METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS. Review of 2012 Fortune 100 Corporate Reports

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1 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS Review of 212 Fortune 1 Corporate Reports

2 About the report Methodologie annually looks at the reporting trends among the Fortune 1 companies by reviewing annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. We review the companies reports for their size, scope, content and accessibility. We report on trends such as changing GRI standards for CSR reports, brand integration and technology, as companies strive to reach a broader audience of stakeholders. A bit about us Methodologie has deep expertise building brands from the bottom up, and a 25-year history of work ing with some of the world s most respected companies and organizations to tell their stories in compelling and powerful ways. Our client base is national and international, spanning public and private companies, startups, and nonprofits and foundations. Our brand focus, coupled with superior design and technology expertise, offers an unmatched strength when it comes to defining, designing, developing and expressing one of your most valuable assets: your corporate communications. 2 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

3 Our point of view Our fifth annual review of Fortune 1 companies tracks the evolution of trends in corporate reporting, both annual and CSR reporting. Each year we ve looked at the reports, identified themes and trends, and over time, tracked the changes in reporting. Most of the Fortune 1 companies 75% choose to use the annual report as an opportunity to communicate beyond the minimum financial requirements. We ve looked to see who has gone beyond the Form 1-K with anything from a four-page wrap to interactive online reports. Overall, there seems to be a reduction in energy around annual reports. Print has dropped significantly as the major communication channel down 51% from just two years ago. Print is now nearly on par with online reports. The 1-K wrap remains a relatively popular approach in print versions. Integrated reporting, as defined by the IIRC, is a concise communication about how an organization s strategy, governance, performance and prospects lead to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term. Integrated reporting is a hot topic in the press, but it s less prevalent in reality than might be expected by the attention it gets. It has not been adopted significantly by leading U.S. corporations. We have seen more companies issuing responsibility reports or including a small section of responsibility reporting in their annual reports, but movement toward true integrated reporting is slow. We believe that the reality of generating a fully integrated report represents a significantly daunting effort across an organization. Conceptually, people agree with the importance of tying financial performance and CSR together, which indicates that we re at the beginning of integrated thinking. Letters of assurance are on a big rise up 91% in just two years. We believe this is because of a companion trend that shows that inquiries from investors and shareholders are increasing regarding disclosure on environmental and social impacts. We believe that the GRI framework makes CSR more quantifiable, and as a result, stakeholders are beginning to understand that they should question the data. We expect to see this trend continue to grow, especially as integrated reporting comes into its own over the next several years. 3 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

4 ANNUAL REPORTS How many Fortune 1 companies produced an annual report for 212? FORTUNE % ANNUAL REPORTS Annual reports are losing their luster and show a continued, slow downward trend. This is a missed opportunity for an organization to tell a narrative about what the numbers mean: a moment for transparency about the challenges faced, realism regarding successes and appreciation for those who helped sustain the business. ANNUAL REPORTS For purposes of this review, we defined annual report as anything beyond a Form 1-K, ranging from a simple Form 1-K with a cover to an elaborate narrative section. In addition to these 75 reports, three companies produced integrated annual and CSR reports: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, Pfizer and Verizon Communications. Data on these three companies are included in the CSR section. 4 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

5 ANNUAL REPORTS What form did the report take? FORTUNE % PDF 51% PRINT +12% ONLINE There was a full 51% downshift in printed reports, reducing the lead of print vs. online reports to marginal at best. PRINT ONLINE (38) PDF 5 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

6 ANNUAL REPORTS How many companies provided social media integration or a mechanism for sharing or providing feedback? FORTUNE % SOCIAL MEDIA There was a 3% increase in integration of social media and mechanisms for both sharing and providing feedback in this year s reporting. We hope the increased adoption of social media by companies reporting will lead to an increased dialogue with their audiences. SOCIAL MEDIA 6 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

