INTRODUCTION Telling the story T he Financial Reporting Council (FRC) recently stated that effective company stewardship ‘is dependent on the provision of robust and reliable information by companies to investors and on audit assurance of that information’. The continuing acknowledgement of regulators and standard setters that corporate reporting is at the heart of good, strong governance, serves to highlight the fact that there is a genuine business benefit to the disclosure of high quality information. For many of us involved in the corporate reporting process, this benefit has long been apparent. Not just in the way that disclosure helps to facilitate the engagement process between companies and investors, but in less obvious ways, for example as a catalyst for internal decision-making or in unifying management thinking. Simplification of the reporting model has long been regarded by many as the ‘holy grail’ of reporting and it seems that the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) is continuing the quest with two of the most recent consultations, ‘Long-term Focus for Corporate Britain’ and ‘The Future of Narrative Reporting’, both highlighting simplification as an intended goal. In addition the FRC’s ‘Cutting Clutter Advisory Panel’ is also looking for ways to improve the accessibility of communications in Annual Reports. The ‘why’ in this objective is relatively easy to answer; that is, it is apparent that reporting requirements have reached a point where it is often very difficult to see the wood for the trees in many reports and despite the best efforts of all concerned, the focus for some companies is still on ticking the box, rather than telling the story. 2 © Black Sun Plc 2011 www.blacksunplc.com
