Excess wordage

Annual reports: dreaded by some, pored over by anoraks, are becoming longer and longer. Cue a reminder from watchdogs that they perhaps don’t have to be quite as long as they currently are.

In a podcast, watchdogs from the Financial Reporting Council pondered why some companies appear to throw the “kitchen sink” at their annual reports.

Tedi Jorgji, senior policy associate at the FRC, says: “The FRC has continuously emphasised that actually it’s about quality, not quantity. We’ve always said that companies should focus on giving information that actually displays what the board has done during the year, how the company has performed and what the outcomes from the actions of the board are.

“We’ve continuously said that and encourage companies to be more meaningful in their explanations.”

So, if you find yourself wondering how many more kitchen fixtures can be included in your report, think on.

Plain speaking

Look, none of us is innocent: we’ve all played management speak bingo in particularly dull meetings, and we’ve all become numb to terms like “low hanging fruit” or “paradigm shift” and so forth. London Business School management boffin Freek Vermeulen says investors don’t like it either.

Freek looked at 1,500 strategy presentations, measured the management speak and then looked at the market reaction. It wasn’t good news for purveyors of cliched management vocabulary.

For every 10% increase in management speak financial markets responded 6% more negatively. However, CEOs in their first year could get away with it, says Freek, likely because they received the benefit of the doubt (Board Agenda would, however, encourage zero tolerance on this issue).

Freek concludes: “So be careful using management speak in strategy presentations. Investors don’t like management speak; they like plain speak.”

CFO trigger warning

It seems like the uncertain times have had an impact on CFOs. Headhunters Russell Reynolds reports that its regular CFO survey finds that global turnover in the main indexes is at a seven-year high.

At the same time retirement among CFOs remains significantly above average and also at its highest level for seven years.

The first half of 2025 saw 173 CFOs appointed in the Russell Reynolds sample of worldwide indexes, compared to 169 in the same period last.

Russell Reynolds advises: “To mitigate rising CFO turnover, organisations should leverage best-practices in CFO succession planning, including using a new CFO’s arrival as a trigger to assess the finance function, focus on bridging skills gaps and formalise development plans.”

Insurance conundrum

Here’s a little something that’s left us confused. Despite all the talk of increased risks facing business, the cost of directors’ and officers’ insurance in the US has fallen for the 13th successive quarter.

Industry giant Aon says the average cost of $1m of insurance at 30 June this year was 2.8% lower than the same period last year.

So big are the discounts that lawyers at Latham & Watkins say board members are looking for extras.

“Capitalising on this trend, directors and senior executives are focusing on expanding their D&O insurance coverage to increase protection from litigation and multi-jurisdictional regulatory enforcement.”

Other key worries are AI-related liability exposure, including those stemming from “claims of exaggerating AI capabilities”. Well, I think we can all see where that particular anxiety is coming from.