Best Annual Reports
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30 Don’ts. How NOT to use an annual report effectively?
Not covering properly, cutting too many trees, highlighting partially, rerunning the story or following the fashion... There are many ways not to produce a better or greater annual read more
By e.com
A definition of shareholder value creation
A company creates value for the shareholders when the shareholder return exceeds the required return to equity. read more
By Pablo Fernandez
After Ericsson. The case for interim reporting -and against quarterly profit warnings.
What is happening to the Swedish company Ericsson illustrates once again the tyranny of short-termism and its serious damage to a company’s business, shareholders, management, and reputation.
read more
By Mike Guillaume, Franklin Manchester, Jérôme Pétion
Bank statements: (no more) business as usual?
It’s about -and from- bankers, liars, a rogue trader, birds of one feather, brothers in lies. Things read and heard these last months that we would hate to see reported in annuals read more
By the ReportWatch team
Beyond the pdf: Alternative ways to present content effectively on your IR website
Best practice alternatives for presenting key contents in different formats to the usual ways (read: pdf or long monotonous scrolls of text) on IR websites read more
By Sheryl Joyce
Bless the annual report, for we have sinned
Annual reports are essential guidebooks to understanding a company and are as such essential starting points and milestones. Yet, not all annual reports live up to this promise. read more
By Ewold de Bruijne
Communication Breakdown
As many of you will read this commentary between the beep of a mobile phone and a quick surf in cyberspace, our statement might sound as a surprise. Or a paradox. But haven’t you heard about the information paradox? read more
By Vero Escarmelle
Corporate substance and relevance –or another definition of “CSR”
Getting back to the basics 1-0-1 of what an annual report should be about: a corporate communication vehicle based on and delivering substance (and if possible making this in style), and being relevant on a number of issues and questions often overlooked these days. read more
By Mike Guillaume (with Franklin Manchester and Jérôme Pétion)
Cut-and-paste. Many online reports still don’t measure up
Too many online annuals are still just a copy-and-paste of printed versions. read more
By Mike Guillaume, Director e.com-ReportWatch
Everybody went low
Yes, and besides all other book-keeping, cooking, and worrying aspects, Enron, Global Crossing, Qwest, WorldCom and dozens (hundreds?) of others represent first and foremost a crisis in REPORTING. read more
By Mike Guillaume
Five key attributes of a good report
read more
By Kaevan Gazdar
Getting ready for the IPO: 10 investor relations “Do’s” before the pricing
For months leading up to your filing, you probably have been singularly focused on creating that massive tome. You still need to hit the ground running with IR as soon as your company prices its offering. Here are 10 “to do” items before then. read more
By David Calusdian (Sharon Merrill)
Global Crossing
About Canadian banks’ best reports... and other banks’ less good ones, Scandinavian leaders of the pack, German ways, Dutch showpieces, French cookies, Swiss pills, and the “New Wild West”. read more
By the ReportWatch Rating Panel
How -and why- they make it. “A” reports and others
Reporting is a strategic issue. A recent survey showed 60% of institutional investors saying that improved disclosure would boost management’s credibility, increase the number of long-term shareholders, and result in higher share prices. read more
By the ReportWatch Rating Panel
How are financials reported?
Is there still a need for an annual report, especially when considering the role of the internet? Has financial reporting changed accordingly? For the better or for the worse? A quick look at the ebb and flow in the financial sections of annual reports gives a somewhat mixed picture. read more
By Mike Guillaume
How do companies effectively use their website for investor relations?
Annual Reports are still printed publications. From the first look it might appear that nothing has happened to the Annual Reports (AR) in the electronic age. This is not true. read more
By Staffan Lindgren and Gabriel Thulin
Interactivity is key
read more
By Rita Scott
IR best practice - Get to know the buy-side
Dealing with the buy-side has been pushed to the top of the priority list for IROs – especially since there has been a slow decline in the number of sell-side analysts over the past few years. read more
By Sheryl Joyce
IR website best practices to help improve online communications
Why having a better IR website matters. 75% of institutional investors and analysts use corporate websites on a weekly basis. Give stakeholders context, insight and interactive tools… read more
By Q4 Web Systems
Is the annual report still a worthwhile job?
Annual reports have improved these last years. This makes companies communication and investor relations teams’ job more difficult to differentiate and bring strategic value to report audiences read more
By Mike Guillaume
Making the most of corporate disclosure
Disclosure requirements are getting more onerous Reality is, though, that despite the recent scandals, few companies have anything to hide. What to do then? Look at disclosure as an opportunity. read more
By Catherine Gordon
New guidelines for online investor presentations
Many hours and considerable expense is incurred by IR departments and company executives in preparing and delivering investor presentations. These guidelines show how IR departments can get more people to use their online presentations. read more
By Dominic Jones
Online IR: How to build investor confidence through effective online communications?
Case stories, examples of best practice, critical improvements, and practical advice. read more
By Catherine Crofton
Reforming reporting with non-financials
Dissatisfaction with the current state of financial reporting is increasingly expressed by investors. However, reports tend to be equally deficient on nonfinancials. A major challenge facing corporate management is how to grasp their importance. read more
By Kaevan Gazdar
Reg Pauffley’s Column
Reg Pauffley is one of the most widely experienced figures in global corporate communications and annual reports. In this regular column he tells about his thoughts, experiences, jobs done on reporting, corporate communication, branding, the use of media, and more... read more
By Reg Pauffley
Reporting for duty
In Europe, many CFOs say annual reports are glorified marketing brochures. If they're right, why bother with them? read more
By Ben McLannahan (CFO Magazine)
Reporting in tough times?
Downturn, credit crunch, inflation (or stagflation), subprime and mortgage mess, mergers, acquisitions, delistings, energy prices, food crisis, long-term sustainability vs. quarterly guidance, corporate responsibility vs. financial irresponsibility... These are tough times for report makers. How do the best -and others- deal with the challenge –and still make the annual report a beacon. read more
By the Editor of the Annual Report on Annual Reports
The annual report: a reputation management vehicle
The report has evolved from a financial information conveyor to a reputation management device. It has the power to influence the way companies are perceived by those that matter to them. read more
By Dennis Larsen
The equity (or market risk) premium: 150 text books reviewed
The equity premium (also called market risk premium, equity risk premium, market premium and risk premium), is one of the most important and discussed, but elusive parameters in finance. 150 textbooks reviewed read more
By Pablo Fernandez
The most common errors in valuations
The methods that are conceptually correct are those based on cash flow discounting. The author briefly comments on other methods since - even though they are conceptually incorrect - they continue to be used frequently. read more
By Pablo Fernandez
The printed annual report: obsolete or not?
What is the trend? Will companies in the near future only present the annual report electronically to save costs and minimize the ecological footprint read more
By By Mikael Wegmüller and other contributors
The rise and fall of American annual reports
The tune is now: “Just another 10-K”, not made to be read in a New York minute. Hardly jazzy, that is. What happened between the yesterday’s wow and today’s yawn? read more
By Mike Guillaume
Tips for reading annual reports for investors
How you read an annual report depends on your purpose. As an investor, your purpose may be to assess profitability, survivability, dividends, etc. Reviewing a company yearly is the minimum diligence required. read more
By The Annual Reports Library
WACC: Definitions, misconceptions and errors
The WACC is neither a cost nor a required return: it is a weighted average of a cost and a required return. To refer to the WACC as the “cost of capital” may be misleading because it is not a cost. read more
By Pablo Fernandez
Web reporting - How to write an addictive introduction
Coaxing readers to your online content with snappy and informative headlines is pointless if you fail to follow up with an equally well-crafted intro. read more
By Michelle Walkden (Mich-communication)
What buy-side investors regard as important
The shifting agenda in corporate reporting agenda, driven by changing investor demands, is palpable for everyone involved This is a difficult audience to research and their terms of reference are often quite narrow but the responses are worthy of note. read more
By Stocks Austin Sice Limited
What do they do? Issues in today’s reporting
Reporting is, more than ever, a delicate balance. Between current shareholders and potential investors, freedom of speech and compliance, substance and style, stockholders and stakeholders, the talk and the walk. read more
By Mike Guillaume and the ReportWatch Rating Panel
What visuals should say
read more
By Henk van Dijke
Why is the annual report not yet extinct?
In an article titled “The death of the annual report” , James Guthrie wrote: “The annual report may not yet be extinct but it is certainly an endangered species.”. The death hasn’t happened yet. Why? read more
By Mike Guillaume and the ReportWatch Team
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Report of the month

