The annual report, this major event in corporate communication, continues to require rigorous attention in its creation. However, if he had his moment of glory during the general meeting of shareholders, he struggled to survive the rest of the year. To access precise data, the analyst consults regulatory publications such as the universal registration document (DEU) or quarterly results. And to understand the vision of a company, the corporate site and social accounts are consulted in a much more natural way.
The annual report has already evolved to coexist with other regulatory and non-regulatory reports, incorporating both performance reporting data and strategic vision. At a time of the European CSRD (Corporate sustainability reporting directive), which places emphasis on the quality of extra-financial data, the annual report should not disappear.
The CSRD provides a unique opportunity to emerge from the criticisms made of the annual report. With a harmonized reporting framework, it can concentrate on its main role: moving from data to telling a story, to facilitate understanding by all stakeholders: employees, candidates, civil society, etc. Less expert audiences , but careful about companies’ commitments to sustainable development. Especially since the annual report often serves as a reference document for corporate communication, establishing elements of language and territories of expression scrupulously worked on and validated by management.
Companies that have adopted the integrated annual report have laid the foundations for integrating the expectations of the CSRD. They are already accustomed to synthesizing and teaching about their creation of financial and extra-financial value. The challenge for them will be to move up a notch in taking into account sustainability issues in governance, and in identifying and managing sustainability impacts.
Responsibility, utility and impact
The annual report must therefore make several shifts. First, a shift in responsibility, by strengthening transparency on its sustainability commitments. All thanks to better collaboration between agencies, communication departments, and corporate CSR. This also implies expertise in data telling, namely the storytelling of data with regard to the strategy and vision of the company. But also explain complex concepts such as double materiality, and put into perspective progress over time, a key issue of the CSRD.
A shift in utility, by redefining the annual report, from a one-shot publication to a dynamic system, which lives all year round. This is what Orange did, by rethinking its Integrated Annual Report as a transformation observatory, combining performance monitoring dashboard and narrative formats to illustrate the group’s transformation. The device can be updated in real time, with content that can be shared on social networks.
An impact shift, finally. For the corporate sustainability discourse to be heard, it must reach its audience. And for this, the annual report must be connected to the rest of the corporate communication ecosystem, and supported by the company’s internal and external stakeholders, able to lend credibility to the company’s discourse and increase its value tenfold. strike force.
With the CSRD, the annual report must change to express its true role: that of giving meaning, setting the story, by connecting data and narrative, and irrigating corporate communication. A real cultural shift, which will allow it to reaffirm its impact and its usefulness.
){kind=link}