Arvind Agrawal was interviewed by the team of Marwar India.
This is an excerpt from the article published in Marwar Debates | March-April 2013 edition
“Entrepreneurship is an attribute, and need not always be applied to ventures that one owns I don’t think that Marwaris are driven only by the pursuit of owning or managing an existing business. In fact, they are doing excellently as professionals! Just look around and you will see many Marwaris who are top-notch CFOs. As chartered accountants and lawyers, Marwaris are making their mark also.
They are bringing in their ability to think out of the box and be entrepreneurial in domains that need them. If one may generalise, two characteristics that stand out for Marwaris are flexibility and foresight. They are always ready to adapt to new situations if they foresee an opportunity. They are excellent thinkers, adept at execution and are known to be savvy with numbers and financial engineering. Whether or not they own the company, they bring these traits to the table. That’s what makes them so unique.
If you look at banks, financial institutions and private equity firms, you will find a lot of young Marwaris working with passion and perseverance and doing extremely well. In fact, the new generation Marwari is experimenting with significantly non-traditional professions as well. I have worked in two other companies before setting up my own business, but even in this situation, my role as the CEO is distinct from my shareholding in the company. Today’s educated and liberal Marwaris take as much pride in creating value for an organisation and getting recognised for that, as perhaps starting their own business.”
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This article first appeared in Entrepreneur Magazine | Intelligent Entrepreneur | May 2014 edition
AICL is ensuring that there is just the right kind of communication coming through
India's companies.
Hailing from a traditional Marwari family in Kolkata, I knew that I had to learn number crunching early and quickly, too. I started out at the age of 15 by helping with the accounts in the family business. While I was in school, I was interested in participating in extracurricular activities like debates, and would also contribute to the school magazine. My passion for writing later resulted in a job, that of writing for The Statesman, the local newspaper in Kolkata. After completing my Bachelors in Commerce in 2002, I decided to be a chartered accountant. In the meantime, I worked for an audit and finance team of a steel fabrication company in Kolkata, that same year.
This article first appeared in The Economic Times | 5 September 2011 | Written by Rajiv Singh
You could try television commercials or social but there's another vehicle—a well-targeted one at that—to send your message across to potential consumers. Hint: it's sent out once a year, it's packed with numbers and information - and it's sent out to company's shareholders. Yes, it's the often mind-numbing annual report that managements send out to inform, impress, and often comfort, people who own their shares. But such yearly accounts of profit & loss do not have to be humdrum affairs.
Of late, a clutch of companies has figured out that annual reports can serve two vital purposes beyond the core ones: project an image that is in sync with the brands they market and services they provide; and, two, connect with an increasingly young audience in a language they understand. Baar baar dekho...haazar baar dekho, Yahan ke hum Sikandar, Sar jo tera chakraaye...these songs could be a compilation of some of your all-time favourite hits. Perhaps. Yet, these are also some of the famous Bollywood chartbusters that Emami has used in its latest annual report! Its grt 2b 25, V r 25 too :-). That's the language of a texting, tweeting Gen-Y that Kotak Mahindra Bank has used in its latest annual report.
Bright colours, appealing illustrations, attractive graphics, innovative designs, and whacky ideas—India Inc is leaving scripting a new chapter in communicating with its shareholders. Abraham Koshy, professor of marketing at IIM Ahmedabad, says companies are now using annual reports for reasserting their brand's value in the minds of the shareholders. "When Emami uses songs and Bollywood in its report, it's talking to the investors in their language. It's communicating to them that it's a young brand," says Koshy. Annual reports give companies with old-world businesses a chance to create a contemporary landscape. Shriram Transport Finance, India's largest trucks financier, has used the theme of social networking in its latest annual report to drive the home the connect between communication in the real world and amongst people. By using innovative graphics, bright colors, talking and thought bubbles, the company has used social networking icons - Facebook's 'Like' icon, emoticons on fingertips, human icons connected with each other - to position itself as a youth-focused organisation. Managements have also realised that nostalgia has a great pull effect. So, if Emami used classic film tracks, Kotak Mahindra has - along with sms lingo - added some rare old pictures of its board members when they were 25 years old. The report highlights how a company communicates when it feels 'young at 25'—a theme that it used to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
REPORTS AS LOVE LETTERS
Shankar Jaganathan, economic historian and author of the book Corporate Disclosures 1553-2007, says an annual report can be a love letter written to the investors. "Whilst many view it as chore - like a travelling salesman filling up a travel statement - there are reports in which the joy of communication is visible," points out Jaganathan. Emami, for sure, doesn't belong to the travelling salesman group. The cover page of its annual report proclaims in the big, bright and bold font—Munni Badnaam Hui Darling Tere Liye. And this is just the beginning. Apart from the use of lively colours, informative snippets and catchy infographics, their latest annual report is interspersed with first line of some popular songs to go with the respective subheads. N H Bhansali, CFO, Emami, says: "An annual report has to be seen from an investor's perspective. It's a marketing tool to connect with them." Karthi Marshan, Executive VP & Head (Group Marketing), Kotak Mahindra Bank, points out that the annual report of any company is first and foremost a vital brand document that has both emotional and rational arguments about the brand. "Behind every analyst's eagle eye is a human being who responds to emotional stimuli," says Marshan. "Hence, we choose to treat them exactly like we do our consumers, and provide content, information and brand stimuli in every way possible. "Kotak's report bagged the Gold award for being the most creative report in Asia Pacific, and the Platinum award for being the best report in the banking category at the League of American Communications Professionals Vision Awards 2010. This is the largest annual report awards programme with over 5,000 companies applying from 25 countries.
Arvind Agrawal, CEO of corporate reporting consultancy Atherstone Investor Communications says annual reports must look and read attractive so as to evince interest. HUL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Monsanto are among Agrawal's clients.
However, companies should not go overboard in their attempt to look different.
"Sometimes whackiness isn't the best solution. The annual report is, at the end of the day, a serious legal document accessed by all around the world. So, the communication should be universal, and one must avoid flippancy in visual rendition and textual tone," says Agrawal.
This article first appeared in Kyoorius Magazine
When John Sculley quit Apple in 1993, he held on to one share to ensure he would receive the annual report every year. Warren Buffett's letter in the Annual Report of Berkshire Hathaway is a much-awaited phenomenon. A relatively lesser known company Marquard and Bahls AG (my personal favourite), invests significantly in commissioning artists for their annual report illustrations every year.
One could carry on for at least the next financial year to list out some of the best and most well done annual reports across the globe. In essence, however, the attempt is to highlight the large role that the annual report plays as part of any listed entity's communication strategy. In India, however, the annual report has been historically seen as a regulatory menace, done more to remain on the right side of the law and less to impress stakeholders or create an all encompassing corporate credentials document. This philosophy applies not just to the annual report, but also to other interim communication directed at communicating financial performance.
