Advocating a digital-first approach to annual reporting

In 2014, 15 years after producing our first comprehensive end-to-end online HTML annual report for a client, we conducted a global survey of listed companies – some 41,300 entities across 109 countries – and studied their annual reports for the reporting periods 2010, 2011 and 2012. Our research uncovered many interesting facts. For example, only 2.6% of listed companies surveyed produced an online HTML annual report in 2012, but the numbers had been growing – at 28% YoY in 2011 and 24% YoY in 2012.

Now, a decade later, we see the unprecedented acceleration in the adoption of digital technology across practically every sphere of human activity, largely fuelled by the lockdowns necessitated by the global pandemic and the drive to reduce paper usage to support climate action. Building on our early-mover advantage we continue to advocate a digital-first approach to annual reporting.