click SEND REPORT, and the MERLOT Team will investigate. Thank you!

Material Reported as Inappropriate

Material report failed, comment reported as inappropriate, leaving merlot.

You are being taken to the material on another site. This will open a new window.

Do not show me this again

Rate this Material

Search by ISBN?

It looks like you have entered an ISBN number. Would you like to search using what you have entered as an ISBN number?

Searching for Members?

You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.

SpaceRobot 🚀🤖

MIT Sloan—Managed by Q

A strategy case study.

Managed by Q—acquired by WeWork 2019, sold to Eden beginning [2020] this year (raises some eyebrows, but I wasn’t surprised)!

Managed by Q = excellent venture/founders, WeWork = not so much!

https://www.slideshare.net/secret/IoJBLKGbtdnnD5

Presentation notes:

RBV slide 1:

Community culture: Q’s office space had a lounge f…

This post is for paid subscribers

Product details

Teaching and learning

Time period, geographical setting, featured company.

Managed by Q

“The people that we have found through Underdog.io—they just come across as smart, good people at their core.”

Tyler Smith, Talent Lead

About Managed by Q

Managed by Q, a tech-driven office management company with a double-bottom line, has teamed up with Underdog.io as it expands its services and staff across multiple U.S. cities. We spoke with Tyler Smith, Q’s Talent Lead, about his startup’s approach to hiring and Q’s collaboration with Underdog.io. The people, price, and process of Underdog.io’s talent platform have made it a valuable resource to Q as it seeks to both upend the office cleaning space and challenge the gig economy.

The Hiring Challenge

A service-driven company, Managed by Q views talent as fundamental to its competitive advantage—whether in the office or in the field. “Compared to the tech giants we’re definitely small,” Smith said. “Every hire we make is pretty darn impactful--not just on their team, but [their impact] can be felt across the organization.”

Q looks for a range of characteristics and skills in candidates. At the heart of the company’s secret sauce is its “Q Code,” a list of 10 statements that define the company’s culture and that are employed in the hiring process. Smith shared that his team looks for those who support other teammates, and are humble, smart, driven and kind.

For technical candidates, Smith emphasized flexibility. “We have people who've joined the company with no experience with our stack but are smart, driven engineers—they came in and picked it up.” The company is open to hiring less experienced engineers if they are truly passionate about Q.

Partnership and Impact

For Q, the candidate pool, cost, and control over the process that Underdog.io’s platform offer make it a strong match.

Smith shared his appreciation for Underdog.io’s tailored, curated candidate group relative to the high volume of job seekers on other platforms. He appreciates that all of the candidates he has hired via Underdog.io have been a fit for Q’s dual mission and innovative culture. “The people that we have found [through Underdog.io]--they just come across as smart, good people at their core,” he said. “That’s what I look for and we've been able to find that.”

He also explained how he viewed Underdog.io’s pricing and process structure as a cost-efficient fit for the company’s recruiting practices, providing both freedom and flexibility. “Other [services] want to manage the communication process so they can receive their fee,” he said. “But, I would much rather see a name and have the ability to reach out to them on my own terms, than being forced through a manufactured funnel.” Smith values the sense of ownership over candidate relationships that Underdog.io’s platform fosters—including the ability to send emails directly from his own inbox.

Underdog.io’s flexibility aligns with Q’s recruitment approach, balancing short and long-term needs. “Day-to-day, we’re trying to fill current open jobs—it’s a large enough effort, it doesn't always give enough time to build a long-term pipeline, so we’ve been looking for ways to build pipeline,” he said, acknowledging that he appreciates the ability to contact Underdog.io candidates beyond their featured window. “It’s not just a one-shot, one-week wonder,” he said.

As for which kinds of organizations he would recommend partnering with Underdog.io, Smith believes that a range of companies would benefit from using the platform. “I think that for organizations that have limitations on their recruiting budget, the platform is very helpful—also for smaller organizations doing their first hiring,” he said. “[Underdog.io has] done a lot of hard work in getting candidates looking for work there and ready to review.”