The reason I am writing this here, is that the field of corporate reporting represents a significant design challenge and a potentially gargantuan opportunity. The logic is simply this, all companies are desirous of achieving their optimal valuation on the capital markets, to improve their access to funds and deliver consistently high returns to shareholders. Corporate reporting is, therefore, the most important first party communication that informs shareholders and the market opinion makers of the performance, strategy
and outlook.
So why hasn't it happened yet?
To be honest, there are already almost eight consultants in India who deliver corporate reporting solutions as a dominant service offering. Their coverage, however, doesn't extend beyond 200 companies at best. When you consider that there are more than 8,000 corporates listed, one gets a sense of the magnitude of the gap. The reasons are broadly three.
Firstly, the annual report's brand building potential isn't recognized by companies themselves, though that perception is rapidly changing. Therefore, the report is typically the baby of the secretarial department, or at best, the CFO's office, and not the communications team within the company. As a result, it doesn't get the kind of focus or the attention that it deserves from a design and creativity standpoint.
Secondly, it is an expensive proposition for those with a large shareholder base -say, in excess of 10,000. Because, corporate structures are complex, and a lot of companies have subsidiaries, the number of financial pages tends to be too many. Add to this the other statutory disclosures, and what you get is a bulky document. Companies fear that if more design, creativity and communication are added, then the costs increase on all fronts - design, paper, printing and dispatch. They would rather pay a little extra dividend to ensure a better return to shareholders.
Third, designers themselves haven't pursued the opportunity too seriously. More often than not, in larger companies it is the Agency on Record, invariably an ad agency, which is asked to create a few 'corporate-pages', almost as a necessary chore. In the smaller ones, it's the neighbourhood printer who does the honours, sometimes with the added garnishing of 'free-design'. Then again, designers feel that the volume of information to be handled isn't commensurate with the possible fee, and, therefore, this is a territory best avoided.
In my view, though these arguments have merits, these merits are limited. If the corporate reporting business wasn't so lucrative, there wouldn't be over 200 consultants in the UK (and I can list them all), servicing half the number of companies that we have here. A good annual report doesn't have to be an expensive annual report. Just as the BEST form of advertising is often not the 45-second spot on prime time national TV. There are ways of managing costs, so that the entire annual report project doesn't become unviable. To draw a comparison, the entire incremental cost of a good annual report, wouldn't even be as much as a quarter page advertisement in India's leading financial daily. Third, the sheer volumes and penetration potential that a corporate report has, sometimes undermined by design agencies.
The annual report is a critical weapon in any corporate communications armoury. For one, it is the only document that captures the entire corporate identity at one place. For another, it contains pretty much all the information that a company might want to publish in the public domain in relation to self. And lastly, it is compulsorily updated at the end of each business year. The opportunity of specialised sign consultants helping companies to deliver their message more effectively to all stakeholders is therefore, obvious.
It is important to remember, that corporate reporting is a communication opportunity, as opposed to a pure play design one. Therefore, agencies have to have sufficient bandwidth to ensure editorial intervention, backed by a solid understanding of investor aspirations and industry knowledge. This, when supplemented with design and typography can have an impact that goes a long way in preserving top-of-the-mind shareholder and investor recall. I remember the Chairman of one of our client banks once telling me that a large private equity investor called him up and requested for a meeting, only because he found the annual report fascinating. Therefore, to address this veritable goldmine, agencies must fortify themselves with the requisite skills.
The scope for value addition in an annual report is quite akin to a rebranding assignment – where the entire historical practices can be turned on their head, while retaining the essence of the client's basic corporate ethos and philosophy. Therefore, right from a distinct narrative and photographic language, involvement of the agency might lie in selecting a theme, creating visual differentiation, ensuring a cohesive structure and even supervising the ultimate execution.
The annual report today is a paper tiger. And, quite aptly, an endangered species in the ecosystem of corporate reporting. Globally, it is making the digital transition. Improving broadband speeds, increasing computer literacy and a greater internet penetration will ensure that shareholders in India are comfortable with accessing the report online.
At the same time, the unbridled use of virgin paper is likely to come under the scanner, with some companies having to print reports in excess of a few hundred thousand. Add to that the cost of logistics and dispatch, and what you get is an unavoidable shift of legislation towards not making the posting of an annual report mandatory. Instead, the annual report will be more visible online. My own prediction is that it is five years away, but happen it will. Companies listed on FTSE and NASDAQ already benefit hugely from this option, and it allows greater quality and design focus on the annual report, both in the print and online versions, because of far lower conversion and dissemination costs. Therefore, those with a strong online publishing backbone can look forward to a windfall when this inflexion point arrives.
Like most products and services, design too is at the cusp of a consumption explosion. Nowhere will this be more visible than in the field of corporate self-expression. Corporate reporting will be at the forefront of this revolution, and therefore, design firms in India will do well to adopt this as a possible business avenue.
It is about time that the curriculum in our design schools began focusing on editorial design practices, information graphics, characteristics and requirements of Indian companies and an overall conditioning of the young designer's mind towards text-heavy publications, such as annual reports.
The Indian capital markets are the darling of the global fund managers. Valuations are skyrocketing to unheard of levels. More and more companies are taking the IPO route to capital raising. As a proxy of the growth in size and stature of the Indian economy, our design industry needs to benefit more directly from this phenomenon. And the perfect vehicle to ensure that benefit is, quite frankly, a no-brainer!
This article first appeared in Mint | 7 August 2012 | Written by Gayatri Jayaraman
In 2010, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd picked a ballerina “Surpassing Self” to represent its year. In 2011, it was “Techno logical”. In 2012, it chose love. “Every company has a story that is told through its annual report. The story need not be a sad one. It can be a positive, confidence-building story. It is a continuity in telling the tale, the ‘how we will move forward’, that we owe our investors,” says Vivek Kumar, deputy manager, investor relations,
Maruti Suzuki.
This year, the annual report of the Austrian Solar Trade Association won the Design Grand Prix in Cannes for its use of photochromic ink, visible only in sunlight. The idea that the annual report fundamentally needs to draw eyeballs, be read, and must speak directly to a new demographic of investor, is taking root in India too.
It is why Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd incorporates SMS language in the “Contnts” of “Its grt 2b 25” report of 2010-11 and includes images and coming of age stories of its board of directors when each was 25. The 2011-2012 report, more sober, is equally graphic. Karthi Marshan, executive vice-president and head, group marketing for Kotak Mahindra Bank, says the report tied into the ad campaign. “We were not shooting for cool, but it came along with young, as a bonus,” he says. “The annual report is a living brand document. We are investing in the future investor.”
