Sid Cato -- Answers

(Answers for December 1997)

1. CEOs are more honest in their annual reports now than in the past. True or false?
Answer: True, sort of. Among 1993 reports, a low 85 of 100 corporate chieftains were perceived as upfront about bad news. The figure among '96 reports stands at 89%. Meaning, though, that more than one in 10 CEOs still feels the need to obfuscate.

2. Strangely enough, health-maintenance organizations have the world's best reports. True or false?
Answer: False. Best HMO report is by Apria Healthcare. Though its CEO was commendably forthright, the document scored but 65 points of a potential 135, and its positive rating was but 22.2%, less than half the minimum expected of publicly held companies, here and abroad.

3. The question-and-answer format is gaining a toehold. True or false?
Answer: True, sort of. Among '95 reports, Colgate-Palmolive utilized a Q&A format, which makes for ease of readership. Already among three early-arriving annuals for 1997—those of Japan's NEC, Mitsubishi and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines—the Q&A format has supplanted what well might have been a boring letter.

4. You said Owens Corning's CEO was pictured in his company's report "holding a Botswana baby, digging a ditch for Habitat for Humanity and hanging out with some boys in the 'hood." Surely you weren't serious! True or false?
Answer: True, except that what we saw as some toughs in a graffiti-laden underpass actually were described by the company as "potential customers." The baby-holding and ditch-digging—those actually were pictured.

5. Annuals aren't worth the time and money spent to produce them. True or false?
Answer: True, pretty much. While two-thirds more 1996 reports were adjudged as "reflecting well" on the company whose name's on the cover, that's still only 3.6%—fewer than four of a hundred worth the time and dough invested.

6. Speaking of dough: A guy in San Francisco says the average cost to produce a report is $6.50. Can that be true?
Answer: Nope. Another example of someone shooting off his mouth—to a reporter who ought to question where, and how, the subject comes up with such a figure. Had he asked us, we'd have told the reporter our 12th annual Producer Poll indicates the per-copy investment less than half that—$3.11 a copy.

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	1.	CEOs are more honest in their annual reports now than in the past. True or false? *Answer:* True, sort of. Among 1993 reports, a low 85 of 100 corporate chieftains were perceived as upfront about bad news. The figure among '96 reports stands at 89%. Meaning, though, that more than one in 10 CEOs still feels the need to obfuscate.
	2.	Strangely enough, health-maintenance organizations have the world's best reports. True or false? *Answer:* False. Best HMO report is by Apria Healthcare. Though its CEO was commendably forthright, the document scored but 65 points of a potential 135, and its positive rating was but 22.2%, less than half the minimum expected of publicly held companies, here and abroad.
	3.	The question-and-answer format is gaining a toehold. True or false? *Answer:* True, sort of. Among '95 reports, Colgate-Palmolive utilized a Q&A format, which makes for ease of readership. Already among three early-arriving annuals for 1997—those of Japan's NEC, Mitsubishi and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines—the Q&A format has supplanted what well might have been a boring letter.
	4.	You said Owens Corning's CEO was pictured in his company's report "holding a Botswana baby, digging a ditch for Habitat for Humanity and hanging out with some boys in the 'hood." Surely you weren't serious! True or false? *Answer:* True, except that what we saw as some toughs in a graffiti-laden underpass actually were described by the company as "potential customers." The baby-holding and ditch-digging—those actually were pictured.
	5.	Annuals aren't worth the time and money spent to produce them. True or false? *Answer:* True, pretty much. While two-thirds more 1996 reports were adjudged as "reflecting well" on the company whose name's on the cover, that's still only 3.6%—fewer than four of a hundred worth the time and dough invested.
	6.	Speaking of dough: A guy in San Francisco says the average cost to produce a report is $6.50. Can that be true? *Answer:* Nope. Another example of someone shooting off his mouth—to a reporter who ought to question where, and how, the subject comes up with such a figure. Had he asked us, we'd have told the reporter our 12th annual Producer Poll indicates the per-copy investment less than half that—$3.11 a copy.

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