.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:42px;color:#F5F4F3;}@media (max-width: 1120px){.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:12px;}} AI that works. Coming June 5, Asana redefines work management—again. .css-1ixh9fn{display:inline-block;}@media (max-width: 480px){.css-1ixh9fn{display:block;margin-top:12px;}} .css-1uaoevr-heading-6{font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-1uaoevr-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} .css-ora5nu-heading-6{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:flex-start;justify-content:flex-start;color:#0D0E10;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s;transition:all 0.3s;position:relative;font-size:16px;line-height:28px;padding:0;font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{border-bottom:0;color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover path{fill:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div{border-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div:before{border-left-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active{border-bottom:0;background-color:#EBE8E8;color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active path{fill:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div{border-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div:before{border-left-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} Get early access .css-1k6cidy{width:11px;height:11px;margin-left:8px;}.css-1k6cidy path{fill:currentColor;}

• Product overview
• All features
• App integrations

CAPABILITIES

• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• asana-intelligence icon Asana Intelligence
• list icon Personal
• premium icon Starter
• briefcase icon Advanced
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Campaign management
• Creative production
• Marketing strategic planning
• Request tracking
• Resource planning
• Project intake
• View all uses arrow-right icon

Project plans

• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• What's new Learn about the latest and greatest from Asana
• Customer stories See how the world's best organizations drive work innovation with Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Support Need help? Contact the Asana support team
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.

Featured Reads

• Project planning |
• How to write an executive summary, with ...

How to write an executive summary, with examples

The best way to do that is with an executive summary. If you’ve never written an executive summary, this article has all you need to know to plan, write, and share them with your team.

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is an overview of a document. The length and scope of your executive summary will differ depending on the document it’s summarizing, but in general an executive summary can be anywhere from one to two pages long. In the document, you’ll want to share all of the information your readers and important stakeholders need to know.

Imagine it this way: if your high-level stakeholders were to only read your executive summary, would they have all of the information they need to succeed? If so, your summary has done its job.

You’ll often find executive summaries of:

Business cases

Project proposals

Research documents

Environmental studies

Market surveys

In general, there are four parts to any executive summary:

Start with the problem or need the document is solving.

Outline the recommended solution.

Explain the solution’s value.

Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work.

What is an executive summary in project management?

In project management, an executive summary is a way to bring clarity to cross-functional collaborators, team leadership, and project stakeholders . Think of it like a project’s “ elevator pitch ” for team members who don’t have the time or the need to dive into all of the project’s details.

The main difference between an executive summary in project management and a more traditional executive summary in a business plan is that the former should be created at the beginning of your project—whereas the latter should be created after you’ve written your business plan. For example, to write an executive summary of an environmental study, you would compile a report on the results and findings once your study was over. But for an executive summary in project management, you want to cover what the project is aiming to achieve and why those goals matter.

The same four parts apply to an executive summary in project management:

Start with the problem or need the project is solving.  Why is this project happening? What insight, customer feedback, product plan, or other need caused it to come to life?

Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives.  How is the project going to solve the problem you established in the first part? What are the project goals and objectives?

Explain the solution’s value.  Once you’ve finished your project, what will happen? How will this improve and solve the problem you established in the first part?

Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work.  This is another opportunity to reiterate why the problem is important, and why the project matters. It can also be helpful to reference your audience and how your solution will solve their problem. Finally, include any relevant next steps.

If you’ve never written an executive summary before, you might be curious about where it fits into other project management elements. Here’s how executive summaries stack up:

Executive summary vs. project plan

A  project plan  is a blueprint of the key elements your project will accomplish in order to hit your project goals and objectives. Project plans will include your goals, success metrics, stakeholders and roles, budget, milestones and deliverables, timeline and schedule, and communication plan .

An executive summary is a summary of the most important information in your project plan. Think of the absolutely crucial things your management team needs to know when they land in your project, before they even have a chance to look at the project plan—that’s your executive summary.

Executive summary vs. project overview

Project overviews and executive summaries often have similar elements—they both contain a summary of important project information. However, your project overview should be directly attached to your project. There should be a direct line of sight between your project and your project overview.

While you can include your executive summary in your project depending on what type of  project management tool  you use, it may also be a stand-alone document.

Executive summary vs. project objectives

Your executive summary should contain and expand upon your  project objectives  in the second part ( Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives ). In addition to including your project objectives, your executive summary should also include why achieving your project objectives will add value, as well as provide details about how you’re going to get there.

The benefits of an executive summary

You may be asking: why should I write an executive summary for my project? Isn’t the project plan enough?

