Why did the Executive Summary originate?
The dramatic increase in the sheer amount of information available on most topics has spawned a corresponding growth in the size and number of reports. Unfortunately, there has not been a similar expansion in the amount of time available to executives or policy makers to read these increasingly lengthy reports. The solution to this problem is the executive summary. (Source: http://www.columbia.edu/~ftg1/WRITING%20EXECUT.SUMMARY.
