The big idea: A strong briefing turns scattered research into a short, sourced story: who the leader is, how the company is doing against its rivals, and what only this guest can tell you.
In 60 seconds
- A strong briefing turns scattered research into a short, sourced story the class can use before the guest arrives.
- Cover six blocks: leader profile, company, industry and competitors, financial health, strategy, and culture. Each block needs a so what.
- Check every number against a source and a date, compare the company to its rivals, and keep leader research professional and public.
Do this: run your team’s 45 to 60 minute executive and company briefing, with slides, a sourced written handout and strong class questions.
How a briefing comes together
Before each Executive in Residence visit, one host team briefs the whole class on the guest and the guest’s company. In Dr. Lane Morris’s BUAD 417, that briefing is how the whole class walks in ready to ask questions only this guest can answer. Your job is not to recite a Wikipedia page. It is to turn research into a short story the class can use.
Gather
Collect the facts for all six briefing blocks from more than one kind of source.
Start with: anything the executive or the host contact sent you.
Verify
Check every number against a primary source and note its date.
Rule: two sources, or say it is an estimate.
Analyze
Compare the company to its industry and its rivals. Numbers mean little alone.
Ask: better or worse than whom, and why?
So what
Boil it down to three or four takeaways the class should remember.
Test: could a classmate repeat it at lunch?
Questions
Turn the takeaways into questions the guest is uniquely able to answer.
Goal: a class that sounds prepared on visit day.
The six briefing blocks
These follow the sample outline in the syllabus. Every block needs at least one “so what” for the class.
1. Leader profile
Education, career journey, big accomplishments, real challenges and how the media covers this leader.
Watch out: stick to their public, professional life. No family details or personal social accounts.
2. Company
What the company does, its history and turning points, and where the guest sits in it today.
Watch out: a timeline of dates is not a story. Pick the two or three turns that shaped it.
3. Industry and competitors
Industry size and growth, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and the major rivals.
Watch out: strengths and weaknesses are inside the company. Opportunities and threats are outside it.
4. Financial health
Sales and market share, profitability, debt and equity, reputation, and other indicators such as ROA or stock performance.
Watch out: private firms and nonprofits report different things. Say what is public and what is not.
5. Strategy
Purpose, mission and values, what they are known for, goals, and the marketing, financial, operations and technology moves behind them.
Watch out: a mission statement is a claim. Show what the company does that proves it.
6. Culture and management style
How decisions get made, how people are led, and the commitment to quality and customer value.
Watch out: culture is hard to see from outside. Cite evidence, not adjectives.
Where to look
- Materials from the guest. Bios, reports or links the executive or host contact sends. Start here.
- Required filings. Public companies file an annual report (Form 10-K) with the SEC. Most tax-exempt nonprofits file a Form 990.
- The company’s own channels. Website, press releases, investor pages, careers pages.
- Recent news and trade press. Coverage from the last 12 months shows what the company is dealing with now.
- UT Libraries business databases. Industry reports and competitor data you cannot get from a search engine.
- People. A short interview with someone who works in the industry.
How to read it
- Check the date. A three-year-old revenue figure can tell the wrong story.
- Know who is talking. A press release is the company’s view. A filing is required disclosure. A news story is a reporter’s view.
- Compare, don’t just report. Put the company next to its industry and one or two rivals.
- Cite as you go. Keep a source list from day one. It goes on your written briefing.
The “so what” test
For every fact on a slide, finish this sentence: “This matters for the visit because…” If you can’t, cut the fact or move it to the handout.
Your class is your client
Classmates from finance, supply chain, HR and analytics will each listen for different things. Give each of them one hook and one question to bring.
Financial health in plain termsSix measures and what each one tells you
You do not need a finance major to brief financial health. You need a few measures, compared to something.
| Measure | What it is | What it tells the class |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue and growth | Total sales, and the change from last year | Is the company getting bigger, and how fast compared to its industry? |
| Market share | The company’s sales as a share of all sales in its market | Is it a leader, a challenger or a niche player? |
| Profit margin | Net income divided by revenue | How much of each dollar of sales the company keeps. |
| Debt to equity | Total debt (or liabilities) divided by shareholder equity | How much the company relies on borrowed money. Norms differ a lot by industry. |
| Return on assets (ROA) | Net income divided by total assets | How well the company turns what it owns into profit. |
| Stock performance | Share price change over time, for public companies | How investors judge the company’s future. |
Private company? It may share little. Use press releases, rankings, trade press and what the host contact can share, and label estimates as estimates. Nonprofit? Look at revenue, operating margin and reserves in its Form 990 and annual report. There is no stock to report.
Ask a finance or accounting major on your team to check every ratio before it goes on a slide.
Industry and competitors without the clutterA simple SWOT and a competitor table
SWOT, done right. Strengths and weaknesses are inside the company: people, cost, brand, technology, locations. Opportunities and threats come from outside: regulation, demographics, new competitors, interest rates, supply costs. Two or three strong items per box beat ten weak ones.
Competitor table. Pick two to four rivals. Compare them on the same three or four columns, such as size, growth, what they are known for and how they compete (price, service, reach). End with one line: where does the guest’s company win and where does it lose?
Size and growth. Give one number for the industry and say where it came from. If sources disagree, show the range.
Researching a leader respectfullyProfessional, public and fair
- Use professional sources: company bios, interviews, speeches, news stories, board listings and professional profiles.
- Leave out family, home, health and personal social media. The guest will notice, and it is not your business.
- Report challenges fairly. A tough year, a recall or a layoff is part of the story. Present it as a leadership moment to learn from, not a “gotcha.”
- Note what the media says about the leader and what the leader says about themselves. Gaps between the two make good questions.
