The Foundation
This publication believes that growth delivers employment and opportunity. Trade keeps peace and innovation delivers economic advantage. Entrepreneurs and CEOs produce wealth and jobs for countries.
By making it harder for CEOs to operate, economies and societies suffer.
As a CEO, your job is to deliver profit while dancing around the above. "Have you done it yet?" is a question you may be asking more than you'd like.
Three times a week, over 1,000 CEOs read The Executive Summary to understand what boards are really thinking about growth, performance, technology and the decisions that matter in life. Others read it because it's interesting or it makes them laugh.
Written in a sharp, conversational style (marking the absurdities of business), this newsletter makes it easy to understand new concepts, trends, challenges and patterns.
What We Do
Editorial: Three newsletters a week that come when they're ready. They are not rushed.
Events & Community: Private dinners, drinks, breakfast sessions and live interviews where CEOs learn from each other. In 2025, we hosted a live interview with heavyweight boxing prospect Moses Itauma in front of 100+ City leaders.
Research: The Growth Blockers report - a CEO research pulse on what is stopping growth for companies.
Advisory: Tollejo - We work with CEOs and leadership teams on sales performance through investigative research, messaging and strategic execution.
We specialise in:
- Sales messaging and excellence
- Board-level assessments and sales diagnostics
- Deal strategy and execution
- Growth research and intelligence
Outcomes include deal wins worth $500M+ for Fortune technology consultancies, higher win rates for flatlining sales teams, faster board decisions with clearer narratives and bigger market share of voice.
Work With The Executive Summary
- Partner with us on content, events and community
- Talk to us about sales performance challenges
- Join our events
- Hire Dan for speaking and coaching
Dan Ilett: Writer & Advisor
I - yes, if you made it this far, it is actually this is me writing all this - spent years interviewing CEOs as a journalist for the Financial Times, newspapers and online media. I founded Greenbang (50,000 readers, quoted by UN and European Commission) and was investor and founding editor of CoinDesk (1 million readers in six months) - now the biggest Bitcoin news site in the world.
Through that work, I saw the same problem everywhere: the gap between what leadership thinks and what customers actually need.
That's why I started The Executive Summary. To give CEOs straight talk on AI, growth strategy, operational performance and the farcical world they work in.
From Journalism to Advisory
CEOs started asking me to coach them for media appearances. Media coaching became deal coaching and communications advisory for high-stakes matters.
I realised the same investigative skills I used as a journalist could help leadership teams find the truth about their growth performance and customer relationships. By adding data capabilities, it helped companies to drive better win rates and understand their clients.
I've since advised Fortune 100 teams at IBM, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Cognizant on deals, messaging and sales strategy. That work has unlocked over $1bn in revenue for clients.
Contact Us
Published by EB100 Ltd, located at 3rd Floor Great Titchfield House, 14-18 Great Titchfield St, London, United Kingdom, W1W 8BD.