McLeod Russel India Ltd, the largest tea company plantation in the world, drafted a premium report for the first time this year. Hindusthan National Glass and Industries Ltd (HNGIL) report forms die-cut butterfly wings, cocooning its financial statements. The Dainik Jagran group’s colour and numeric-coded report have received honourable mentions.
Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd’s report reads as a photo essay on the embroiderers and handicraft workers of the state.
Soy inks, brown paper, recycled paper, and microsites are hot. Parksons Graphics, an award-winning printer, is currently designing a 3D report for an energy company. At the ongoing PrintWeek India 2012 awards, entries range from leather bound books to eco-friendly brown paper reports. Indian energy and mining companies, such as Cairn India Ltd and Sesa Goa Ltd, conscious of their public image, have swept recent international design awards.
There are two key reasons for the evolution: the downturn, and foreign direct investment. It’s reflective of an industry in a state of upgrade. Infosys Ltd was one of the first to break the format back in 1993 when it was listed. Till then, V. Balakrishnan, CFO, Infosys, explains, the annual report was purely what was required by law. Time lags meant the report lost its importance by the time it reached an investor. “We wanted to change that,” he says.
Infosys began printing the balance sheet based on the accounting rules of six countries and the US and has since evolved to focus on a theme every year and progressively enhanced disclosures.
"Investors require the same set of global standards to be applicable to Indian companies. Corporates also try to benchmark against the best in the world. The global listings by companies have accelerated this process,” said Balakrishnan. “Global investors today do not distinguish between an Indian company and a US company. So companies which are better run and able to articulate it well through corporate statements like the annual report will be able to attract the global investors. It is clearly a reflection of the country and the companies in India coming of age.”
Balakrishnan is an advocate of the interactive online format and trends such as XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) that appeal to a tech-savvy audience and sends out only an abridged annual report
to investors.
Tata Motors Ltd reports before and after the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover are a case study of sorts. H.K. Sethna, company secretary, Tata Motors, says: “It’s not so much since the acquisition of Jaguar as since Tata Motors was listed at the New York Stock Exchange in September 2004. As the company started gaining acquisitions, we began printing two types of annual reports—one with a US listing, which is a consolidated report with GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles). The Indian report carries company information on a stand-alone basis.” There are no gimmicks, says Sethna. Even so, evolution is necessary. He adds: “What is key is functionality and friendliness, keeping MCA (ministry of corporate affairs) guidelines in mind. However, one wishes the investor would actually read micro details.”
Value investors such as Chetan Parikh read all manner of reports. He insists it’s important for companies to put out a penetrating strategy discussion, to ensure there are no typos, and not distort information with gloss.
“Some companies do a great job balancing gloss with information. But a Tata Global Beverages or a Nestle put out simple, clear information. Simplicity can be designed well too. I see the rise of gloss as a bandwagon effect or more outsourcing of the task, and pricing issues,” he says.
So, why should design matter as much as solid, functional figures?
K.V. Sridhar, national creative director of Leo Burnett India, explains: “You can call yourself all manner of a progressive company, but if the document that stands for you doesn’t spell progressive, your claims fall flat.”
It also distinguishes companies that claim the façade of a young image without imbibing it. Rajeev Ravindranathan, director of People Design and Communications India Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore, says: “It’s a fundamental fracture in a company’s philosophy of communication if a firm that spends crores on an ad campaign doesn’t treat the most important document it can put out, with respect.”
What a company won’t spend on its annual report, is as telling as what it will.
“Today companies are driven by their stories,” says Abhishek Kejriwal, director of Parksons Graphics, who designed and printed 86 annual reports in 2011, and has hit 100 in 2012 already. The industry is booming, he says. A figure is not always sufficient to tell the entire story.
What impedes design? New accounting standards, increasing mandatory pages and the number of shareholders. “Performance, life-cycle, management style and industry play a role,” says Arvind Agrawal, CEO of Atherstone Investor Communications Ltd, South Asia’s largest specialist annual report design firm. “Media (industry) is OK to be a little over the top but steel is not. We don’t think that such stereotypical boundaries should exist in the minds of companies, but they do. That impacts design,” he says.
Budgets in the West are larger for annual reports, and print runs smaller—in the 2,000-4,000 range. Reliance Industries Ltd printed three million copies of the annual report for its annual general meeting (AGM) this year. Only 250 companies currently opt for stylized reports out of 7,000 listed companies in India, says Agarwal.
The world over, annual report design is an exciting space. In 2007, the Netherlands-based design firm Fitzroy designed a report for IMC, an international derivative trading house, using green and red filters to demarcate increases and declines across 24 pages marking the 24 hours of a trading day. Only IMC’s trading fields remain visible through the filter. Bruketa and Zinic, a Croatian design firm, designed food company Podravka a report that had to be oven baked to be read. Each gimmick is a deliberate extension of a company’s core identity.
An older design Sridhar hands out as an example is by Orbit Corp. Ltd in 2008-09. The jacket is a bright red, to represent the downturn. “Yes, the going got tough,” it reads. The report itself is a vibrant green. “…We are confident the red will give way to green,” it says. A reader must pull the green out of the red, to read. Symbolism works just as well as high-end effects.
Mudar Patherya, Chief Positioning Officer of award-winning Kolkata-based boutique design firm Trisys Communications, says: “Overseas, innovation cuts clutter. In India, the need to communicate needs to be established. Our companies have to see themselves as worthy of a statement of an annual report.”
Because the bottom line is not just a figure, but a sense of self-worth.
Our winning streak at the LACP Awards continued this year too.
The awards organized by the League of American Communication Professionals (LACP), USA are the world’s largest annual report awards programme and attract entries from companies worldwide.
The LACP Awards are given to companies who score the highest across multiple parameters that include first impression, report cover, message clarity, letter to shareholders, information accessibility, narrative, financials presentation and creativity. The cumulative score across categories decides the overall top 50, whereas the individual industry scores determine the top four across every industry sector. AICL’s reports scored high on every count, given the impetus placed on colour coding, information accessibility through navigational aids, bespoke report structures based on client needs and messaging strategy, as well as highly innovative printing applications and selection of sustainable paper stock.
We won 4 Platinum, 4 Gold and 1 Silver in the 2015/16 Vision Awards.
Our reporting work with Piramal Enterprises Limited won a Gold at the 2016 Vision Awards.
These awards are a validation of the increasing awareness of Indian companies towards creating globally benchmarked corporate reporting collateral. We are fortunate that our clients give us the flexibility and freedom to suggest solutions for them that are in line with the prevalent best practices, to ensure corporate self-expression is achieved effectively with important stakeholder groups.
The fact that many Fortune 500 Companies are among the winning entries is indicative of the quality we strive to achieve through our work.
We are glad to be in such esteemed company.
