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MARSHALL, Mich., June 1, 2003.—Sid Cato's monthly (since September 1983) Newsletter on Annual Reports, he says, "monitors the light-hearted, as well as the substantive."
In Issue No. 238, Cato, annual report observer and former corporate officer, said one light-hearted trend he keeps tabs on is growth of the casual look in corporate suites. He said that with the 1998 crop of reports he began monitoring incidence, in their key corporate communiqué, of tie less, or jacketless (or both) corporate chieftains. Only one in nine (11.5%) went that relaxed route, up today to just over one in three—34.6%. (Among them: British American Tobacco, NEC and UPM-Kymmene Oyj.) Cato said his criteria (copyrighted in 1984) encompass extensive financial disclosure, total honesty by a company's chief executive officer, and a book that says "open me, read me—that is, possessing various readability enhancements, beginning with a cover that aggressively solicits readership." |