Post #50
August 4, 2021
Claire Bodanis
On behalf of her fellow authors and the FW team, Claire is delighted to announce the launch of the latest edition of Trust me, I’m listed: Why the annual report matters and how to do it well , published by the Chartered Governance Institute on 7 October
As a champion of truth, I’m ashamed to have to confess that my last blog ended with a lie. Well, let me be charitable to myself – more of a fib, really. Publishing it on the eve of the annual summer trek north to Scotland, I claimed that I would be on holiday until the very end of August, my excuse for doing you all out of a September blog. But, like many of us who race towards a holiday deadline, I had a back-up list of what could creep into the holiday task bucket if I didn’t quite manage to get it all done.
And sure enough, while my out of office reply from 6 Aug declared that I’d not even be reading email until I got back, much earnest endeavour was taking place behind the scenes.
What could possibly be important enough to keep me indoors, chained to the laptop? What could possibly keep me from donning my mackintosh with everyone else for a pleasant summer afternoon in the garden? Yes, readers, it could only be Trust me, I’m listed. Sadly for my holiday, but happily for the future of our discipline, the world of reporting has moved on. So much so in the last year that I felt TMIL could do with an update. And I’m very grateful to our publisher, the Chartered Governance Institute, that they wholeheartedly agreed.
But wait, I hear you cry, I’ve already bought the book! Fear not – from a practical perspective, nothing in the book has changed. The principles, the philosophy, the how-to – they all remain the same, so your trusty 2020 handbook is no less trusty. (Let’s face it, reporting doesn’t change that much…)
What has changed, though, is chapter 2, all about the future of reporting. Which of course makes it well worth buying the 2021 edition! Those who know the original edition well may remember that the start of chapter 2, ‘What else reporting’s about (and may be about soon)’, included this immortal phrase: I fully expect (and hope, actually) that this chapter’s discussion on what else you might be reporting on, and where reporting is going, will be factually out of date by the time it’s published, because some of the things it talks about will have moved into the annual report itself and therefore into the scope of Chapter 1.
So I did cover myself – but, given the usual glacial pace of change in reporting, little did I expect to have to update it so soon. And what has changed? One thing in particular: the landscape of non-financial information, or to give it today’s popular title, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Such has been the energy and activity in this area that what I wrote in June 2020 is now woefully out of date. And I’m very grateful particularly to experts Robert Eccles and Harriet Howey for their help with my update – although I naturally take full responsibility for all the opinions expressed therein.
Since I had to update it anyway, I thought I might as well cover the practical change that’s taking place right now – the requirement for UK companies to file their annual report digitally as an ESEF (European Single Electronic Format). And I’m glad I did, because, through a conversation with the wonderful Rob Riche of Friend Studio it became a new case study in the book, and, while I still have no love for the ESEF itself, I have found new hope in the digital future of reporting. As you will discover for yourself if you join our webinar tomorrow, Thursday 7 October, 12.30-1.15pm, which also has the equally wonderful Martin Blaxall of AstraZeneca on the panel!
We also took the opportunity to update all the data and studies quoted where newer information was available, for which huge thanks to researcher Polly Garland. To give heart to all you reporters out there, I shall own up to the fact that Polly also picked up a few typos (a double word, two missing words and two transposed words, for the geeks amongst you). I cannot guarantee that no new ones have crept in, but if they have, they are entirely my responsibility.
And, with luck, they won’t detract from the kind words of Sir John Kay, author of the Kay Review, who gave us the lovely endorsement in this blog’s title.
Order your copy of the 2021 edition of Trust me, I’m listed here.
Sign up for our Thursday 7 October webinar here.