This interview first appeared in YourStory.com | 5 May 2010
Arvind Agrawal, Founder and CEO of AICL has worked for over six years with more than 120 companies to give shape to and execute their communication strategies. A Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary, he has moved from being an amateur journalist with one of India’s oldest English dailies to CFO with a steel fabrication company, into this field.
He is the runner-up of the British Council Young Communications Entrepreneur Award 2009.
He was conferred the Promising Business Communicator of the Year by the Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI) at the recently held 49th ABCI Annual Awards in Mumbai. The award was presented to him by his Excellency Governor of Maharashtra Shri K. Sankaranarayanan and Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Subir Gokarn. ABCI is India’s premier body of communication professionals from amongst the largest companies in India and is in existence since 1956.
He marries an understanding of mass communications on the one hand and the dynamics of various businesses, on the other. Today, he is one of India’s most experienced campaigners and strategists in investor communications. At AICL, he wears many hats – chief strategist, principal copywriter, paper selector, proofreader and itinerant communication evangelist.
Arvind regularly speaks at industry forums on the relevance of Investor Communication and enjoys interacting with B-School students on entrepreneurship and its charms and pitfalls.
How would you define corporate communication?
Simple. Anything that helps establish an emotive connect between the entity communicating and the target stakeholder group. It is NOT to be defined with reference to any particular medium. The medium is incidental. The message is key. And the connect a critical determinant of efficacy.
What does AICL do?
Atherstone Investor Communications Limited (AICL) is a full-service communications consultancy working closely with organisations to communicate with diverse stakeholder groups. AICL is a leading provider of consultancy services to Indian corporates for reporting communication products such as Annual Reports and Interim Reporting solutions. In line with its focus, AICL deploys domain knowledge, financial expertise, investment insights and communication skills. AICL is one among very few consultancies to offer this value proposition in India.
AICL has expanded its product suite to encompass stakeholders other than investors and prospective investors. Therefore, AICL is also setting up an internal and sustainability communication practice. We also have a practice that addresses the segment of corporate-biographies. AICL delivers solutions over a diverse array of media – print, interactive, web and audio-visual, to help clients sustain goodwill and stakeholder loyalty. Having said that, almost 80 percent of our revenue today comes from Corporate Reporting solutions such as
Annual Reports.
AICL has a 25-member team working out of two locations, Mumbai and Kolkata for more than 70 clients in diverse industries across India.
What differentiates AICL? What makes your company unique?
We are one of India’s ONLY companies in the realm of corporate self-expression. What this means is that we help companies sell themselves as opposed to advertising which helps to sell products/services. The other critical differentiator is our focus on high-quality content, delivered through a combination of finance professionals and editorial expertise. I believe that the focus of communication will increasingly be the quality of the message rather than the package in which it is presented. We also have a strong focus on helping the medium and small sized Indian corporates reach out to a broad spectrum of stakeholders, investors in particular, in a manner that did not pinch their pockets too much and yet delivered a world-class solution. Our principal objective is, therefore, to ensure that Indian companies stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their global peers in not just HOW they do business, but also in the way that they speak about it. Our work also contributes to ensuring that the valuation rationale of our clients gets communicated to the right audiences, and thereby it directly helps in the creation of shareholder wealth.
What is your client profile like? Who are your principal clients?
We have served large companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Reliance ADAG, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank and Jammu & Kashmir Bank to name a few. Our portfolio of clients in the mid-cap space is significant. These include Shriram Transport, Simplex Infrastructure, J.K. Cement, Zee TV, HSIL, CRISIL, Motilal Oswal, UTV, Balaji Telefilms, Indiabulls and many others. Among emerging companies, we serve the VISA Group, Tilaknagar Industries, Vinati Organics, Sunil Hitech and Shri Ashtavinayak among others. Essentially our client portfolio is spread across a good mix of listed and unlisted, small and large, in a wide variety of sectors. We serve clients from Kashmir to Chennai, and from Jaipur to Kolkata. We also have a few international clients from places such as Indonesia and Zambia!
Are companies realising the importance of communications?
Yes, we see a paradigm change and companies are realising that “talking” to the investors and other stakeholders are very important, more so because the overall awareness of these communities is progressively increasing. It is important for corporate voice to be heard and differentiated, proactive communication is therefore not a luxury, but an imperative. I am pleasantly surprised at some of the enquiries we receive from relatively unknown companies, expressing a desire to be noticed and counted through communication at the organisational level. However, there is still a significant room for more and more companies to access communication services and we are working on expanding the scope of our nascent industry. I also feel that over time, the Government will be a large customer as they need to communicate at an enterprise level with many stakeholders.
How do you see communications emerging as a career stream?
If you look at the numbers, they are mindboggling. We have approximately 8000 listed or to be listed companies in India – that’s TWICE the number of companies on the FTSE. Not more than five percent of these companies are presently accessing any communication or advertising services. It is a HIGHLY underpenetrated sector and more and more companies are today instituting corporate communications as a full-time function. Therefore, lucrative opportunities lie on BOTH sides of the table. However, there is a dearth of both awareness and formal education on the subject. I feel we need a specialised communication strategy stream to be introduced in curriculum across many colleges and B-schools as it is an important career stream of the future.
How was your experience taking part in YCE and being chosen as the Young Communications Entrepreneur Runner Up in 2009?
Honestly, I did not know about YCE until a friend suggested a nomination. Filling up the nomination questionnaire was an insightful exercise because I was addressing important issues that helped me think more clearly about our business model and crystallise our value proposition. The positive feedback from the judges and the award itself served as an additional validation of our vision and its relevance in the Indian context. This was a confidence booster.
The visit to the UK was an eye opener because of the highly organised nature of this industry there. I met with quite a few peers and also senior consultants who had been in the business for more than two decades. It afforded me an interesting take on strategy, and how we could further sharpen our offerings and consequently, client relevance.
I have also been to the Netherlands on an invitation from the Dutch Design Organisation, as part of a delegation hosted by the Dutch government, with a view to foster a communication partnership between the two countries. I got a chance to meet, interact and share thoughts with studios across design disciplines. Among other things, I realised the number of awards that existed and how they added important feathers in any
studio’s cap.
In India, we have a fairly well-oiled machinery to acknowledge advertising excellence but few, almost none that recognise communications as a discipline. Notwithstanding that, I am quite thrilled at the number of awards we and our work have won.
These continue to serve as inspiration for us to continue producing high quality, globally benchmarked work.
An extract of this article first appeared in Impact magazine | Written by Arvind Agrawal
I was a Chartered Accountant, trying to do the cool ‘follow-your-heart’ gig, while a voice in my head kept screaming “dhandha kaise chalega?”
Yes, there are the ‘how-to be-this-and-that-in-5-easy-steps’ books. Yes, there are the expert lectures whose fee can adversely skew your P&L. And then there are other people. People who are the masters. People who are okay to meet you and have a chat. People who say things that you don’t think about much when they say it, but which keep playing on loop in your head as life lessons.