Using AI in your researchSpeed up, then verify every fact
The course AI policy allows AI for idea generation, drafting and research support, as long as you verify, attribute and keep your own judgment in charge.
- AI can suggest what to look for: rivals, industry trends, terms to search.
- AI often gets numbers, titles and dates wrong. Every fact on a slide needs a real source you checked.
- Do not paste materials the guest sent you into a public AI tool.
- Add the AI statement from the syllabus to your written briefing if your team used AI.
Try it: Briefing Builder
Tool · BUAD 417
Briefing Builder
Track your team’s research across the six briefing blocks and see which gaps matter most.
- 1Set status
- 2Fix gaps
- 3Share
Briefing readiness
All gaps
Question check
Put it to work: Team Presentation 1, the executive and company briefing
This page is built for Team Presentation 1: the executive and company briefing. Your host team runs a 45 to 60 minute oral and written briefing for the class in the session before your guest arrives. The research also feeds your introduction on visit day, your team’s hosting plan and your own Leadership Reflection Journal.
Split the six blocks
Give each teammate one or two blocks to own, and one other block to review. Put your finance or accounting major on financial health.
Your deliverable: a shared research doc with an owner on every block.
Research and source
Start with what the guest or host contact sent. Then filings, recent news, library databases and, if you can, one industry expert. Track it all in the Briefing Builder.
Your deliverable: a source list with dates, and no fact without a source.
Find the story
As a team, agree on three or four takeaways. Each block ends with a “so what” that supports one of them.
Your deliverable: a one-slide summary of what the class must know before the visit.
Build the briefing
A short deck to support your talk, plus a written briefing the class can keep. Put detail in the handout, not on the slides.
Your deliverable: slides, a one to two page written briefing with sources, and your AI statement if you used AI.
Run it and hand off questions
Rehearse with a timer. Save the last 10 minutes for the class to draft and sharpen their own questions for the guest.
Your deliverable: a 45 to 60 minute session that ends with a list of strong class questions.
A sample 50 minute run of showExample: a regional healthcare network (fictional)
| Minutes | Block | The “so what” for the class |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 4 | Opening hook | “Our guest runs operations for a network that kept rural clinics open while others closed them.” |
| 4 to 12 | Leader profile | Started in billing, moved into operations. Ask how that shaped the way they lead. |
| 12 to 18 | Company | A nonprofit formed from three community hospitals. Mergers still shape its culture. |
| 18 to 26 | Industry and competitors | Staffing shortages and a larger rival moving in. Both are live problems for the guest. |
| 26 to 33 | Financial health | Thin operating margin, read from its Form 990. Why every cost decision matters. |
| 33 to 40 | Strategy and culture | Telehealth growth and a “patients first” value. Evidence for and against it. |
| 40 to 50 | Class question lab | Each table drafts two questions. The host team helps sharpen them. |
This is a fictional example for practice. Your guest’s company will need its own story.
Connect it to the rest of the courseOne round of research, four uses
- Visit day introduction: two or three facts from your leader profile become the guest introduction. See Hosting an Executive.
- Mentoring session: your best questions give the class a strong start when the guest opens the floor.
- Team Presentation 2, The Leader’s DNA: ask which of the six How to Lead categories (visionaries, builders, transformers, commanders, decision-makers, masters) fits your guest, and why.
- Leadership Reflection Journal: after the visit, write down what matched your research and what surprised you.
Before you submitCheck your briefing
- [ ] All six blocks are covered, with a “so what” for each.
- [ ] Every number has a source and a date, and estimates are labeled.
- [ ] The company is compared to its industry and at least two rivals.
- [ ] Financial health matches the organization type (public, private or nonprofit).
- [ ] Leader research is professional and public only.
- [ ] The written briefing has a source list, and the AI statement if you used AI.
- [ ] You rehearsed with a timer and fit in 45 to 60 minutes.
- [ ] The class leaves with at least 3 strong questions for the guest.
Go deeper
Back to all BUAD 417 topics · Next: Hosting an Executive and Making Mentoring Count
Part of BUAD 417 Executives in Residence, taught by Lane Morris, PhD, in the Smith GLS human-centered leadership program, toward the Human Centered Consulting Certificate.
Frequently asked questions
What is an executive and company briefing?
An executive and company briefing is a short, sourced presentation that prepares a class for a guest executive's visit. In Dr. Lane Morris's BUAD 417, a host team covers six blocks: leader profile, company, industry and competitors, financial health, strategy, and culture and management style. The goal is a class ready to ask questions only this guest can answer.
How do you research a company before meeting its executive?
Start with materials the guest or host contact sent, then check required filings such as a Form 10-K for public companies or a Form 990 for most nonprofits. Add the company's own channels, news and trade press from the last 12 months, UT Libraries business databases and, if possible, a short interview with someone in the industry. Check dates and cite as you go.
What is the difference between strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats in a SWOT?
Strengths and weaknesses are inside the company, such as people, cost, brand, technology and locations. Opportunities and threats come from outside, such as regulation, demographics, new competitors, interest rates and supply costs. Two or three strong items per box beat ten weak ones, and a competitor table comparing two to four rivals shows where the company wins and loses.
What financial measures should a company briefing include?
A briefing can use six measures: revenue and growth, market share, profit margin, debt to equity, return on assets and stock performance for public companies. Each means little alone, so compare it to the industry or rivals. Private firms may share little, so label estimates, and nonprofits are best read through revenue, operating margin and reserves in the Form 990.
What is the "so what" test in a briefing?
The "so what" test asks you to finish the sentence "This matters for the visit because…" for every fact on a slide. If you cannot, cut the fact or move it to the handout. The team boils the research down to three or four takeaways a classmate could repeat at lunch, then turns them into questions for the guest.