A Business Report is intended for informed readers who are very busy people and already familiar with the problem!
It’s intended to inform them quickly of your solutions and suggested next steps, So:
- BE BRIEF! Get to the point quickly.
- This is not a letter nor an essay! It must be structured as a business report with a running header, page numbers and the content organized with bolded headings, indented sub-headings and numbered bullets. Use single spacing, 12-point New Times Roman font.
- NO introduction! No need to restate the problem, circumstances, etc. Just identify the case name / issue / problem in one or two sentences, just so the reader knows which one is covered in this report.
- The body of the report should be organized in titled sections that correspond to the questions in the case/problem. Each question should become a section heading, with however many subheadings you need to deal with it.
- Responses should be Clear, Concise and Complete. Get to the point. Assume that the recipient is familiar with the subject matter, so no pontification or trying to educate the recipients.
- Write as if you are employed by the subject company and writing an internal report. No need to cite internal sources (e.g. the Case Study).
- Write in the present tense. You are solving this case as a current-day project.
- Write as a formal document, avoid 1st person (i.e. “I” or “We”).
- Refer to tables, statistics or other calculations that you will attach as appendices. Small graphs and tables may be imbedded with the text.
- Appendices, graphs and tables should each have a number for reference. Tables and graphs should be well labeled and highlighted and easy to decipher by an informed reader.
- Conclusions and Recommendations are redundant! In most cases neither is necessary. You may include Next Steps if it makes sense!
- The business report should have a title page with the name of the CASE / ISSUE, the recipient, date of submission, then the names of the participants in the work.