None of what they say is unique. Yet, it is that much more credible because they speak from the experience of really having ‘been there, done that’. That’s what makes the inspiration they provide so uplifting and believable. I’ve found my learning enhanced and enriched through meetings – chance or otherwise – with people whose thinking has helped revive my spirit, each time it threatened to go limp.
Happily sharing a few:
Wally Olins
Acerbic wit. Uncomfortable candour. A six-foot frame. Whether it was a devout audience or a prospective client, he said it like it was. One wondered if that was right, even though he was the world’s branding big daddy. When I finally asked him this, he said, “If you are really really good at what you do, no one will ever call you arrogant.” The next day, he threatened to walk out of a pitch meeting I had facilitated, when the owner of a multi-billion dollar jewellery firm showed up late.
Wally is now (hopefully) resting in peace, but hop over to @saffronbc to keep in touch with his last venture as co-founder.
Michael Johnson
You know Michael is special the moment you exchange business cards. What announces itself as ‘A Johnson Banks Business Card’ is a neatly folded long piece of paper containing a portable portfolio of his best work. That, however, isn’t the reason Michael is inspiring. Nor is it the fact that he is a rockstar guitarist, who can jam on-demand in front of thousands! Michael is simple. His ideas are simple. And the two make his work unique and timeless. A frame for an art fund. A house shape for an organisation called Shelter. A font shaped like a roller coaster for an amusement park. All executed brilliantly. Get the idea?
Stalk him at @johnsonbanks
Tirso Frances
Tirso is a co-founder of Dietwee - literally ‘we-too’ in Dutch. After nearly missing my train from Amsterdam, and walking a few miles, I finally made it to the gates of his quaint studio in Utrecht, Netherlands to seek inspiration. He literally showed me his thought process (a learning in itself), and as we were saying goodbyes, told me, “Be careful what you wish for, because it often comes true. And be very careful of what you choose to do, because you end up doing more of it!”
Learn some Dutch and check out what Tirso and his crew are doing more of at www.dietwee.nl.
Michael Wolff
Michael Wolff is one of his kind. Grandfatherly in approach, profound in his utterances and a pioneer to the hilt. His advice – focus on positioning. It makes all the difference. We interchanged two words in our standard pitch, and it changed the way clients looked at us.
The best part? He makes it all seem as easy as ABC.
Irma Boom
The best book designer in the world – as she is known – Irma is passionate about the old-fashioned way of doing things. Eventually, all creativity is craft, and whether it’s a personal project or a multi-million dollar assignment, you’ve got to put craft into it.
5 minutes of your time. 20 of her books. Here.
Nevile Brody
At a recent meeting, I asked him how things were. His wry response was that they were all right, but a tad tough. “But you are Nevile Brody”, I said. He shot back, “Yeah, but I still got to eat!”
And just like that, he reinvented himself at Brody Associates.
Look these people up. Reach out to them. Or make your own list of people who have told you a wise thing or two, and keep reminding yourself of those. Trust me, it helps.
This article first appeared in Kyoorius Magazine
Annual Reports: Are your numbers really talking?
It’s that time of the year again. When companies put together a comprehensive account of their activities and financial performance of the preceding year in a document that you know as the Annual Report. Conventional wisdom would tell you that Annual Reports are, by definition, boring reams of figures, pie charts, bar graphs and the occasional false corporate bravado put together in an ungainly document.
Not true if you were looking at the work of, say, Bill Cahan or VSA Partners or Addison or Black Sun or Epigram or Samata Mason or any of the other award-winning agencies which have produced category-defining work in this area.
Google Bill Cahan, and you begin to get an idea of the impact that the San Fransisco-based graphic designer had on the industry’s expectation of what an Annual Report could be transformed into.
Among some of the more well-known stories that have become a part of popular lore is the one where Cahan’s firm created a report for Coulter Pharmaceutical featuring a black and white photograph of a woman with the title – “June 22. I was supposed to die today.” Inside the report, were stories about patients who were helped by one of Coulter’s cancer treatment drug. The story goes that the company’s lawyers, worried that the idea was too radical, tried to convince the management to drop it. Cahan reportedly called up the company chief executive late in the night and convinced him to stay with the original idea.
That anecdote aside, Cahan’s firm does not do annual reports anymore. In an email conversation with Kyoorius, Cahan says it’s been four years since his firm worked on one. At their peak, they did 25 to 30 reports in a year.
Explaining why he moved away from the Annual Reports business, Cahan says, “For me, it was a perfect storm for the annual report business — the dot-com implosion, 9/11, Sarbanes Oxley, the driving need for financial transparency and fiscal reform, and of course the emergence of the internet being the primary vehicle for how people garnered information — suddenly printed annual reports had far less relevance. You could go to the company’s investor relations website and get up to the minute information, so printing an expensive annual report didn’t make as much sense for companies to invest in.”
Cahan says it was also a time when clients were nervous to produce anything that wasn’t watered down and adds, “Companies wanted to produce generic work to offset years of hype that got companies into trouble in the first place. I found that uninspiring, as I believed the annual report was still relevant as a strategic document, employee recruitment vehicle and public relations and media piece — but printing one no longer is seen as prudent — that is why we stopped producing them years ago, and moved more deeply into the branding space, as we were doing strategic work with the C suite and this seemed like a natural progression for us.”
Annual Reports: Consistency is key
And that’s why consistency is key. The annual report has to be consistent in its messaging with all the other communication tools that a brand employs. A well-known Annual Report design agency in the U.S. is Curran & Connors and this is what one of its spokespersons had to say, “If one of your goals is to instill confidence in your company within the investment community, one of the best ways to do this is to send a message that is consistent with what you have been saying in your other communications. The confidence in your strategy and message, when repeated in different platforms, will ease the minds of investors and reflect a
well-run company.”
So what does an Annual Report really say about its company? Does it reflect the dynamism, the innovation and the complex forces that come together seamlessly to create a successful business? Or does it mumble apologetically in a thick volume full of unfathomable information? Or worse, whisper incoherently in a barely-legible point size that hopefully, no one will bother to decipher? The Atlanta-based Critt Graham Group’s spokesperson makes a good point when he says that the most important question the Annual Report needs to answer is one of impact.
He adds, “The question your company’s stakeholders ask when presented with a piece of investor communications, whether online or off, is “How does this affect me?”
While approaching a typical brief, what are the basic questions that a design firm needs to ask? Responds Cahan, “Every client has different needs and concerns, of course — but fundamentally, I was always interested in why anyone would care about the company and how that company could make a difference in people’s lives… I often found that the C suite would talk about their company in a way that was too granular and inward focused, and naturally assumed investors to both understand and care about their company —but this was never the case. Why that can be a problem is when a company is performing poorly, you want investors to stick with the company — especially large institutional investors. If they completely understand the strategic imperatives of the company, understand where the company is headed and clearly has a plan on how to execute on that plan — and if that can be conveyed in a compelling way that makes people not only care about the company but truly understand it — that builds loyalty, especially in hard times.”
