One of the most inspiring insights of the INTEGRATED REPORTING (IR) framework is the set of guiding principles. This is the “magic” list, based on common sense, that we may use to evolve ourselves from strictly doing activities that “tick the box” to doing more exiting and added value ones. It’s not only improves our professional life but it is also a way to upgrade the personal life of our people.
The 7 (maybe too many) magic ingredients of the guiding principles vary from:
The strategic:
1. Strategic focus and future orientation
2. Connectivity of information
3. Stakeholder relationship
to the more operationally driven:
4. Materiality
5. Conciseness
6. Reliability
7. Comparability
Let’s start with #1:Strategic focus and future orientation.
It begins with the need to EFFECTIVELY describe the company’s strategy - already a step forward in our corporate reports, which are often affected by the ‘marketing brochure syndrome’. It’s vital to demonstrate how the company’s strategy is able to nurture the capacity of the entity to create value in a sustainable way thanks to the wise use of all the company’s material capitals in the long run. Therefore, the future orientation is the natural consequence of the strategic focus.
Traditionally the current corporate reports are mainly driven by the past events (and this is good - especially if you learn from your past mistakes) but company’s stakeholders are much more interested in the future. And so this is linked with our deep nature: everybody wants to know where we are going and how we are going to get there. This is all about strategic focus and future orientation.
Stay tuned for next guiding principle!
By Mossimo Romano, from: http://www.tagetik.com/blog/authors/massimo-romano/2014-06-19-integrated-reporting#.U6M4_5RdV8E
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