The quality of online annual reports is improving
Clariant wins the Swiss Annual Report Rating 2014 ahead of Swisscom and Swiss Re.
At this year's rating event on September 18, Clariant took gold in the overall ranking ahead of Swisscom (silver) and Swiss Re (bronze). The Design category was won by Kuoni, followed by Implenia and Geberit. In the Value Reporting category, Swisscom came out on top for the third time in a row, ahead of Credit Suisse and Geberit. The Newcomer of the Year category was introduced for the first time. This was won by Mikron (Value Reporting) and Valiant (Design category).
The 2013 vintage is better than the previous year
The Design Jury recognizes new conceptual approaches in terms of content and form and notes a qualitative broadening of the top. In particular, more and more companies are willing to invest in a good online presence, as Peter Vetter from the Zurich University of the Arts and President of the Design Jury states. There have also been improvements in value reporting, although the criteria for reporting management remuneration, for example, have been tightened. So if you wanted to maintain your rank, you had to improve. This also applies to bronze winner Geberit. "Following last year's criticism by the President of the Value Reporting Jury, Prof. Alexander Wagner, and in the course of implementing the Minder initiative, we have made significantly more effort to meet best practice standards in terms of both quality and scope," explains Roman Sidler, Head Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Geberit.
Where does Switzerland stand in an international comparison?
This year's guest speaker was Jochen Rädeker, professor at the University of Konstanz and founder and head of the Strichpunkt agency in Stuttgart, who has won numerous design awards. He briefly and very entertainingly analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of Swiss annual reports and compared them with seven international reporting trends (see illustration). Not entirely surprisingly, Switzerland's traditional no-frills design continues to perform very well. However, Rädeker also gave the Swiss a good report card in the area of online annual reporting. He identified a strong need for improvement in two areas: on the one hand, storytelling. While the best Anglo-Saxon annual reports come across like magazines, Switzerland is still too strategy- and fact-oriented. And where Rädeker certainly spoke from the hearts of the designers present: Swiss annual reports should be much bolder. This is primarily aimed at corporate communications managers who, due to a lack of courage, probably consign many good ideas to the drawer and not to the desks of the board of directors and CEO.
Andreas Jäggi
The winners at a glance
Design
(print and online)
1st place Kuoni
2nd place Implenia
1st place Geberit
Value Reporting
1st place Swisscom
2nd place Credit Suisse
3rd place Geberit
Overall ranking Annual Reports
1st place Clariant
2nd place Swisscom
3rd place Swiss Re