He adds, “So the kind of questions that I asked were backward-focused, from the viewpoint of the end user — be it the shareholder, consumer, employee, media etc — any touch point the company had I wanted to understand from the end user point of view how they would perceive the company — once I got that information, I tackled it from the other end — wanting to know how management viewed each line of
business etc.”
A long-term investor Vinay Somani, whose family has been involved with many industries and philanthropic activities, says he doesn’t “look at visual aspects for a good report — I look at clarity. I would like to see more data in an Annual Report by which one can understand the company better.”
But that thinking belies the understanding that good design isn’t about pretty looking typefaces and good presentation but about its ability to help investors navigate through the data and help in driving better clarity about a company’s annual performance.
Mudar Patherya, founder of one of India’s dedicated annual report consultancies — Trisys couldn’t agree more, and adds, “The annual report — considering that it is mandatory — is probably the only document that can provide a certain picture of a company’s body language. A badly designed annual report signals a sloppy company; a well-designed report does the reverse. It must be remembered that design does not stand by itself; it needs to complement the roles of research and writing to enhance corporate image.”
Patherya, in fact, dislikes the term ‘annual report design’ and insists that one must refer to the practice as ‘annual report research, writing and design’ as the former does not do justice to the specialised knowledge and skill required in this space. Trisys says they have an ingenious template for annual reports. Patherya explains, “(It) is not a readymade answer to client needs. It is a probable landscape for what a client might need. So we need to pick and choose from the template and customise it to client needs.”
Vinay Somani’s contention is that many annual reports are not clear about what goods or services the company makes/offers. “What are the products, who are the buyers, what are the implications of the company’s products — these should be clearly stated,” he added.
With the financial crisis of three years ago and the ensuing erosion of faith in financial institutions globally, the biggest casualty has been the credibility of corporate balance sheets.
In such a scenario, a spokesperson for Black Sun, one of Europe’s leading specialist corporate reporting consultancies, says good design can help answer the most crucial question required of an Annual Report, which is ‘why would someone want to invest in this organisation?’ He elaborates, “In the wake of the banking crisis, global recession and a raft of corporate scandals that preceded these events, the trust and confidence of investors is more important than ever. The Annual Report is still the only document which provides stakeholders with the full story about what a company stands for, what it is trying to achieve and how it will achieve its goals. The role of good design cannot be underestimated, particularly as poor presentation can make it look as if a company has something to hide. Clear, accessible story-telling will engender faith and confidence in a company and its future.”
Change is in the air
Change is clearly in the air and it’s an indication of where the market is likely to be headed. In today’s digital landscape, companies want to engage with investors and demonstrate a sense of community online. That and regulatory rules that deem it necessary for companies to post such important corporate information on their websites, has created a significant shift of the annual report into the online domain.
P&G launched their 2010 Annual Report online with embedded video content. The videos demonstrated, through personal, household scenes captured from markets as diverse as New Delhi and San Francisco, how P&G had touched their lives. The objective was to narrate the multinational’s purpose-inspired growth strategy to serve more consumers in more parts of the world better. The upside is a credible, human face to
the multinational.
WPP’s 2010 online Annual Report similarly has its wordy Annual Report as a drop-down menu on its website alongside its chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell’s video address elaborating on the company’s performance in the past year.
As Internet penetration increases in India, a possible solution to environmental impact could very well rest on the possibility of Annual Reports going digital in the future.
Giving a western world perspective, a spokesperson for US-based Addison says, “The print annual report is no longer the primary means by which investors research potential investment opportunities. The Internet has changed that permanently. The print report is now one part of a larger investor relations communications program, which should include print, web, mobile applications, and SEO and support systems.”
Black Sun calls this shift to a more digital orientated delivery platform for the Annual Report “somewhat inevitable given the current growth of the internet, social media and online communications.”
And closer home, a spokesperson for local agency Atherstone clarifies that “A recent SEBI order makes it mandatory for all listed companies to maintain an updated corporate website with all relevant investor information, including an annual report. Moreover, the Ministry of Company Affairs has recently issued a circular notifying a ‘green initiative’ that allows companies to send documents to shareholders (including the annual report) as an email attachment. We feel that in about three years, the print volumes of annual reports (presently running into millions for some companies) will come down by approximately 70 percent as a result of such steps. At present, most companies are using a PDF version of the print edition for electronic transmission. Gradually, however, the focus will shift to a more interactive, immersive version. It is important to note that the digitised edition will not be at the cost of the print report. On the contrary, both will complement each other to create a holistic framework of transparency, ease of information accessibility and an ‘anytime-anywhere’ information ecosystem.”
The key change driver is engagement. A spokesperson for U.S based Addison says, “Whether you’re communicating with investors, customers, employees or other key audiences, engaging and motivating them is your goal… A major role of the modern annual report is to convey not only financial information but (also) the intangibles that can add value and foster a positive perception. Design is the best way to convey
these intangibles.”
A good example of engagement between the corporate and its investor is Addison’s report for Neenah Paper in 2009, which also won the highest honour — Best of Show at the International ARC Awards.
Speaking the same language
Using the annual report as an intelligent branding vehicle has long been considered a trend more popular in Europe and the United States, with several prestigious awards shows hosted annually for the best ones. Black Sun consents, “There are undoubtedly regional variances in reporting which have developed as a result of: the legal and regulatory environment, culture, economic development and the nature of the corporate environment within a particular region.”
A look at Annual Reports from around the world sprung up some really exceptional examples from every corner – Germany to Brazil; Croatia to Singapore.
Croatian creative agency Bruketa & Žinić have designed an annual report for food company Podravka that has to be baked in an oven before it can be read. Called Well Done, the report features blank pages printed with thermo-reactive ink that, after being wrapped in foil and cooked for 25 minutes, reveal text and images.
Changing the dialogue
Finally, although warily, Indian corporates are beginning to follow in the footsteps of our western counterparts with a growing awareness for the need to speak beyond the numbers and redefine the dialogue they share with stakeholders through that yearly opportunity called an Annual Report.
With corporates giving more voice nowadays to their Annual Reports, it’s no surprise that over the last decade several specialised agencies have emerged in India. Agencies that, unlike their counterparts in advertising, are dedicated to providing not just design but also research, content and several other specialised services.
Closer home, there are a number of local agencies that have been working in this field for a while now. One of these is Atherstone Investor Communications (AICL), which has worked for clients like — Monsanto, Zee, J&K Bank, Responsive. There is also Trysis, Brand Harvest and Prism Research and Communications to name a few.
