Best Annual Reports of 2010

Agree that a majority of the top ranked companies are doing a great job with their Annual reports, but still wonder if the printed annual report will survive the next generation of investors and analysts? I think that Finnish Wärtsilä is a great example of an interactive online AR http://www.annualreport2009.wartsila.com/Default.aspx

A quick glance of top 100 shows that 18 companies are Swedish, which is almost as many as Germany, UK and US has combined (25). With a large part of IR budgets spent on these backward looking products, the question is do companies really get value for money? And will Swedish companies move towards the international standard or will it be the other way around? I believe and hope IR budgets can and will be spent in a more efficient and strategic way in the future. (I agree there are a number of fine looking annual reports, however as with the phone book even if the cover looks better and better there are faster ways to find information these days)

There are probably some good examples on annual reports with a forward looking approach. However, there are so many new venues and possibilities to inform interested parties about your company than the annual report, a product that may have seen it’s best before date back in the 80’s, when reading the annual report was in some cases the only way to learn about a company. If companies had endless IR resources a costly annual report could be part of the mix, however that is not the case for most companies.

It’s important not to confuse the Report content with the medium. While print may be in decline, stats on visits to Online Reports consistently show there is a wide audience for Annual Reports Online – much wider than the readers of the print Report. The content is still important, and it is therefore important to think strategically about how to distribute the message – in print (this is currently still relevant but in different formats), online and digitally for iPads, iPhones and any upcoming mediums.

Agree with Rob: “Obviously, there is still value in the piece”. I would add strategic value, at least for those “analysts” who don’t confuse blips on screens and last minute profit warnings with the real company strategy, products, and fundamentals (not just the share ones).
Agree with Renee: Let’s not confuse the content with the medium. Content -name it substance- prevails over the channel -call it style (or part of it).
Disagree with Mikael. First, I hope that Swedish reports will not “move towards international standards”, as many of them go far beyond these! And have done so for years -or decades. What are those “standards”? Publishing a boring 10-K or 20-F, like most U.S. (or U.S.-listed) companies are now doing, just to be sure the report will NOT be read?
Some among the best offer both the backward-looking (and long-term) perspective and a developed outlook section, with clear KPIs and financial targets.

As Annica already brought up I think the interactive web-implementation of annual reports can do a great job for certain user needs. I think the web solution in the future will have to focus even more on the strengths of the media. Obviously this is
(Re-) Search: IMHO the killer application of the web (think of Google)

Interactivity with data: linking complex content that belongs together and offer Excel spreadsheets for download!

and right now the use of multimedia.

Check your online annual report if he is of any use in this field, than it is a good one!

We do a lot of research in the field of online corporate reporting. In August we published our findings - checking 508 big corporates worldwide - on our website.

Sukkus: Best online reports you will find in UK and Germany, Scandianavia is picking up but still lacks behind. Agree with Rob US companies still don’t get the point of online reporting, thinking a PDF is all you can do.

Check out our research at http://nxr.me/aBR3j