Well, like we mentioned earlier, not everyone has the time or need to dive into your project and see, from a glance, what the goals are and why they matter.  Work management tools  like Asana help you capture a lot of crucial information about a project, so you and your team have clarity on who’s doing what by when. Your executive summary is designed less for team members who are actively working on the project and more for stakeholders outside of the project who want quick insight and answers about why your project matters.

An effective executive summary gives stakeholders a big-picture view of the entire project and its important points—without requiring them to dive into all the details. Then, if they want more information, they can access the project plan or navigate through tasks in your work management tool.

How to write a great executive summary, with examples

Every executive summary has four parts. In order to write a great executive summary, follow this template. Then once you’ve written your executive summary, read it again to make sure it includes all of the key information your stakeholders need to know.

1. Start with the problem or need the project is solving

At the beginning of your executive summary, start by explaining why this document (and the project it represents) matter. Take some time to outline what the problem is, including any research or customer feedback you’ve gotten . Clarify how this problem is important and relevant to your customers, and why solving it matters.

For example, let’s imagine you work for a watch manufacturing company. Your project is to devise a simpler, cheaper watch that still appeals to luxury buyers while also targeting a new bracket of customers.

Example executive summary:

In recent customer feedback sessions, 52% of customers have expressed a need for a simpler and cheaper version of our product. In surveys of customers who have chosen competitor watches, price is mentioned 87% of the time. To best serve our existing customers, and to branch into new markets, we need to develop a series of watches that we can sell at an appropriate price point for this market.

2. Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives

Now that you’ve outlined the problem, explain what your solution is. Unlike an abstract or outline, you should be  prescriptive  in your solution—that is to say, you should work to convince your readers that your solution is the right one. This is less of a brainstorming section and more of a place to support your recommended solution.

Because you’re creating your executive summary at the beginning of your project, it’s ok if you don’t have all of your deliverables and milestones mapped out. But this is your chance to describe, in broad strokes, what will happen during the project. If you need help formulating a high-level overview of your project’s main deliverables and timeline, consider creating a  project roadmap  before diving into your executive summary.

Continuing our example executive summary:

Our new watch series will begin at 20% cheaper than our current cheapest option, with the potential for 40%+ cheaper options depending on material and movement. In order to offer these prices, we will do the following:

Offer watches in new materials, including potentially silicone or wood

Use high-quality quartz movement instead of in-house automatic movement

Introduce customizable band options, with a focus on choice and flexibility over traditional luxury

Note that every watch will still be rigorously quality controlled in order to maintain the same world-class speed and precision of our current offerings.

3. Explain the solution’s value

At this point, you begin to get into more details about how your solution will impact and improve upon the problem you outlined in the beginning. What, if any, results do you expect? This is the section to include any relevant financial information, project risks, or potential benefits. You should also relate this project back to your company goals or  OKRs . How does this work map to your company objectives?

With new offerings that are between 20% and 40% cheaper than our current cheapest option, we expect to be able to break into the casual watch market, while still supporting our luxury brand. That will help us hit FY22’s Objective 3: Expanding the brand. These new offerings have the potential to bring in upwards of three million dollars in profits annually, which will help us hit FY22’s Objective 1: 7 million dollars in annual profit.

Early customer feedback sessions indicate that cheaper options will not impact the value or prestige of the luxury brand, though this is a risk that should be factored in during design. In order to mitigate that risk, the product marketing team will begin working on their go-to-market strategy six months before the launch.

4. Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work

Now that you’ve shared all of this important information with executive stakeholders, this final section is your chance to guide their understanding of the impact and importance of this work on the organization. What, if anything, should they take away from your executive summary?

To round out our example executive summary:

Cheaper and varied offerings not only allow us to break into a new market—it will also expand our brand in a positive way. With the attention from these new offerings, plus the anticipated demand for cheaper watches, we expect to increase market share by 2% annually. For more information, read our  go-to-market strategy  and  customer feedback documentation .

