Now, that we've talked about why we do case matters,

and an approach to help you better analyze

the case in terms of making a decision regarding a problem,

or decision, or the evaluation of alternatives.

It's often useful to write out your plan of action.

And to present your plan of action is helpful especially

if you are trying to convince someone else of your particular approach.

And, I call this writing an executive summary,

where you write out the process that you've gone through,

and analyzing the case,

but keeping to the key information that will allow you to convince

someone that your particular approach

is the best approach given the situation that you've identified.

So, writing an executive summary is merely

transferring that analysis process into a written document.

So, in this specialization,

we'll often ask you to develop a summary of your analysis of the case situation,

or even an exercise by writing an executive summary.

So, an executive summary and a case follows

that five-step process we talked about earlier in conducting a case analysis.

It's done after you've done your analysis,

it's done after you've understand the reading of the materials,

and gathering of the facts and the assumptions.

So, we've done our situation analysis,

we've defined the key problems,

we developed some alternative courses of actions to take,

and we've actually come up with a recommendation that we can

develop an action plan to solving that particular case.

But rather than discussing it with others,

or discussing it with potential colleagues,

we're actually now going to write down the outcome of the analysis that we've conducted.

A written executive summary is just a memorandum.

In most cases, it can be two pages but we're going

to limit it to one page in this particular specialization.

Now, these are just some rules of thumb to use,

but it's to help make the process consistent.

So, one of the things is when you're presenting written material,

you don't want to put too much material into one page.

So, you have to be very diligent about narrowing down

what information is important in terms of the arguments that you presented.

The guidelines there is that it should be in Word format,

but eventually you're going to put it into a PDF file,

with certain margins to make sure we have a consistent flow of information.

Now, exhibits can be used to

help better explain some of the decisions that you're making,

but they're not mandatory,

and you should only use it when you need them.

If you use exhibits,

make sure you reference them in the text.

So, you have to refer that exhibit one,

provides an analysis of the strengths and

weaknesses of the recommendation that I'm providing.

As I said before, it should be no longer than one typewritten page,

unless we discuss and agree differently.

In the body of the document,

you want to make sure that when you're discussing exhibits,

that you give special attention to it,

by discussing the important factors that relates to the exhibit.

But those factors have to be important in terms of the argument that you're making.

If it's important for me to highlight

the strengths that we're providing for introducing this new product,

and I talk about strengths and weaknesses in an exhibit,

then I'm going to identify specifically in the body of my memorandum,

what key factors drawn from that exhibit helps

to make the decision about introducing the product into the marketplace.

So, those are kind of rules of thumb you should follow.

They will help you better prepare a written executive summary.

The executive summary can be broken down into four sections in that one page document.

So, the first step of

the first section should include the actual decision problem or issue.

So, you want to make sure you're communicating to the audience.

What is the primary problem that you're going to be dealing with in that summary?

So, we don't discuss all the problems we may identified.

We focus on the one key problem,

our decision issue that we want to convince

someone that our particular recommendation is the best.

Following the decision problem that you state in that first section,

you should state your recommendation or solution.

So, if your problem is based upon the fact

that product A is not accepted in the marketplace,

and your recommendation following

that problem statement should deal with that particular problem.

So, in the first paragraph,

you've identified the problem and the recommendation.

Now, if people want to know more about that, they'll ask you.

But you're trying to convince them at this point,

that's the problem you're dealing with can be resolved if you follow your recommendation.

The next section, and that can be paragraphs two or three,

should state the advantages and disadvantages of following your recommendation.

And let it be known that in any situation,

there are both advantages and disadvantages.

But you want to make sure that your advantages supersede the disadvantages,

to provide support for the recommendation that you're stating.

Then the final section,

which can be the last paragraph of paragraph four and five,

can explain how that recommendation achieves the goals of the organization.

Whether you're talking about for profit goals, your sales goals,

or goals related to protecting the planet,

or goals that relates to protecting something for the people of the planet.

You explain how your recommendation will

help you achieve that goal of that particular organization.

So, starting with the problem statement that's in our first paragraph,

most times you can do it in one sentence,

but sometimes you may need a few sentences.

You're going to summarize the specific terms of the proposed problem,

the decision issue, or whatever evaluation you're making.

Make sure you prioritize those issues.

So, if we have multiple issues that must be addressed,

that we need to change the price,

we need to modify the promotion,

we need to change how we distribute the product,

make sure you prioritize what's

the most important issue that you're dealing with in your problems statement.

The next step is the recommendation and the rationale for that recommendation.

So, we're going to discuss it first by stating the particular recommendation.

And again, that's in paragraph one,

and then we follow that up with the rationale for that recommendation.

And it's best to limit it to one or two paragraphs,

and you want to summarize the key factors behind your recommendation,

and why adopting your recommendation is better than any other recommendation that exists.

After providing the rationale in the document,

you need to discuss the cost,

benefits of your particular recommendation.

Based upon the goals that you've established,

there is going to be a cost to putting in your recommendation.

But the benefits of investing in

your decision recommendation will lead to

greater benefits for yourself or for the company.

That benefits could be profits,

could be planet, it could be people,

but it supports why there's an investment or cost

necessary to resolve that particular problem that you've identified.

So, in this written documents that you provided in terms of recommendation,

what you're trying to accomplish is making sure

your recommendation is supported to convince either manager,

or to convince a colleague,

or to convince someone that you're trying to obtain funding from,

that your particular solution to the problem is the best solution,

and it's best because it reaches the objectives that you've established.

So, you want to make sure this recommendation is in precise terms by following path A,

we will achieve these particular objectives.

And achieving these objectives,

we'll be in a better position to make sure that the products we

introduce into the marketplace will have a better chance of success.

So, you are providing a solution that will lead to your goal,

in this case of introducing a successful product into the marketplace.

Writing an Executive Summary

Customer Insights: New Product Development Orientation

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