{"id":70663,"date":"2011-11-30T01:14:17","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T01:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/clarity-in-corporate-reporting-1\/"},"modified":"2011-11-30T01:14:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T01:14:17","slug":"clarity-in-corporate-reporting-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/clarity-in-corporate-reporting-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Telling a good story or losing the plot? Clarity in corporate reporting, part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every good story needs a strong and compelling narrative. Be it a novel, newspaper article or film, clarity of plot and content is what keeps an audience interested and engaged. The same is also true of annual reports, where clear communication is vital to connecting with investors and stakeholders.<br \/>\nUnfortunately, many companies have yet to master the art of corporate storytelling. According to research conducted by Black Sun Plc, corporate reports are often weighed down by technical information, disconnected data and impersonal, boilerplate copy that serves only to confuse and alienate readers. In 2010, 40% of companies surveyed failed to identify any non-financial KPIs in their reports, and only 7% of those FTSE 100 companies that referred to business models provided any accompanying commentary or insight.<br \/>\nFailure to make connections between content and provide clarity around key issues means companies are missing the opportunity to tell a good story about their performance, strategy and beliefs. Meanwhile, the tick-box approach to corporate disclosure, which persists at many levels, means that rather than offering an engaging narrative, some companies are \u2018losing the plot\u2019 altogether.<br \/>\nAt Stratton Craig, we know all about storytelling. As written communications specialists, we excel in telling concise and compelling corporate stories as part of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/services\/corporate-reports\/corporate-reporting\/\">annual reporting services<\/a>. We place great value on clear communication in all media, but particularly in annual reports, where it is vital that stakeholders are able to access relevant material and meaningful accounts of companies\u2019 activities. For this reason, we welcome recent moves by the UK Government to make corporate reporting \u201csimpler, clearer and more focused\u201d.<br \/>\nIn September, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) issued a consultation paper on a new framework for narrative reporting. The document signals wide-ranging reforms intended to make corporate reports more accessible, and could have implications for all but the smallest of UK companies. The aim of these measures is to make the reporting framework \u201cclearer for companies and easier for investors to locate the information they need.\u201d<br \/>\nLooking to make annual reports more streamlined and engaging, the BIS also wants to overhaul the reporting of executive remuneration to present a clearer picture to readers. Such clarity, we believe, is vital for transparency and will help companies to demonstrate strong leadership through open and honest communication.<br \/>\nBut that\u2019s not all. Last year, the Financial Reporting Council\u2019s review of the UK Corporate Governance Code also ushered in a number of changes designed to \u201cpromote greater clarity and understanding\u201d in annual reports and to make \u201ccommunication with shareholders\u2026more effective\u201d. The International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC), meanwhile, is currently pushing for a global framework on combined financial and non-financial reporting with a view to helping companies produce more joined-up and cohesive annual reports. In fact, from a number of reporting authorities, revisions and innovations are being proposed in the pursuit of clearer and more compelling corporate reports.<br \/>\nHere at Stratton Craig, we applaud these developments and hope they begin to shift opinions and approaches to corporate reporting. Because rather than a compulsory chore, we believe annual reports should be seen as an opportunity to communicate with stakeholders; an opportunity to tell a strong, coherent company story that not only satisfies investors\u2019 demands for information, but makes for a good read as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every good story needs a strong and compelling narrative. Be it a novel, newspaper article or film, clarity of plot and content is what keeps an audience interested and engaged. The same is also true of annual reports, where clear communication is vital to connecting with investors and stakeholders. Unfortunately, many companies have yet to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[453],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-content-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Telling a good story or losing the plot? Clarity in corporate reporting, part 1 - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; Content Marketing Agency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/clarity-in-corporate-reporting-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Telling a good story or losing the plot? Clarity in corporate reporting, part 1 - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; Content Marketing Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every good story needs a strong and compelling narrative. Be it a novel, newspaper article or film, clarity of plot and content is what keeps an audience interested and engaged. The same is also true of annual reports, where clear communication is vital to connecting with investors and stakeholders. 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