Firms fail to digitise bulky annual reports
Despite efforts to trim their bulk, the battle against the ever-increasing length of annual reports has been lost. Meanwhile, companies have also failed to take the opportunities offered by using digital formats, writes Kevin Reed.
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Efforts to reduce the size of annual reports have failed, it would seem. Despite ongoing concerns about the legibility and accessibility of annual reports, their length has increased, according to research.
FTSE350 companies had an average of 186 pages in their annual report in 2016/17, an increase of five pages on the previous year and a 25% increase from 2012/13 (see graph, below), according to a survey by EY.
“The web is live and active, but the report is Victorian. If your strategy changes during a year shouldn’t you change that on the website immediately?”
–Simon Laffin, chairman, Flybe, and former FTSE100 C
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