7 ANNUAL REPORTS How many annual reports included a CSR section? FORTUNE 1 1 There was a strong increase in CSR sections in annual reports. There is a growing trend in integrating CSR into mainstream business and beginning to report on it and its direct influence on the financials of an organization. In addition, 18 of the 24 companies % CSR SECTION also produced a separate CSR report. CSR SECTION 7 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

8 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS Of the 21 companies that did not produce an annual report, how many of them produced a CSR report? FORTUNE 1 1 Ten companies that did not produce an annual report produced a CSR report, indicating the trend toward CSR reporting gaining more attention and traction than annual reports CSR REPORT DID NOT PRODUCE ANNUAL REPORT +1% ONLY A CSR REPORT 8 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

9 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS How many Fortune 1 companies produced a CSR report for 212? FORTUNE 1 1 There is a slim 2% increase in CSR reporting among Fortune % CSR REPORT companies, which is a surprising increase. We believe that the changes in the GRI framework may be deterring a steadier rise in reporting overall. CSR REPORT 9 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

10 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS What form did the report take? FORTUNE % PDF +14% ONLINE 89% PRINT Print versions plummeted since 21, which is understandable considering the environmental focus of the reports. Online reporting increased, as anticipated. Six companies produced printed CSR reports: Chevron, Hess Corporation, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Pfizer, Tesoro and Walmart Stores. PRINT ONLINE PDF (62) 1 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

11 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS How many companies leveraged responsive design for their online report? FORTUNE 1 1 This is the beginning of a new trend for our report. Responsive design is an approach to creating digital sites that provides optimal viewing across a broad range of devices. This is the first time we ve recorded responsive design in the reporting, and we believe it will continue to increase significantly over time. 6 NEW FOR RESPONSIVE DESIGN RESPONSIVE 11 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

12 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS How many reports used the Global Reporting Inititative (GRI) framework as a reporting index? FORTUNE % USED GRI +4% SEPARATE GRI The 91% increase in the adoption of the GRI framework is a significant shift. This movement toward structured reporting is more evidence of the traction of CSR reporting. The increase in separate GRI reports shows that companies are beginning to allow the stakeholder to download structured, comparable reports of CSR activities. SEPARATE GRI REPORT USED GRI (44) For the purposes of this review, we defined a separate report as either a stand-alone downloadable PDF or the ability to pull out just the GRI framework for the report in a downloads section. 12 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

13 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS Was there a letter of assurance? FORTUNE 1 1 The letter of external assurance provides verification and increased confidence in the quality of sustainability performance data. It is similar in intent to financial auditing. This significant increase of verification further supports the alignment and integration of CSR % LETTER OF ASSURANCE into the mainstream of business. LETTER OF ASSURANCE 13 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

14 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS How can the report be accessed online? FORTUNE ±% CSR PAGE NEW IR PAGE 17% HOME PAGE The CSR page seems to be the most common access point for the reporting. This year, we started recording how many companies post a link on the Investor Relations section of their site, and we believe this trend will go up as integrated reporting becomes more prevalent. HOME PAGE IR PAGE (15) CSR PAGE 14 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

15 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS Was there any social media integration or mechanism for sharing or providing feedback? FORTUNE % SOCIAL MEDIA There was a 58% increase in social media integration and mechanisms for sharing feedback. Similar to annual reporting, we hope that this leads to an increased dialogue with companies constituencies. SOCIAL MEDIA 15 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

16 Reports at-a-glance This overview shows how each of the 212 Fortune 1 reports is designed and delivered. We ve also included our six-year trend summary for both annual reports and CSR reports. 16 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