Example of an executive summary

When you put it all together, this is what your executive summary might look like:

Common mistakes people make when writing executive summaries

You’re not going to become an executive summary-writing pro overnight, and that’s ok. As you get started, use the four-part template provided in this article as a guide. Then, as you continue to hone your executive summary writing skills, here are a few common pitfalls to avoid:

Avoid using jargon

Your executive summary is a document that anyone, from project contributors to executive stakeholders, should be able to read and understand. Remember that you’re much closer to the daily work and individual tasks than your stakeholders will be, so read your executive summary once over to make sure there’s no unnecessary jargon. Where you can, explain the jargon, or skip it all together.

Remember: this isn’t a full report

Your executive summary is just that—a summary. If you find yourself getting into the details of specific tasks, due dates, and attachments, try taking a step back and asking yourself if that information really belongs in your executive summary. Some details are important—you want your summary to be actionable and engaging. But keep in mind that the wealth of information in your project will be captured in your  work management tool , not your executive summary.

Make sure the summary can stand alone

You know this project inside and out, but your stakeholders won’t. Once you’ve written your executive summary, take a second look to make sure the summary can stand on its own. Is there any context your stakeholders need in order to understand the summary? If so, weave it into your executive summary, or consider linking out to it as additional information.

Always proofread

Your executive summary is a living document, and if you miss a typo you can always go back in and fix it. But it never hurts to proofread or send to a colleague for a fresh set of eyes.

In summary: an executive summary is a must-have

Executive summaries are a great way to get everyone up to date and on the same page about your project. If you have a lot of project stakeholders who need quick insight into what the project is solving and why it matters, an executive summary is the perfect way to give them the information they need.

For more tips about how to connect high-level strategy and plans to daily execution, read our article about strategic planning .

Related resources

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Smooth product launches are simpler than you think

What is stakeholder analysis and why is it important?

How Asana uses work management to optimize resource planning

More From Forbes

New york startup managed by q, acquired and sold by wework, lays off most of its staff.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Managed By Q cofounder Dan Teran, seen at TechCrunch Disrupt NY in 2017, once managed a company of a ... [+] reported 500 employees. Last week, following its sale to Eden, Managed By Q laid off most of its remaining staff.

One of New York’s once-promising startups has laid off most of its staff in a disappointing conclusion to its divestiture from WeWork.

Workplace technology startup Managed By Q laid off more than 75 of its employees last week as part of its sale to San Francisco-based startup Eden, a source familiar with the company tells Forbes , leaving a skeleton crew of about 30 employees to transition Managed By Q’s business into its former competitor. The Managed By Q brand, while still in operation today, is expected to be retired in upcoming weeks, per the source.

Eden did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview last week, CEO Joe Du Bey told Forbes that his startup and Managed By Q had been the “only two major players” in the category, which connects offices and small and mid-size companies with vendors who range from cleaning services to IT support.  

Managed By Q cofounder and former CEO Dan Teran obliquely addressed the reduced headcount of his former company in a blog post published earlier on Monday. In the post, Teran thanked “those that will remain to ensure a smooth transition” and provided a link to an online spreadsheet of current and former Managed By Q employees, their role at the company and credentials and work interests.

Reached on Monday after the publication of the post, Teran declined to comment on the layoffs, but said in a statement: "The legacy of Managed by Q will be our people and our culture, and I am excited to continue to support our team in whatever they choose to build next."

The effective demise of Managed By Q as a standalone business closes a six-month sale saga as WeWork, the embattled co-working company, looked to sell the startup alongside its other former acquisitions following the collapse of its planned IPO and departure of former CEO Adam Neumann. Those divested businesses include search optimization startup Conductor and office software business Teem; WeWork also sold its stake in women-focused co-working space The Wing and closed down another co-working venture, Spacious. At the time of Managed By Q’s sale to Eden, WeWork sent a statement to reporters calling the deal a “successful divestiture” that was “the latest example of how WeWork continues to focus on our core work space business.”

Apple iPhone 16 New Design And Performance Upgrades Revealed In Leak

Apple confirms widespread iphone changes coming to millions of ipads, sony is making a truly terrible mistake with helldivers 2.

Managed By Q had once been pegged for a far happier outcome. Founded in 2014, the company had raised more than $128 million in venture capital from investors including GV, the venture firm of Google parent Alphabet, and local firm RRE, among others. The company reportedly had 500 employees at the time of its original sale in April 2019, which valued Managed By Q at $220 million — $100 million in cash, and the rest in now considerably devalued WeWork stock. Less than Managed By Q’s previous private valuation of $249 million, according to startup tracker PitchBook, that outcome still looks incredible compared to the price tag that Eden reportedly paid last week: a mere $25 million for a company that, according to a source, had by then just north of 100 employees.

