Executive Summary

Audit Report Writing Lessons from Hollywood

By Andy Kovacs
(3-Minute Read)
Hollywood Sunset

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

– Will Rogers

 Why is it called the “Executive Summary”?

As anyone who has ever written an audit report will tell you, it’s called the “Executive Summary” because this is the only section of the report the executives in your organisation will read … if you’re lucky!

Executive Summaries often lack the urgency, impact and ‘wow’ factor required to stop a busy executive from doing what they’re doing and read the report

This high-profile attention makes writing an Executive Summary a nerve-wracking experience for many auditors. Their boss’s bosses are reading it – so they don’t want to screw it up and make a bad first impression!

I believe this is the reason why a lot of the audit report Executive Summaries which we review here at ELC Consultants lack confidence.

What’s worse, they often lack the urgency, impact and ‘wow’ factor required to stop a busy executive from doing what they’re doing and actually read the report.

There are a lot of articles about how the Executive Summary is the most important section of any audit report and how you mustn’t waste this opportunity to show your value to your stakeholders. Nevertheless, I see very few articles offering practical advice on how to write a great Executive Summary opening.

So here are some lessons from the best scriptwriters in Hollywood to offer some ideas on how to write openings to your Executive Summaries which will get your readers hooked and make them want to read on.

Before we get into that though, we need to understand the mindset of your executive readers. So here’s a philosophical thought experiment which will help to bring this into clearer perspective.

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Audit Report Writing Quote No. 3

By Andy Kovacs

Why Audit Report Executive Summaries Go Wrong! #2

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How Audit Reports KILL Reader-Interest from the First Sentence!

By Andy Kovacs
(3-Minute Read)

Boredom business 1

The secret to being boring is to tell everything.

– Voltaire

 The Executive Summary Boredom Problem

If you were to ask most people how they would like to feel in their day-to-day lives, I’m sure that you would not find many who told you they wanted to feel bored. That includes the reader’s of the Executive Summary of your audit reports.

However, the Executive Summary section of most audit reports is boring. And this is a big problem.

If you don’t engage your reader from sentence one of your Executive Summary, then they won’t read it; and your value will be nullified

Boredom is a feeling which we always try to avoid.

When a film bores us, we change channels.

When a presentation bores us, we drift off.

When a person bores us, we cross the street to get away from them.

If the Executive Summary of your audit report bores your readers, they will not read it.

Nevertheless, I believe that there is a deeper problem here – it’s that auditors who write boring Executive Summaries don’t even realise that they’re doing this.

So here’s a philosophical thought experiment which will help to bring this into clearer perspective.

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Audit Report Writing Quote No. 2

By Andy Kovacs

Why Audit Report Executive Summaries Go Wrong! #1

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