Executive Summary

The executive summary, or one pager, is a company marketing document intended to excite potential investors, customers, advisers, and employees. Its purpose is to get the call back and start the serious discussions—the process that will result in action.

 The SBA, discusses typical thinks found in such a summary as follows (From www.sba.gov)

• The Mission Statement – This explains what your business is all about. It should be between several sentences and a paragraph.
• Company information – Include a short statement that covers when your business was formed, the names of the founders and their roles, your number of employees, and your business location(s).
• Growth highlights – Include examples of company growth, such as financial or market highlights (for example, “XYZ Firm increased profit margins and market share year-over-year since its foundation). Graphs and charts can be helpful in this section.
• Your Products/Services — Briefly describe the products or services you provide.
• Financial information – If you are seeking financing, include any information about your current bank and investors.
• Summarize future plans – Explain where you would like to take your business.

The above is a pretty good guide—except that executive summaries do not all need headers—it’s only a page, after all.  Consider also that the mission statement might really be the vision, or the core values, or the strategic goals—depending on the company. Above all, though, the executive summary should convey the excitement of the opportunity.
And then there’s the elevator speech—for this assignment it will take the place of an abstract. It should be crisp, clear, and convey what the company is all about in less than 30 seconds.

This paper should have a title page, abstract (the elevator speech), body, and reference page. Points will be deducted if any of these four sections are missing. Make sure papers are written in correct APA style. There is a link to instructions and a template under the “Resources” tab. https://content.grantham.edu/at/SALC/APA_Guide_with_glossary_(Grantham_University_2012).pdf
The executive summary should be about 2 pages, double spaced—that would be one page for a published version. Structure the paper along the lines advised above.

Use in-text citations for quotes, indirect quotes, and direct references. Also cite definitive statements of fact or opinion. This will validate them for the reader—so they’re not just like spouting off as in a Facebook posting. Nothing will turn off a prospective investor more than unsupported, absolute statements. More detailed information on proper structure for in-text citations can be found at the following link:https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ 
All papers should be written in the third person (he, he, it, and they). Make every effort not to shift to second person (you, your) as in, “When starting a company you need money.” Try to avoid shifting to the first person (I, we) as well. It is distracting to the reader and bad style to shift persons in a paper—students often do it in the middle of a sentence.

Papers should be well researched. This is an upper level class, so the student may determine how many references are necessary. Students may use any source they wish: the Grantham on-line library; the Internet (an increasingly common resource for business research); and even Wikipedia for background research.
Wikipedia should not generally be cited because, by its own policy, it is not original work. However, most mature Wikipedia articles are well footnoted and the original work can be found, properly cited, in the page’s bibliography at the bottom. Furthermore, should there be an occasion to cite Wikipedia, there is a link in the left column (Cite this page), which leads to citations in proper format for various academic styles.
Proper formatting for APA citations of Internet and other sources can be found here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/