Teran himself attempted to reacquire the company from WeWork, something that executives from Conductor successfully negotiated for themselves in December . Forbes earlier reported that the deal, which Eden won over several competing bids, was delayed while WeWork’s lead shareholder, SoftBank, brought in a new CEO . Since an early pivot from a more consumer-facing product in 2016, Eden continued to grow while raising less money than its competitor that it ultimately outlasted. In November, Eden raised $25 million from a host of investors; the company raised a fresh $29 million from real estate services company JLL to help finance the acquisition.

Teran’s blog post is the former CEO’s first response to the sale of his business a week ago. The cofounder left WeWork in October, per his LinkedIn profile, and has been angel investing and advising other startups; he’d been priced out of the running to buy back Managed By Q early in the process, per Forbes ’ source.

In the post, Teran noted that several startups have since founded by Managed By Q alumni, and encouraged now-laid off employees to start more businesses or join their peers in the broader startup ecosystem. “There has never been a better time to start a company,” Teran wrote to his former staff, many of whom have now experienced two sales and been laid off from their jobs.

A silver lining of sorts: Managed By Q’s loss may be other local New York startups’ gain. As of Monday afternoon, the spreadsheet of Managed By Q employees had been locked at 78 names. Some signaled a desire to shift industries or join a public company. But many had shared their email addresses and expressed a desire to pursue another startup role.

Update: Since this story’s publication, a second source with knowledge of the Managed By Q situation provided Forbes more detail on the layoffs and spreadsheet of Managed By Q alumni. Laid off employees remain on WeWork payroll for the next three months as they look for other opportunities. And some names on the spreadsheet include some of those staff who agreed to join the Eden team immediately after the sale.

Know more about WeWork’s startup divestitures or how they affect current and former employees? You can share tips securely and anonymously with Forbes here .

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

• Content Writing Services
• Get in Touch

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Case Study

Updated February 2022: The first thing you do when faced with any study or report is read the executive summary or overview—right? Then you decide if reading the rest of the material is worth your time. This is why it is so important for you to learn how to write an executive summary for a case study.

The executive summary of your case study serves exactly the same function. If the reader sees nothing beyond this section, they will still walk away with a good understanding of your service.

A great summary might even be enough for a reader to pass the information along to the decision-makers in their organization.

In this post, we’ll discuss what makes a compelling executive summary for case studies, and provide you with 4 examples from leading B2B SaaS companies. This is the third post in a 9-part series on how to write a case study .

Every word counts when writing an executive summary

When thinking about how to write an executive summary for a case study, you need to create 2 or 3 crucial sentences that provide a concise overview of the case study. It must be informative and:

• summarize the story by introducing the customer and their pain points
• explain what your organization did
• highlight the key results, including 1 or 2 statistics that drive home the takeaway message

Write the executive summary first to help you focus the rest of the case study. But don’t be too rigid: in the process of reviewing the interview transcript or writing the main copy, another point or statistic may emerge as having more impact than what you’ve chosen to highlight. Revisit your executive summary after writing the case study to make sure it’s as strong and accurate as possible.

If you need a hand with your SaaS case studies, have a look at our case study writing service .

Executive summaries can be short and sweet

This executive summary example from Segment is just a headline followed by a glorified subhead—but it does the trick!

Here’s another great example of a quick, yet helpful executive summary for Plaid’s case study:

Sometimes you may need a longer executive summary

For complex case studies, you may need a more in-depth executive summary to give readers an overview of the case study.

Here’s a more fleshed-out executive summary from Segment:

It’s a bit lengthy, but it effectively introduces the challenge. This executive summary could be more powerful if it included a section for results.

Sometimes executive summaries miss the mark entirely

This is not an executive summary. It is merely an introduction. We have no idea what the problem or solution is, and there’s nothing to motivate us to read further.

You can do better with your executive summaries

Be precise. Impress the reader with key results. Let them see that you offer solutions that matter.

Get the help you need

As a SaaS company, you need to partner with someone who “gets it”. We are a SaaS content marketing agency that works with high-growth companies like Calendly, ClickUp and WalkMe. Check out our done-for-you case study writing service .

