Online and print can complement each other

Nine medals were awarded at this year's rating event on September 20. In the overall ranking, Roche took gold ahead of Swiss Re (silver) and Geberit (bronze). The ten-member final jury was chaired by Matthias Graf, HarbourClub. Geberit is the only company to receive a second medal, as well as gold in the Design category. Kuoni took second place in this category ahead of Allreal. The design jury consisted of eleven members under the direction of Peter Vetter, Zurich University of the Arts. Swisscom came out on top in the Value Reporting category. It relegated Straumann (silver) and Credit Suisse (bronze) to the other places. The Institute for Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich is responsible for value reporting under Prof. Alexander Wagner.

The view of the Board of Directors

Andreas Schmid was a guest speaker who currently holds the chairmanship of three important boards: the Oettin ger Davidoff Group, GateGroup Holding AG and Flughafen Zürich AG. Three points are important to him in an annual report. Firstly, completeness and accuracy; secondly, comprehensibility and clarity; and thirdly, appearance and corporate identity. Measured against the legal requirements and the effort and costs involved, Andreas Schmid still considers the annual report to be the leading medium for corporate communication. But for the future, Schmid describes the annual report in its current printed form as a discontinued model. This is because the numerous stakeholder groups use other sources to get a picture of the company. Schmid appealed to the HarbourClub, as the organizer of the event, to discuss more suitable forms of results communication that are more appropriate for the individual stakeholder groups.

However, the Harbour Club partially anticipated Andreas Schmid's request with the reorganization of the annual report rating: For the first time, online and print were rated equally. If you want to be at the forefront of business reporting, you need to have an attractive online presence as well as a printed annual report. And so, in the end, Roche stood at the top of the winners' podium. Although it was not at the top in the special disciplines of best design print or online or value reporting, as a convincing all-rounder it prevailed over the competition in the final judging. According to Matthias Graf from the HarbourClub, Roche demonstrates how print and online complement each other perfectly. Third-placed Geberit takes an even more consistent approach. It clearly defines online as the lead medium for business reporting. This is supplemented by special publications for individual target groups. We are eager to see whether other companies will follow this example.

Which annual reports were evaluated?

The annual reports of all listed companies represented in the SPI were included in the 2012 annual report rating. In addition, the 50 companies with the highest turnover in 2011, the 15 insurance companies with the highest gross premiums in 2010 and the 25 banks with the highest total assets in 2010 (sample of 233 reports).

How was it chosen?

Prof. Alexander Wagner, project manager Florian Eugster and students from the Institute of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich evaluated the annual reports in print and online according to defined content criteria for value reporting. At the same time, experts under the direction of Peter Vetter, Zurich University of the Arts, dealt with all aspects of design and usability and weighted the print and online presences equally, resulting in the design ranking. The addition of both ratings according to ranking points resulted in the 12 best overall. From these, the ten-member final jury finally selected the overall winners of the 2012 annual report rating.

Andreas Jäggi