February 2012
Infineon
Infineon
Neubiberg, Germany « View our previous picks

Best annual reports

Annual Report on Annual Reports 2012
Best annual reports 2012

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Financial sector annual reports

Annual Report on Annual Reports

Best annual reports 2011 Annual reports from the financial sector are no longer selected for our competition. This does not imply that there are not (sometimes very) good and improved reports in the sector. However, for consistency, comparability and credibility reasons it has been decided not to include any. On a customized basis, e.com keeps on evaluating and benchmarking financial sector reports.

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A “REPORT” ON CRISES AND ON TODAY’S CAPITALISM

The Seven Deadly Sins of Capitalism, by e.com founder Mike Guillaume
Capitalism reported

Booms and busts are part of capitalism. But bubbles burst and crises repeat more often and much faster than in the past.

One thing is certain: for all its virtues, and there are still some, the market no longer has all the answers to all the problems.

Do capitalism's new sins outweigh its old virtues? Wearing two hats -financial reporting specialist and economist- e.com's founder and manager Mike Guillaume has got good vantage points for watching companies, economies and economics work (or not). He asks questions -from small to essential- and tries to give answers in a short and well-documented book.

Read chapters of Mike Guillaume's book and much more -from him and other minds- about the economics, capitalism, and alternative ways to "reinvent free markets for welfare" on http://www.mikeconomics.net