17 212 REPORTS AT-A-GLANCE Annual Report CSR Report Annual Report CSR Report PRINT PDF ONLINE PRINT PDF ONLINE 1 Walmart Stores 2 Exxon Mobil 3 Chevron 4 Phillips 66 5 Berkshire Hathaway 6 Apple 7 General Motors 8 General Electric 9 Valero Energy 1 Ford Motor 11 AT&T 12 Fannie Mae 13 CVS Caremark 14 McKesson 15 Hewlett-Packard 16 Verizon Communications 17 UnitedHealthGroup 18 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 19 Cardinal Health 2 International Business Machines 21 Bank of America Corp. 22 Costco Wholesale 23 Kroger 24 Express Scripts Holding 25 Wells Fargo PRINT PDF ONLINE PRINT PDF ONLINE 26 Citigroup 27 Archer Daniels Midland 28 Procter & Gamble 29 Prudential Financial 3 Boeing 31 Freddie Mac 32 AmerisourceBergen 33 Marathon Petroleum 34 Home Depot 35 Microsoft 36 Target 37 Walgreens 38 American International Group 39 INTL FCStone 4 MetLife 41 Johnson & Johnson 42 Caterpillar 43 PepsiCo 44 State Farm Insurance Co. 45 ConocoPhillips 46 Comcast 47 WellPoint 48 Pfizer 49 Amazon.com United Technologies 17 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

18 212 REPORTS AT-A-GLANCE Annual Report CSR Report Annual Report CSR Report PRINT PDF ONLINE PRINT PDF ONLINE 51 Dell 52 Dow Chemical 53 United Parcel Service 54 Intel 55 Google 56 Lowe s 57 Coca-Cola 58 Merck 59 Lockheed Martin 6 Cisco Systems 61 Best Buy 62 Safeway 63 FedEx 64 Enterprise Products Partners 65 Sysco 66 Walt Disney 67 Johnson Controls 68 Goldman Sachs Group 69 CHS 7 Abbott Laboratories 71 Sears Holdings 72 DuPont 73 Humana 74 World Fuel Services 75 Hess PRINT PDF ONLINE PRINT PDF ONLINE 76 Ingram Micro 77 Plains All American Pipeline 78 Honeywell International 79 United Continental Holdings 8 Oracle 81 Liberty Mutual Insurance Group 82 HCA Holdings 83 Delta Air Lines 84 Aetna 85 Deere 86 Supervalu 87 Sprint Nextel 88 Mondelez International 89 New York Life Insurance 9 American Express 91 News Corp. 92 Allstate 93 Tyson Foods 94 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance 95 Tesoro 96 Morgan Stanley 97 TIAA-CREF 98 General Dynamics 99 Philip Morris International 1 Nationwide 18 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

19 ANNUAL REPORT SIX-YEAR SUMMARY ANNUAL REPORT REPORT FORMAT PDF ONLINE PRINT The majority of Fortune 1 companies are leveraging annual reports (beyond a Form 1-K) as communications tools but there is a steady decline. At the same time, companies are increasing their CSR efforts, whether as a part of the annual report or as a separate document. Online communication channels are increasing overall both in the online delivery of the reports and the inclusion of social media. INCLUDING CSR SECTION SEPARATE CSR REPORT SOCIAL MEDIA METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

20 CSR REPORT 6-YEAR SUMMARY CSR REPORT CSR FORMAT PDF ONLINE CSR continues to grow in traction and effort by the Fortune 1 companies. The most dramatic shifts were in the adoption of the GRI framework and third-party letters of assurance. Similar to annual reports, digital is on the rise for CSR reports with the use of online reports and the inclusion of social media channels PRINT GRI LETTER OF ASSURANCE CSR SOCIAL MEDIA METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS

21 Let s talk We re happy to share more insights and information on corporate reporting with you. Sign up for our Insights blog, or give us a call. Contact us Leone Kraus Senior Director of National Accounts leone.kraus@methodologie.com This is our 25th year in business and our fifth year of compiling this report. We currently have a trends report in the works that will illustrate where the market has changed over the years. We would love to show you the details of this report who did what company by company. Let s get together to have a conversation about what this might mean to you and your organization. 21 METHODOLOGIE REPORT OF REPORTS