As the founder of Uplift Content, Emily leads her team in creating done-for-you case studies, ebooks and blog posts for high-growth SaaS companies like ClickUp, Calendly and WalkMe. Connect with Emily on Linkedin

Sign up for the Content Huddle newsletter

Learn from Emily’s 17 years of aha moments, mistakes, observations, and insights—and find out how you can apply these lessons to your own marketing efforts.

You can unsubscribe any time. Visit our  Terms of Use  for information on our privacy practices.

Writing an Executive Summary in Business Docs (+ Examples)

How to write an executive summary for business documents like a business plan, report, marketing plan, proposal, case study, or a project to hook readers.

Jackie Plaza

8 minute read

Short answer

What should an executive summary include.

• Introduction
• Problem or Challenge
• Objective and goals
• Solution or Strategy
• Implementation
• Lessons Learned or Call to Action

There’s an inherent risk to writing a poor executive summary

A poorly written executive summary can lead to missed opportunities, lack of clarity, lost investment, diminished credibility, ineffective decision-making, and wasted time and effort.

I’ve seen it happen too many times… But stick with me and this post will help you avoid these consequences.

Writing an executive summary is an art form. It involves defining a clear objective, condensing key information, writing a great hook, enhancing visual appeal, managing the reader’s expectations, and leaving a gap that piques their interest.

We’ll cover all this and more. Let’s go!

Why are executive summaries important?

An executive summary holds immense significance in effective communication and decision-making processes. It serves as a concise overview of a longer document, capturing the attention of busy executives, stakeholders, or investors.

Let's explore why the executive summary is so crucial and the key reasons you should pay careful attention to its creation:

Concise Communication: An executive summary condenses the main points of a document into a concise format. It allows busy readers to quickly grasp the essential information without having to dive into lengthy reports or proposals.

Capturing Attention: Executives and stakeholders often have limited time and attention spans. An engaging and well-crafted executive summary hooks their interest and encourages them to delve deeper into the details.

Decision-Making Tool: Decision-makers rely on executive summaries to evaluate proposals, make informed choices, and allocate resources. A clear and persuasive summary can significantly impact their decisions and support your desired outcomes.

Alignment and Clarity: An executive summary ensures that all parties involved have a shared understanding of the document's purpose, objectives, and key findings. It helps align perspectives and facilitates efficient collaboration.

Time and Resource Optimization: By providing a succinct overview, an executive summary saves time and effort for both the writer and the reader. It helps streamline communication processes, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

Standalone Value: An executive summary can also function as a standalone document. In situations where a full report might not be required or feasible, a well-crafted summary can effectively communicate the main points and key takeaways.

An effective executive summary is a strategic component that encapsulates key information concisely, maximizing communication impact and achieving desired outcomes.

Executive summary writing best practices

If I could only tell you one thing about writing executive summaries it would be this: there’s no single winning approach to writing those.

Every time you sit down to write an executive summary, you have to reinvent the wheel and make it 100% tailored to that one customer , that one investor, or that one board member. That said… There are some general tips you should always have at the back of your mind.

• Personalize, personalize, personalize.
• Write it last.
• Avoid cliche phrases.
• Use the right language.
• Keep it as short as possible (but not shorter).

How long should an executive summary be?

The ideal length of an executive summary ranges from 1 to 5 pages or around 10% of the full document's length. This depends on the document's complexity and length. But regardless, the goal is to provide a succinct but comprehensive overview that excites the reader to delve deeper.

How to start an executive summary

To start an executive summary, provide a clear and concise overview of the main document. Begin with a compelling introduction, summarizing key points, goals, and outcomes.

Engage the reader from the start, highlighting the document's significance and setting the stage for the subsequent sections.

How to conclude an executive summary

The best way to conclude an executive summary is by highlighting the significant impact and unique value proposition of your business.

Then end by reiterating what the reader has to gain by reading the rest of the document using concrete language tailored to your target audience.

Executive summary format and outline

There’s no one template for executive summaries you can just copy and fill out.

Depending on what your key selling points are, you’ll need to structure each of your executive summaries differently (much like you’d create different versions of project proposals, business plan introductions , or business reports for different audiences).

1. Introduction : Briefly introduce the company or organization involved in the case study. State the industry or market context.

