Read me! Please?
Poor old annual reports. They really are the wealthy maiden aunt of the corporate communications world. Lots of money spent on them, beautifully turned out, pride of place at the Boardroom table, but then quickly relegated to the shelf where they languish, unloved and untouched for the rest of the year.
Why? Because no one wants to read them. They are boring. They are too long. They are out of date. The important information has already been published ages ago on the corporate website. Even the flashy not-so-newcomer – the HTML version – is often little better than its traditional printed counterpart, because it is simply print content repurposed for the web, and therefore neither fish nor fowl.
Does this mean we should get out our placards and march on Westminster or Brussels to change the statutes and have annual reports declared extinct? Absolutely not. Here is not the place to go into the governance reasons for formal reporting to shareholders every year – I’ll take that as a given. But neither should they be declared redundant as a useful form of corporate communication. The problem is not in the annual reports themselves, but in the way that they are written and produced.
And these days, since most companies have woken up to good design, it’s more likely to be the writing that makes people gently nod off. While this is an issue for all companies, it’s a greater concern for those that still want to use their printed annual report for purposes other than the statutory or regulatory. And why not? After all, you have to produce it, so you might as well get a better return on your investment, particularly if it’s not within your budget to do a purely statutory report* as part of a suite of communications that meets your other needs.
If you want to use your annual report as a marketing tool, as a sales document, as a corporate brochure (and many companies still do – because, despite the naysayers, people still want printed collateral), in particular if you have an international audience for whom English isn’t necessarily their first language, the writing will make it stand or fall. While good design (and a decent headline) will make people pick up a report, the way it’s written will keep them glued to the page. Or not.
Compare:
The investments yielded a cracking result…I just hope that the regulators and government will appreciate the industry’s conservatism and value, and not wound it with some collateral damage from its current bank bashing…I admire the restless search for new methods of selling our specialist products. The world belongs to the discontented; we will never be satisfied; the profitable growth will continue. [FTSE 250 company annual report]
and
While the economy is still challenging, I am delighted to say our determination has paid off and we have delivered results ahead of our original expectations for the year…The year ahead will have its challenges as the world economy struggles to recover from the long recession. However, we believe we can drive efficiency, provide even better customer service and deliver a better future for all our stakeholders.[FTSE 100 company annual report]
I know which I’d rather read. And which I find more believable. The first sizzles with enthusiasm and personality; I want to know more (although frankly I’m amazed it got through the legal people). The second is turgid and dull, and could have been written by anyone about almost anything; I’ve read enough, thanks. But I bet the lawyers loved it.
Claire Falcon
*I’ve got views on that too: how to make better use of reporting content so that the same source material can be made to work harder across different media – watch this space.
