Included at the front of this edition is an Australian perspective which compares the global results with Australian companies’ annual reports.

What we found was:

• Australian reports are shorter and therefore the ‘cutting the clutter’ focus of the past 18 months has had a positive effect.
  
• Australian remuneration reports are a significantly larger proportion of annual reports than for overseas companies.
  
• Australian disclosures around operating performance and the link to strategy lag global company disclosures except in the area of people-based measures.
  

Companies embracing better business reporting disclosures are connecting their business models, strategies and KPIs quite directly and are contributing to the momentum towards integrated reporting-styled reports. Interestingly, we are also starting to see major investors calling for integrated reports and empirical evidence of their benefits in relation to capital allocation is beginning to emerge.

1. Give investors the information they need.
2. Keep the report content clear and relevant.
3. Provide a longer term view using operational performance measures.
4. Provide practical measures to compare performance with strategy.
5. Provide deeper analysis of the strategy.
6. Focus risk discussion on what's important to the future of the business.