Writing a Management ReportThe aim of a management or business reportA management report is a document designed to aid the process of decision-making. This is true whether the report is aimed at a general audienee of executives in a given industry or a small number of individuals within an organisation.A management report has a specific or a (small) number of specific aims Naturally, the scope and scale of a report will depend upon the issues at hand and the aims that are to be met. A future-oriented analysis of trends will require detailed analysis of an environment of situation, the identification of trends, underlying dynamics and drivers, and the extrapolation of these trends into the future so as to provide the basis for analysis and the development of strategic recommendations At the other end of the spectrum, a short report (memo report) may be required to address a specific problem within an organisation 一 a human resources issue, a dilemma within a marketing team or a issue associated with workflow or process management.Management reports are written for audiencesAcademic essays and papers are written for a relatively undefined set of readers. Readers may range from other academics to students, businesspeople, opinion formers or for posterity. Management reports are written for a specific audienee. This may be an industry sector (if it is a report to be published). More often than not it will be an internal audience, typically those individuals involved in a decision-maki ng process .In some organisations it may be an audie nee of one 一 the CEO or chair. In the case of a consults nts report the audie nee will be the company who commissioned the study (or sometimes, depending on the politics of the situation the sponsor of the project within the organisation).Whatever the case your introduction should include a statement of who commissioned the project and to what end. For example,u. this report was commissi oned by David Johns on of lllustria Facilities Ltd. to evaluate the competitive environment within the UK facilities industry and to assess lllustria position within this market space.nReports convey information and present analysisReports are not academic, discursive treaties (although they may contain discursive elements and require innovative thinking and analysis). They are designed to enable the rapid absorption of information and usually, they are intended to persuade and help and come to a con elusion.Objectivity, recommendations and optionsAlthough a management report may be leading its readers to a certain set of conclusions, proposals or strategic options it should be, as far as possible, objective. A management report is not a sales document. Its marshalling of information should be undertaken in an objective and balaneed fashion with a respect for the facts.Much of the research that is undertaken in industry is performed to meet an agenda. This should not mean that you twist the facts to suit a case A balanee must be maintained between objectivity and the need to make a caseSome reports might present the actual solution (or options) to solve a business problem; other reports might record historical information that will be useful to assist in future decision making. Either way, information is being reportecT that will useful in making decisionsCreating the reportDetermine the Scope of the Report Consider Your AudienceGather Your InformationAnalyze Your Information Determine the SolutionOrganize Your Report1. Determine the scope of the reportA common fault of many reports is making the scope of a report too general or too vague. When you choose a subject for a report, one of the first steps is to narrow the scope to a report lengthThe scope of the report is defined by determining the factors which you will study You need to limit the amount of information you will gather to the most needed and most important factors.2. Consider Your AudienceAlways consider your reader or readers Unlike letters and memos, reports usually have a far wider distribution. Many people may be involved in a decision-making process and have need to read the information in the reportYour job is to make it easy for the reader. In order to make reading your report easier, think in terms of the reader. Each audie nee has unique n eeds Some audie nee con sideration in elude: Need (from your report) Education level Position in the organization Knowledge of your topic or area Resporisibility to act Age Biases Pref ere nces AttitudesSome false assumptions commonly made regarding audiences are:1. That the person who will first read or edit the report is the audience2. That the audienee is a group of specialists in their field3. That the audience is familiar with the subject of the report4. That the audienee has time to read the entire report5. That the audienee has a strong interest in the subject of the report6