Writing an Effective Executive Summary for MBA Capstone Projects

An Executive Summary is one of the most critical sections of your MBA Capstone. It is often the first—and sometimes the only—part of your project that stakeholders read. Therefore, it needs to be concise, clear, and compelling.

3.1 Key Elements of an Executive Summary

The Executive Summary should provide a snapshot of your entire project:

• Business Problem: Briefly describe the business issue or opportunity your Capstone addresses.
• Objectives: State the primary objectives of your project, such as improving business performance, launching a new product, or solving operational inefficiencies.
• Methodology: Explain the research or analytical methods used (e.g., case study analysis, financial modeling, market research).
• Key Findings: Summarize the main findings of your research and their relevance to the business issue.
• Recommendations: Provide a high-level overview of the solutions or strategies you propose to address the problem.
• Impact: Summarize how implementing your recommendations will improve business outcomes (e.g., increased revenue, reduced costs, market growth).

3.2 Writing Tips

• Keep it concise: Limit the Executive Summary to 1 page (or around 300-500 words). Make every sentence count.
• Focus on results: Avoid going into too much detail about the methodology. The goal is to communicate the outcomes and recommendations.
• Avoid jargon: Write in simple, accessible language that can be understood by both business professionals and non-experts.