Black Sun and its leading partners in accounting and integrated reporting have launched unique research capturing how executives feel about their value creation story.

Conducted in collaboration with AICPA, CIMA, the IIRC and Tomorrow’s Company, our report uncovers the opinions of over 350 CEOs, CFOs and COOs from across the globe on the significance of the value creation discussion and how effective their reporting is at communicating it.

Our findings highlight the importance that these executives place on explaining how their companies create value over the long term. However, they also reveal that current reporting standards fail to effectively tell this story and fall short of meeting the information needs of key stakeholder groups.

Encouragingly, their responses reveal that Integrated Reporting has the potential to improve the communication of their companies’ value and can contribute to long term business success.

Here are the key findings:

• 94% of executives feel that it is important to be able to effectively explain value creation through their corporate reporting.
• Only 26% of executives are confident that their current reporting very much meets the information needs of investors and other external stakeholders.
• 92% of executives identified potential benefits of integrating financial and non-financial information.
• 80% agree that Integrated Reporting can help to deliver business success.

 

“Boardroom support is absolutely vital for companies to unlock the value of better reporting,” commented Sallie Pilot, Director of Research & Strategy at Black Sun. “However, recognition of the benefits is only the beginning of the battle. It is now up to executives to seize the opportunity for more meaningful stakeholder engagement and more effective decision-making that lies at the heart of their value creation story”