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MARSHALL, Mich., Sept. 1, 2002.—As he begins the 20th year of publishing his
monthly Newsletter on Annual Reports, Editor Sid Cato doesn't see a lot of positives
concerning what he calls "the key corporate communiqué."
Two Pg. 1 subheads tell the story:
"Can a truly good chief executive produce an awful annual report?" Cato concedes that "Maybe it's unfair, but my contention is that good CEOs and stellar annual reports go hand in hand." And, since Cato said honesty among CEOs is at its lowest level in the 13 years (since 1988 reports) he has monitored this element, "not surprisingly, this perhaps was one of the worst crop of annuals in memory." He found only 80.7% of 2001 reports "sufficiently forthright—by my standards, that is." |