Truth 29. Good reports generate action
Do you sometimes feel buried by requests for reports? You’re not alone. With fewer and fewer face-to-face meetings taking place, and so many collaborations to manage, report writing has become a big staple of office life. It’s a basic way to keep everyone updated, and therefore needs to be treated as a major business skill. Most organizations require a constant flow of reports: progress and project reports, survey reports, budget reports, committee reports, technical reports, and more.
In general, reports follow some pretty standard patterns: They introduce the subject and explain the reason for writing them; provide “the meat” (what happened, what was learned); in some cases, explain how results were obtained; and usually offer recommendations (where do we go from here?).
In the business world, a successful report is easily defined: It’s one that is read, and results in action. The role of good, clear, concise writing is obvious—if the right people don’t read your report, you’ve wasted your time. Write to be read.
Your plan of action—As an example, let’s say you’re a marketing director and must report on whether your company should venture into emerging international markets. For a high-stakes challenge like this, it helps to put your strategy “on paper” early on to guarantee the right substance—you may discover some missing components that require research. Think step by step:
Goal—To persuade management to market the company’s tennis racquets or golf clubs in India, Laos, and China and to open offices in two of the countries. Writer’s sub-agenda: To position himself for the director’s role in the new marketing ventures.
Audience—Chief executive officer, company president, board of directors: a sophisticated group with their eyes right on the bottom line.
Tone—Business formal; objective with understated enthusiasm.
Content—The writer should ask, “What will it take to persuade management to my viewpoint?” Possibilities:
• Overview of the immediate options in specific countries
• Analysis of how selling each product would coordinate with the company’s current marketing and production plans
• Financial predictors, such as statistics from a consultant’s survey of emerging markets; government forecasts; five-year sales/investment cost projections
• Analysis of each country’s political and economic climate
• Balanced recommendations for/against opening the offices
Organize the material—Starting with the overview is necessary and natural. To make the rest flow logically, you could organize by product—tennis racquets and golf clubs—or by country. Because the basic issue is whether to open offices in each place, organizing by country is probably best. A section for each would cover, first, economic and political climate because strong negative factors here could make the rest irrelevant. Then you’d go on to cover the various predictors of success, fit with company marketing and production, and end with conclusions/recommendations—next steps.
Writing the lead—some options:
• Start with an anecdote that emerged during your research, such as another company’s remarkably profitable experience.
• Start with a rhetorical question: “Is it time for ABC Inc. to bring its products to the emerging Asian markets?”
• Start by putting the new ventures into a broader perspective. For example, “ABC Inc. has led the industry for a century by capitalizing on just the right time to make dramatic marketing moves. Now it is time to consider…”
Follow through on writing the middle, based on the organizational plan, section by section. And at the end, summarize your well-reasoned, balanced recommendations and outline the next steps needed to implement your thinking. The end might also include an inspiring statement or a vision of a great future—but don’t raise hopes to unreasonable levels.
Write a table of contents for any report that’s more than a few pages long.
The executive summary—This is best done after the document itself is finished. You are likely to need executive summaries for business plans and proposals, as well as reports. The executive summary has a bright future because the more time-pressured everyone in business feels, the less people want to read long, complicated documents. Because managers and colleagues may read the executive summary and nothing else, it needs to be self-contained: a piece of writing that can stand on its own if separated from the report itself. Think of it as a call to action. Communicating a sense of urgency may be appropriate.
Start by carefully reviewing the report. Then shape the piece in its own right, aiming for…
• A good title (not just Executive Summary)
• A strong lead, which makes the subject’s importance clear and perhaps introduces the recommended action
• A middle section that explains what was done and the main points that support your recommendations
• Conclusions and recommendations
If your report is directed at more than one audience, consider creating different executive summaries for each that take account of their varying “what’s in it for me?” viewpoints.
How long should an executive summary be? The classic advice is to make it no more than 10 percent of the document’s own length. It can be shorter than that, providing it does the job of defining the subject and its importance, presenting your findings or actions, and offering your conclusions and recommendations.
Review and edit—Always edit your work to sharpen the writing and check for a good level of detail, meaning one that makes the writing interesting and credible, but doesn’t interfere with its flow. Statistics, charts, graphs, and other supporting materials can be added in an appendix. If the report was prepared by a team, it’s critical to edit for consistent style, tone, and so on. As always, you make your best case when you deliver writing that moves well and engages the reader, even within a formal business framework.