2. Problem/Challenge: Clearly define the problem or challenge that the company or organization was facing. Discuss the implications of the problem or challenge.

3. Objective: Outline the goals or objectives that the company or organization set out to achieve in response to the problem or challenge.

4. Solution/Strategy: Describe the solution or strategy that was implemented to address the problem or challenge. Discuss why this solution or strategy was chosen over others.

5. Implementation: Detail how the solution or strategy was implemented. Discuss any obstacles or difficulties encountered during the implementation and how they were overcome.

6. Results: Present the results or outcomes of the solution or strategy. Use quantifiable metrics where possible to demonstrate the success of the solution or strategy.

7. Conclusion: Summarize the key points of the case study. Discuss the implications of the results or outcomes for the company or organization, and for the industry or market more broadly.

8. Lessons Learned: Discuss any lessons learned from the case study that could be applied to similar situations in the future.

For proposals a Call to Action instead of Lessons Learned:

Encourage the prospect to get in touch or start a free trial to create the email signature their company needs.

Each building block works together to create a concise, impactful executive summary that compels the reader to further engage with your content.

Make sure that you provide a comprehensive overview while remaining enticing and easy to understand.

Example of how to write an executive summary for a case study

We used this template in Storydoc for our Start-Up Nation Central case study :

1. Introduction: Start-Up Nation Policy Institute (SNPI), a think tank operating under Start-Up Nation Central, an NGO aimed at fostering the development of high-tech companies.

2. Problem/Challenge: SNPI was dissatisfied with the presentation of their business analysis reports, which were primarily produced and distributed as static PDFs.

They felt this format was outdated and ineffective for their tech-savvy audience.

Additionally, they lacked any form of report analytics, leaving them in the dark about who was interacting with their reports and how.

3. Objective: SNPI aimed to modernize their reporting system, seeking a more engaging, interactive format that would appeal to their audience and provide valuable analytics.

4. Solution/Strategy: SNPI adopted Storydoc, a platform that allowed them to transition from static PDFs to interactive reports, enhancing reader engagement and providing valuable content performance analytics.

5. Implementation: The implementation of Storydoc enabled SNPI to produce multiple reports per year, access full reader analytics, and perform easy A/B testing to optimize reader engagement.

6. Results: The transition to Storydoc resulted in positive feedback from stakeholders, increased reader engagement, and valuable insights from report analytics.

The platform's flexibility allowed SNPI to customize their reports to meet their exact needs and use cases.

7. Conclusion: The adoption of Storydoc has significantly improved SNPI's reporting capabilities, reinforcing their branding as a high-tech innovation think tank and providing them with valuable insights into reader behavior.

8. Lessons Learned: The case study highlights the importance of adapting to modern technologies and the needs of your audience.

It also emphasizes the value of analytics in understanding reader behavior and optimizing content for maximum engagement.

Example of how to write an executive summary for a proposal

Here's an executive summary structure based on an amazing proposal by WiseStamp , one of our SaaS clients.

1. Introduction: Introduction to WiseStamp, a centralized email signature manager solution designed to enhance the impact and efficiency of your company's emails.

2. Problem/Challenge: The challenge of unifying the brand, logo, and messaging across all employees' emails, increasing brand awareness, boosting marketing campaigns, and driving sales and lead generation content.

3. Objective: The objective is to provide a solution that saves time and money while leveraging your emails, leading to more email replies, an increase in leads, and increased social reach.

4. Solution/Strategy: WiseStamp offers a solution that allows you to design, generate, manage, and analyze stunning, customized email signatures for your company in less than 5 minutes.

5. Implementation: The implementation process involves a few simple steps: designing a signature customized to your brand and needs, generating a beautiful email signature in a matter of clicks, managing the signature with an advanced email signature manager, and analyzing the signature's impact to turn it into a powerful marketing tool.

6. Results: The use of WiseStamp has led to a 32% increase in email replies, a 15% increase in leads, and a 10% increase in social reach. It has been trusted by over 5,000 companies worldwide and has a rating of 4.6/5 on Capterra.

7. Conclusion: WiseStamp helps companies create unified, professional, and on-brand signatures, offering a solution from a single signature to an entire company solution.

8. Call to Action: Encourage the prospect to get in touch or start a free trial to create the email signature their company needs.

