How to Prepare a CEO Report (Step-by-Step)

1. Define Objectives and Metrics

The CEO report tends to focus either on a company’s employees or owners. If it’s positioned toward employees, the report can spotlight the best-performing employees and discuss the organization’s present and future hiring needs. 

If the report is written with stakeholder interests in mind, then you’ll need to consult with your chief financial officer (CFO) to note more specific financial details and expand on plans to generate growth in the coming year. In this case, the CEO report also has to comply with regulatory requirements, so that sensitive financial information remains private. 

2. Gather Data and Insights

The CEO report must include data from all the organization’s activities and decisions over the year. This provides a complete picture of the company’s current standing and how specific actions had positive, negative, or neutral results. 

Significant achievements can be listed on a monthly basis, in association with certain milestones, or by mentioning the specific employee or team who accomplished the task. 

3. Summarize Key Findings

The body of the CEO report should include a summary of the organization’s major developments in the preceding year and a real-time forecast of its goals for the next year. 

It’s natural to celebrate the success stories of your company, but many executives make the mistake of embellishing the report with personal opinions or ignoring more difficult events from the year. Tangible data should always be the catalyst for your findings. 

Your report also needs to touch on the low ebbs of the business period. When describing the missed goals, expand on the original intent behind setting these goals, why the company came up short, and your strategy to avoid similar disappointments going forward. 

Acknowledging the organization’s tougher moments demonstrates a level of forward-thinking and accountability that creates a greater sense of trust in leadership. 

4. Provide Recommendations and Action Plans

Following up on the previous point, it’s vital for the future of the business and your reputation as a leader to provide a sound strategy to avoid similar disappointments in the future.

Your action plan serves as the outline to meet your objectives for the next year. It should include actionable steps to reach those goals with a realistic timeline.

5. Craft a Clear and Engaging Report

There’s a lot of information to cover in the CEO report. Make sure the report synthesizes those details into a concise document that’s easy to understand for all interested parties. 

The report should be written in the same style from beginning to end. Include a list of references alongside your information to give stakeholders and employees a greater understanding of your findings. And before you send out the CEO report, make sure to proofread it multiple times.