The spokesperson for Atherstone asserts that Indian companies are gradually becoming more receptive to the concept of changing their Annual Reports. He adds, “All companies across the size spectrum are looking at refurbishing and modernising their shareholder communication. In larger companies too, the realisation is evident, though the complexity levels are far higher and the number of internal filters far larger. As a consequence, the transition is more gradual, and never radical, evident over a period of time. & It is important to pitch the idea at the right level, and handhold the process through a well-defined
value proposition.”
A spokesperson for Cairn India explains what makes the report so crucial as a form of stakeholder communication, when he says, “A good annual report is a must for contemporary organisations. Especially in sectors like extractive industry including energy like oil and gas, it is a critical communication tool to reach out to various stakeholder groups, a defining document, which is updated every year and provides a holistic outlook on the organisation’s strategy over and above the business update. It is a unique mix of identity and outlook that makes an annual report a powerhouse document. We invest a lot of time in conceptualising and designing the report, making sure that shareholders get a clear picture of the year gone by and also try and bring in a novelty in terms of themes (right balance of present and future outlook) and design. We also make sure that a lot of technical concepts e.g. if we want to explain the working of the Cairn pipeline, we conceptualise simplified graphical representations for the same.”
Annual Reports: Keeping it special
The challenge behind putting together an Annual Report, contrary to belief, goes beyond endless numbers. It is a time-bound document shrouded by legalities that cannot be taken in stride. Moreover, these agencies need to be aware of the corporate world and have a fair understanding of business rather than hide behind a curtain of creativity.
The Atherstone spokesperson compares the difference between annual report design and other design disciplines (e.g. brochures, or other print communications) to “the difference between a cosmetic surgeon and a beautician. An annual report is a complex product, requiring a specialised consulting service. Generic, off-the-shelf, or non-comprehensive solutions do not do justice to the complexity of an annual report or to the multiple layers at which it communicates. Strategy and messaging quality, complemented by finely nuanced content are critical ingredients. Being a statutory product, there are many regulatory aspects that consultancies/ agencies need to be aware of.”
Big budget or big talk?
Even as the Annual Report is evolving in India, continuously altering perceptions about its role, design and content, a common debate revolves around the issue of cost, namely, that a remarkable report is possible only with an extensive budget.
The spokesperson for Black Sun responds, “Many of our clients would argue that in difficult times communication is more important than during boom years and therefore it is one area where they would continue to invest while also ensuring that the service they receive represents value for money without compromising on quality.”
The spokesperson for Addison opines, “Those companies choosing to limit communication budgets will find themselves needing to catch up to those maintaining active programs in coming months.”
Says Atherstone’s spokesperson, “At AICL, we believe that a good annual report is not necessarily an expensive annual report… An annual report should be judged more by the quality of information and efficiency in addressing the aspirations and concerns of shareholders/investors, and less on the use of paper, exotic print effects, and a general misplaced impetus on a higher number of pages. At the same time, the annual report shouldn’t give the impression that the company can’t even afford a decent report to its owners. Thus, a balance has to be struck between the two extremes.”
The size factor: Small to mid-cap firms
Perhaps the pressure to produce a report that will make them the talking point lies more on mid-caps and small-caps. Investors are generally aware of and have more trust in larger companies already. Besides, when shareholder numbers run into millions, the big fish have to consider the cost factor.
Patherya says, “Everybody needs a good annual report. But having said that, it might be relevant to add that small caps and mid-caps often need to enhance investor respect and mobilise funds to finance their growth.
A well-communicated document can facilitate that process. I say this deliberately because few companies treat an annual report as a matter of pride because that would be the right thing to do anyway.”
An eco-friendly debate: A paperless world?
With hundreds and thousands of copies of annual reports being churned out every year by companies, the next hot topic of conversation is the issue of environmental impact. It’s a predicament that both corporates and agencies are well aware of and they tackle it appropriately.
While the spokesperson for Cairn says, “Right from the concept to the paper, we try and make the process as environment-friendly as possible.”
The spokesperson from Atherstone feels the problem is a relative one and adds, “We do advocate the use of thinner paper, smaller dimensions, and keeping the report to an optimal number of pages as a measure of both economy and resource conservation. However, annual reports as a category consume far less paper than, say, newspaper printing, and therefore, we feel the environmental impact of annual reports is overstated.”
Number talk
It’s evident that the Annual Report is, at long last, coming into its own. Even as India basks in a newfound attention from the rest of the world, with capital market activity at its peak, the time has never been better for Indian corporates to use their Annual Reports as a tool to sell their company, as much as a print ad sells
their product.
Given that the world’s largest democracy must have a million companies out there, waiting to transform the stale banter they’ve been exchanging with their shareholders, the scope for the Annual Report industry is quite promising. This is an opportunity not just for design agencies that are now dedicating their talent towards producing world class reports, but also, and more importantly, for the domestic corporate world.
No longer is the obligatory statutory document a one-sided spiel of numbers and facts but rather, a tête-à-tête between the company and its investors.
Perhaps Design Army — a Washington D.C. based agency — sums it up best with the quip that they create ‘Annual Rapport’ — An outlook that is fast spreading in the Indian context as well. And before we know it, there’ll be no more whispers, mutterings and murmurings. The numbers will clear their throats and pitch unapologetically from the rooftops.
Click here to download the article.
This article first appeared in Business India Magazine | Niche Business | Written by Rohit Panchal | May 2014 edition
An annual report sets forth a firm’s vision, values and strategies
For a company, a branding exercise doesn’t happen through marketing and advertising alone. With investors and shareholders in mind, companies use the services of consultancies to reach out to them through corporate reporting as a brand tool as well.
“Every company budgets crores of rupees for advertising each year to reach out to potential customers, but they forget to interact with the people who are already associated with them – the shareholders,” says Arvind Agrawal, founder & CEO, Atherstone Investor Communications Limited (AICL), a consultancy firm specialising in corporate reporting – annual and sustainability reports. “An annual report does just that, it sets forth the firm’s vision, values and operating philosophy, as well as its communication strategy.”
A chartered accountant and company secretary by qualification, Agrawal started AICL in 2006. The largest group of stakeholders it appeals to is the investors. Its clients are companies, which want to be seen as a part of their global peer and have an international look and feel for their corporate communication – as companies planning to go public or have recently gone public.
Various statutory reports and sections that form a part of the annual report and sustainability report are statutory financial section, corporate governance report, director’s report management discussion and analysis (MD&A) and business responsibility report (BRR). There’s not much AICL can do in the financial section, as the template is set by the companies act. Similarly, for corporate governance and the director’s report, though there is no prescribed format, “We format the data differently to make it presentable,” says Agrawal. “We ensure it answers the questions investors and shareholders want to ask.”