Essential steps for crafting a compelling executive summary:

Crafting an effective executive summary requires careful attention to certain key steps.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your summary captures attention, communicates key information, and leaves a lasting impact on your readers.

Let's explore the essential steps for creating an executive summary that gets results.

Step 1. Understand Your Purpose: Before you begin writing, clarify your objective. What message do you want to convey? What are the main points you want to highlight? Understanding your purpose will help you maintain focus throughout the process.

Step 2. Capture Attention with a Strong Introduction : The opening of your executive summary is crucial. Consider using a thought-provoking question, a captivating statistic, or a brief anecdote to engage your readers from the start. Make them eager to continue reading.

Step 3. Highlight Key Information: Identify the most critical points, findings, and recommendations from the full document. Focus on the key takeaways that your audience needs to know. Conciseness is key. Keep your summary brief and to the point.

Step 4. Structure and Format for Readability : Organize your executive summary in a logical and coherent manner. Use headings, bullet points, and white space to enhance readability.

A well-structured summary allows readers to quickly navigate and grasp the main points.

Step 5. Craft a Persuasive Conclusion: End your executive summary with a strong concluding statement that reinforces the main message. Highlight the value and benefits of your proposal or document. This is your last chance to leave a lasting impression.

An effective executive summary should include the following components:

1. Background Information: The first section of an executive summary should provide some background information about the topic at hand. This section should give the reader a basic understanding of the context in which the report or proposal was created.

2. Purpose and Objectives: Next, the executive summary should clearly state the purpose and objectives of the report or proposal. This section should explain why the document was created and what it aims to achieve.

3. Methodology: The methodology section should explain how the report or proposal was developed. It should describe the research methods used, the sources consulted, and any data collection techniques used.

4. Key Findings: One of the most critical sections of an executive summary is the key findings section. This section should summarize the most important findings from the report or proposal.

5. Recommendations: After summarizing the key findings, the executive summary should present the recommendations. This section should outline the action that needs to be taken based on the findings of the report or proposal.

6. Conclusion: Finally, the executive summary should end with a conclusion. This section should provide an overall summary of the report or proposal and reiterate its purpose and objectives.

Common mistakes to avoid in writing an executive summary

Writing an effective executive summary can be challenging, and there are common mistakes to avoid.

1. Failing to understand the audience: When writing an executive summary, it's crucial to know your audience. Understanding their needs and interests will help you tailor your summary to meet their expectations.

2. Overlooking the purpose of the summary: An executive summary should provide a brief overview of the main points in the longer document. It should not include any new information or ideas. Make sure to keep the summary focused and to the point.

3. Including too much information: An executive summary is not meant to be a comprehensive document. It should only cover the essential points, so avoid including any unnecessary details.

4. Failing to highlight the main takeaways: The primary goal of an executive summary is to highlight the key points of the document. Make sure to emphasize the most critical takeaways to ensure your audience understands the main message.

5. Neglecting to edit and proofread: Just like any other document, an executive summary should be well-written, error-free, and easy to read. Neglecting to edit and proofread can result in a summary that's confusing or difficult to understand.

Benefits of using templates to create designed executive summaries

Using StoryDoc templates can be a game-changer when it comes to creating visually appealing executive summaries.

Consistency: Templates ensure a consistent and professional look across all your executive summaries, strengthening your brand image.

Time-Saving: Templates provide a framework that streamlines the process, saving you valuable time while maintaining quality.

Visual Impact: Pre-designed templates offer visually appealing layouts, graphics, and typography, making your summary visually engaging and easy to digest.

Customizability : Templates can be customized to fit your specific needs, allowing you to highlight key information effectively.

Don’t waste time - grab a template!

Hi, I’m Jackie, Creative Marketing Specialist at Storydoc, I write on everything business presentations. I love to research and bring to light critical information that helps marketing, sales, and design teams get better results with their collateral.

What Are Content Pillars? What Is a Pillar Content Strategy?

Found this post useful?

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Get notified as more awesome content goes live.

(No spam, no ads, opt-out whenever)

You've just joined an elite group of people that make the top performing 1% of sales and marketing collateral.

Create your best summary to date

Try Storydoc interactive presentation maker for 14 days free (keep any presentation you make forever!)