Trust me, I’m listed.
Trust me, I’m listed.
 

Trust me, I’m listed.

Why the annual report matters, and how to do it well

By Claire Bodanis
With a foreword by Sir Donald Brydon

“A masterclass for everyone involved, including the Chair.”

- Dr Gerry Murphy, Chair, Burberry and Tesco

Are you familiar with the origins of the annual report and why today’s regulatory framework exists? Are you clear what the report should cover? Is your last report as useful or engaging as it could be?

Trust me, I’m listed is the essential guide to corporate reporting, and a must-read for any company secretary, and any corporate reporter.

The October 2021 edition includes updates on the ESG reporting landscape, and the future of digital reporting.

 
 
Testimonials

“Far too many companies today use the demands of compliance as an excuse to publish unreadable annual reports, in which the true picture of risk and performance that investors and stakeholders need to see is buried in a swamp of cliché and jargon. Claire Bodanis has written an entertaining handbook on corporate reporting which offers golden rules of structure, clarity and brevity for writers of all kinds.”

- Martin Vander Weyer, Business Editor, The Spectator

“I wish annual reports were as well written as this book”

- Sir John Kay, author, the Kay Review

“Treating the annual report just as a chore, a mandatory review of the past is wasteful. It can and should also be the Company’s manifesto for the future. This book is a masterclass for everyone involved, including the Chair.”

- Dr. Gerry Murphy, Chairman, Tate & Lyle and Burberry

 
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About the book

Done well, the annual report is the vital calling card of any listed company. If it’s too long, too boring, too obviously someone’s thankless task, nobody will read it and it’ll be nothing more than a tick in the legal box. So how to do it well? How should it be put together and what should it say? What are the tips, tricks and secrets of producing what is often the first port of call for investors, and increasingly, other stakeholders?

In this comprehensive book, reporting and communications expert Claire Bodanis has brought together a team of specialists to produce a detailed how-to guide for this most difficult of corporate documents.

Taking the principle of ‘if you understand why you’re doing something you’ll do it better’, Trust me, I’m listed reveals the hows, whys and wherefores of corporate reporting, from the secret of how to tell a great (and true) story, to how to work well with your agency and senior stakeholders to meet the deadlines. This book is a must-read for any company secretary and any corporate reporter.

 
 

Blog #trustmeimlisted

 
 

Webinars: practical perspectives on reporting

A series of webinars on themes from the book

On the first Thursday of each quarter, 12.30-1.15pm, Claire hosts a lively discussion and Q&A on themes from the book with a different reporting stakeholder. We’re hearing from knowledgeable and interesting people from across the reporting spectrum – Board directors, company secretaries, auditors, lawyers, investors – and more. Sign up and join the debate!

 
 

Training

The Falcon Windsor team is developing a series of courses based on Trust me, I’m listed to help reporting practitioners produce much better corporate reports, with much less hassle, while saving money!

 
 

About the author and contributors

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Claire Bodanis

Claire is one of the UK’s leading authorities on corporate reporting, and the founder and director of Falcon Windsor, a specialist corporate communications and reporting agency.

Claire came to corporate reporting by way of four years at Cambridge, editing mediaeval texts and honing a love of language and a knack for translating incomprehensible jargon into modern, clear English – the perfect foundation for helping UK plc communicate well with words.

Having spent time at two of London’s largest corporate reporting agencies, Claire founded Falcon Windsor in 2004 and now works with some of the UK’s best known companies to deliver thoughtful, creatively excellent and meticulously accurate corporate communications.

Claire is the co-author of three books with The Dark Angels Collective – the world’s first collective novel, Keeping Mum, published in 2014; Established – Lessons from the World’s Oldest Companies, published in 2018; and On Writing, to which she contributed a chapter on corporate reporting, published in 2019. She is an Associate Partner of Dark Angels, a global network of trainers and writers whose philosophy is that business writing should be more human.

 

 
 

More information

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Falcon Windsor is a team of corporate communications and reporting experts with an abiding belief in the importance of good corporate reporting to the functioning of business and society. Set up by Claire in 2004, we have grown into a team of critical thinkers, strategic planners, writers, designers, and production and project managers. Between us we have delivered hundreds of reports, and thousands of other corporate communications projects. What brings us together, though, is another thing we share – a commitment to delivering thoughtful, creatively excellent and meticulously accurate corporate communications.

falconwindsor.com

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The Chartered Governance Institute is the qualifying and membership body for governance professionals. We provide professional development, guidance and thought leadership for individuals and their employers, and work with regulators and policy makers to champion high standards of governance across all sectors.

Our mission is to champion good governance and develop the value, skills and effectiveness of company secretaries and governance professionals.

cgi.org.uk