Build the executive brief

By the end of this task, you will be able to turn customer research and performance data into a decision-ready narrative for executives, account leaders, and internal stakeholders.

Your situation

Your account brief from Task 1 tells you what is happening. It does not yet tell anyone what to do. Miriam Graham, Tailwind's VP Supply Chain, will attend the March review and has asked for "the total picture on one page." She has not been briefed on the service failures in detail.

Now you add the numbers.

Files you'll use

How to read the prompts

Each prompt below is one block you can copy whole. The # lines are labels, not instructions — they mark where the prompt stops setting the goal and starts giving the context, the sources, and the expectations. Copying them along with the prompt does no harm.

Those four moves, in that order, are what makes a prompt work. Use the same shape when you write your own.

Steps

1. Open CanadaPost_Parcel_Performance.xlsx in Excel. The data is already formatted as a table, which helps Copilot pick up the range reliably.

2. Open the Copilot pane and ask for the analysis.

   goal

   Find the patterns and the problems in this parcel performance data.

   context

   This is the Tailwind Traders account, and their supplier scorecard requires 95% on-time delivery. I need to know where we met that, where we did not, and what else moved at the same time.

   sources

   Use only the data in this workbook.

   expectations

   Cover the volume trend across the year, every month that fell below 95% on-time, what else changed in those same months, and whether cost per shipment improved or worsened. Give me the actual figures, not adjectives.

3. Two months should stand out. Ask Copilot to explain what they have in common.

   goal

   Compare the two worst on-time months against the rest of the year and tell me what distinguishes them.

   context

   I need to describe the pattern to a customer without claiming a root cause I have not established.

   sources

   Use only this workbook.

   expectations

   Show volume, returns rate, and satisfaction in those months against the annual average, then give me one sentence describing the pattern factually, with no causal language.

4. Open Word and create a new document. Attach your Task 1 account brief and ask Copilot to draft the executive summary.

   goal

   Draft a one-page executive brief ahead of the March pricing review.

   context

   It is for Tailwind’s VP Supply Chain, who has not been briefed on the service issues in detail and has asked for the total picture on one page. She cares about total landed cost and about what she can take to her executive committee.

   sources

   Use my account brief and the performance analysis in this document, and nothing else.

   expectations

   Five sections: Situation, What the data shows, Why it matters now, Recommendation, and What we still need to confirm. Put the recommendation in the first two sentences. Use figures rather than adjectives, and keep it to one page.

5. Ask Copilot to sharpen it for an executive reader.

   goal

   Make this brief faster to read without losing the evidence.

   context

   The reader has five minutes and three other suppliers to review.

   sources

   Work from the draft in this document.

   expectations

   Cut every sentence that does not change a decision and turn the business impact into a small table. Keep every number and every source reference, and do not add any claim that was not already there.

6. Validate the output before you go further. Check each figure in the brief against the workbook — including the figures you took from the account notes. The account file and the workbook do not agree everywhere, and where they differ the workbook is the source of record. Copilot summarizes well but you own the numbers.

   goal

   List every number and factual claim in this brief so I can check them.

   context

   This goes to a customer executive, so anything wrong in it is mine.

   sources

   Work from the draft in this document.

   expectations

   Give me two columns - the claim, and the source it came from - and flag any claim that cannot be traced to a source. Then flag separately any figure where the account notes and the workbook disagree, and say which one the workbook supports.

7. Open Outlook and draft the covering message to Lynne Robbins asking her to review the brief before it goes to the customer.

8. Save the Word document. Tasks 4 and 7 build directly on it.

Check your work

• Every figure in the brief matches the workbook.
• Any figure the account notes and the workbook disagree on is named, with the workbook figure used.
• The count of months below 95% comes from the workbook, not from the account file's wording.
• The July and December shortfalls are stated with actual percentages.
• Nothing in the brief asserts a cause for the Calgary problem.
• The recommendation appears in the first two sentences, not the last.
• It fits on one page.

Stretch prompts

Starting out:

Turn the attached account research into a one-page summary
with three findings, one risk, and one recommended action.

Comfortable:

Using the performance data and the account notes, build the
business case for adding Managed Account Reporting and Peak
Season Planning to this account. Show what evidence supports
each and what a sceptical procurement manager would say.

Confident:

Draft the executive brief twice. First for Miriam Graham,
VP Supply Chain, who cares about landed cost and board
reporting. Then for Nestor Wilke, Director of Distribution
Operations, who is judged on on-time delivery. Keep the facts
identical and change only what leads and what is emphasized.