‘Tis the season for AGMs. Across the country public and private sector organisations are holding their annual general meetings and publishing their annual reports. Communications teams have been busy editing and proofing, agencies designing, and printers a-printing. But will recipients be a-reading?
Did you know that if you stacked a copy every annual report produced in one year by the private, public and charity sectors in the UK on top of each other, you would have enough paper to build a staircase to the moon?
Actually, I made that up. But it’s almost believable isn’t it?
Working in the NHS, as I am at the moment, I have started receiving a steady flow of annual reports from organisations across the region. Piling up next to my desk, I’ll never read them. If I want to read up on any local trusts I’ll find them on line. It’ll be quicker than working my way through the stash of recycling I’m collecting.
Don’t get me wrong – I recognise the importance of annual reporting. It provides accountability and transparency for publically funded organisations and businesses alike, offering valuable information to shareholders and stakeholders, and setting out financial health and strategic direction.
But do annual reports warrant the amount of time and effort that goes into their production and distribution?
So often they appear like pieces of vanity publishing, with the chief executive and chair looking commanding and sagacious from inside the front cover, and each department or director given their page to boast of their achievements over the last year.
But who really wants to read that? It doesn’t tell me what I, as customer, investor, or partner want to know.
I’m sure some annual reports are very strategic documents, with clear audiences and aims in mind, and beautifully executed to meet those objectives. But I defy anyone to tell me that most aren’t. The main objective for most is “will the board like it?”
So I’m pleased that this year the organisation I’m currently working for produced its annual report internally. With great care and attention, and beautiful presentation, but in Microsoft Word. We still sent it far and wide, but electronically at next to no cost. And, knowing that no-one would read it, put our key messages in the cover e-mail.
A retort to the annual report
‘Tis the season for AGMs. Across the country public and private sector organisations are holding their annual general meetings and publishing their annual reports. Communications teams have been busy editing and proofing, agencies designing, and printers a-printing. But will recipients be a-reading?
Did you know that if you stacked a copy every annual report produced in one year by the private, public and charity sectors in the UK on top of each other, you would have enough paper to build a staircase to the moon?
Actually, I made that up. But it’s almost believable isn’t it?
Working in the NHS, as I am at the moment, I have started receiving a steady flow of annual reports from organisations across the region. Piling up next to my desk, I’ll never read them. If I want to read up on any local trusts I’ll find them on line. It’ll be quicker than working my way through the stash of recycling I’m collecting.
Don’t get me wrong – I recognise the importance of annual reporting. It provides accountability and transparency for publically funded organisations and businesses alike, offering valuable information to shareholders and stakeholders, and setting out financial health and strategic direction.
But do annual reports warrant the amount of time and effort that goes into their production and distribution?
So often they appear like pieces of vanity publishing, with the chief executive and chair looking commanding and sagacious from inside the front cover, and each department or director given their page to boast of their achievements over the last year.
But who really wants to read that? It doesn’t tell me what I, as customer, investor, or partner want to know.
I’m sure some annual reports are very strategic documents, with clear audiences and aims in mind, and beautifully executed to meet those objectives. But I defy anyone to tell me that most aren’t. The main objective for most is “will the board like it?”
So I’m pleased that this year the organisation I’m currently working for produced its annual report internally. With great care and attention, and beautiful presentation, but in Microsoft Word. We still sent it far and wide, but electronically at next to no cost. And, knowing that no-one would read it, put our key messages in the cover e-mail.