Everyone-- I had a short email exchange with someone about the Executive Summary and SWOTs. I thought I'd forward this:<br><br>Think of the exec summary as a lawyer talking to the jury for the first
time when the trial begins: you state your premise, indicate that you will show evidence to support
your theory, and explain how you will connect the dots to prove the case.<br><br>In other words, this is your "planning" document, listing the tasks and methodologies that
you will do to support your business idea. The "final" document you ultimately produce is the
trial where you show all the evidence.<br><br>For now, you use the
SWOT to create that planning document: determine what kind of data you need to
research. This begins by listing the items that work for and against you, and each item has <i>tasks</i> associated with it.<br><br>That is, each of your "strengths/opportunities" need to be substantiated. "You can't just say something is true."<br>
<br>Similarly, you need to articulate the tasks (or research) you need to do to overcome the weaknesses/threats.<br><br>Like
in a trial, your goal is to convince others that you aren't just
convincing yourself of your own theory--you want to show that
there's broad, objective data behind your idea. Observers will
look at the sources of your research as well: are they from credible
entities? Was the research done well? Is your analysis of this research
sound? Hint: your goal is to mine information that exists somewhere:
academic
studies, case studies (existing models), proposed studies (that you
might do), and so on.<br>