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MARSHALL, Mich., Nov. 28, 2003.—Annual reports to shareholders aren't
terribly commendable, according to the man who monitors the unique species—"in
fact," he said, "one might say this year's tended to be downright depressing."
This was Sid Cato's 20th year of monitoring the key corporate communiqué, utilizing computer programs he conceived two decades ago, and directed creation of. The author, former corporate officer and full-time tracker of annual report trends worldwide, headlined, on Pg. 1 of the December 2003 issue of his Newsletter on Annual Reports (which he began in September 1983): "Who, me depressed?" "All is not lost seems to be the message from veteran annual report producers, as well as at least one working journalist"—that was his lead. A month ago, he detailed "the low ebb of not only the key corporate communiqué, but of my assessment of the current crop, and the industry's future." One former corporate officer, who didn't request anonymity, but whose identity Cato didn't disclose, said "The greed of so many corporate executives is sad; who trusts business? I don't, and I spent...my entire career in the corporate world." Cato evaluates annuals against standards he promulgated in 1983 (and copyrighted a year later)—15 criteria concerning what makes a good report. He also rates reports against three dozen indicators of their positive or negative nature—the Cato Positive Index. He said the 2002 crop averaged a positive 9.9% CPI, if off from 14.3% five years earlier—among 1997 reports worldwide. |