AICL does significant work in MD&A and BRR. “We believe MD&A is the heart of the annual report and, therefore, help companies give a structure to make it investor-and reader-friendly.” The non-statutory and non-mandatory section of the annual report is another prominent section that AICL focuses on, helping companies build a story around the year. “We help the company identify a theme, a strategy, around which the report will be woven,” says Agrawal. “Then, we structure the argument into page-by-page discussion.”
AICL services 45 per cent of companies of the S&P BSE Sensex, 25 per cent of the Nifty 50 and a few Indian Fortune 500 companies, including Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, IDBI Bank, Sun Pharma, Zee Entertainment, etc. “Zee being a listed company, it is important to build a corporate brand and AICL helps us put brand communications in perspective,’ says Roland Landers, head, corporate brand, Zee Entertainment. Adds Krishnandu Banerjee, CGM, Corp Comm, IDBI Bank: “It is a branding statement that has not only got the attention of our stakeholders, but was also awarded at Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific.”
“An annual report is a regulatory product, but, we use it as a brand tool,” says Agrawal. “Typically, the need for good annual report is more acute for listed companies, but, we also work with unlisted companies – some of them being in insurance sector.”
Aiming for a century
The consultancy fee charged by AICL varies from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore. When asked if this is an additional cost to the company, Agrawal says the bulk of the cost is paper, printing and mailing. Therefore, companies produce two types of reports: a high quality one for large shareholders and brokers; and a basic one with the same content, but less expensive paper and printing. Companies produce a small number of premium reports (for Rs 400-500 each) and a large number of basic reports (for Rs 25-50) because, “companies take shareholders seriously and don’t want to be seen as cutting corners when servicing them”.
Many companies also send their shareholders e-mail copies of the report, which are interactive Websites with videos and images. “I believe, 25-40 per cent of total annual reports,” says Agrawal. “The role of the annual reports has been largely changed by innovations in technology.”
Last year, AICL had done 80 projects and this year Agrawal feels it could go up to 100. He immediately informs that, for AICL, “the number of projects we do is not important, but the quality is”. When asked for the last year’s turnover, he says it is close to Rs 10 crore (without being specific), adding that there is enough potential to grow but the kind of talent required is not available – there are smaller players in the segment but, he says, there is also scope for a large player to do business.
The Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI) hosted their 57th Annual Awards in December 2017 and it was a night to remember.
Our CEO, Arvind Agrawal was one of the speakers at Comfest 17, a conference conducted by ABCI on how to use Corporate Communications for Brand Building.
ABCI received 1881 entries and we were thrilled to have 6 of our clients win awards for annual reports, brochure, magazine design and a corporate film.
With 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze wins the year ended on a high.
Clients who won included DB Corp - Gold for Brochure, Apollo Tyres - Silver for Annual Report 2016-17, Hero MotorCorp - Silver for Annual Report 2016-17, Bharti Airtel - Bronze for Annual Report 2016-17,
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited - Bronze for Magazine Design (Mahindra Everyday 2016) and Huntsman - Bronze for Corporate Film
The full list of awardees is available here.
These wins encourage us to consistently set newer benchmarks of excellence and help clients connect with their stakeholders through a higher standard of transparency and disclosure.
In 2018, AICL completes 10 years of operations as an independent corporate communications consultancy.
It has been a decade marked by glorious change, unbridled disruption and a world very different than the one we started out in. We’ve enjoyed every moment of it and are proud to have made a difference through our work and approach.
This blog first appeared on LinkedIn | 16 November 2017 | Written by Raj Mitra
Letting go of an unsatisfying career was a critical part of creating a life without regrets. Finding a purpose was another. Self-help gurus often harp on making your passion your profession. But I have realised along the way: Passion is often overrated. Passion blinds your vision and clouds your judgment. Purpose, on the other hand, drives you to stay relevant and respond faster to rapid changes.
The idea is to remain prepared for the inevitable bumps ahead. Odds will stack up against you, but you just have to figure out a way to get there. And there’s always a way. Agility is key to finding yourself on the winning side. So, after leaving Credit Suisse, I dabbled in several things to figure out how to deliver value by remaining true to my core values in a world that’s getting more complex by the day.
This blog first appeared on LinkedIn | 17 November 2017 | Written by Rajat Chakraborty
The annual report is more than a legal requirement. It’s an opportunity to be transparent about a company’s financial and operational performance, make a bold statement about a brand and unfold the strategy for the future. It also opens the broad avenue to engage with many different audiences.
However, what is not obvious is that each stakeholder will read the annual report for a different reason, and take away something unique.
Of course, the annual report is primarily a technical document for a specific audience. But, in an increasingly stakeholder-driven world, it needs to reflect the impact on businesses of a society with new approaches towards transparency and accountability; and the appropriate communication tools to back it up.
Chanel, one of the world's most illustrious names in luxury fashion, is still an independent player, competing with the likes of LVMH, Kering Group (Gucci) and Prada.
Last year, a leaked report, and much speculation revealed that the company's revenue in 2016 was $5.67bn (£4.44bn), down from $6.24bn the previous year. Net profit was down 35%, from $1.34bn to $874m. Net operating profit was $1.3bn, a drop of 20% on the previous year.
You'd think a 108 year old company that has withstood fashion trends, competition and acquisition all these years, would remain as nonchalant as Coco-Chanel's personality depicted in its advertising.
But at a time when consumers, employees, partners, vendors and influencers, are all demanding absolute transparency, Chanel probably realised its stiff upper lip may not be its strongest asset.
It's general Report to Society, that only details its non-financial metrics, used to be a strong message in itself - We are not looking for investors, thank you.
But today, after 108 years, it has chosen to create an even bigger statement by undressing its financials. It's no secret that Chanel has been facing stiff competition and amongst persistent rumours that it could be a potential target for a take-over, the French luxury house has decided to open up its books to show that it had the size, the numbers to withstand it all.
The figures released showed total sales for the 2017 calendar year were $9.62 billion, up 11% from the previous year on a constant-currency basis. That growth was primarily driven by sales in the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe, while operating profit came in at $2.69 billion. Net debt stood at $18 million, with free cash flow of $1.63 billion.
"We are not for sale, and absolutely nothing will change that. We realized it was time to put the facts on the table as to exactly who we are: a $10 billion dollar company with very strong financials, plus all the means and ammunition at our disposal to remain independent," Blondiaux said in a statement to the Times.
The Annual Report is a tool not only to reach to investors/ potential investors but a medium to send a strong message to the society on its intent and standing.
Transparency is no more a buzz word, but right from manufacturing processes, pricing structures, dividends, financials, the annual report is crucial to let people in - so they may understand and believe in the purpose, intent and story, ultimately forging deeper connections.
Urja Khanna
Director - Client Strategy and New Initiatives
