Every fall the CICA (Canadian Institute for Chartered Accountants) Corporate Reporting Awards recognize excellence in disclosure practices. Having participated as a judge in the Electronic Disclosure category for three years, I have taken a close look at a fair number of websites.
Many of the same names rise to the top each year. These tend to be large-cap companies with abundant resources to devote to the development and maintenance of their IR site – for example, PotashCorp, Telus, BMO and Nexen.
It is not feasible for most issuers to match the efforts of these perennial leaders. But some of the “best practices” that differentiate the web sites of these issuers are easily attainable. And it has nothing to do with six-figure design budgets and special effects. The most important objective is to provide investors with the information they need – in as user-friendly a format as possible – to enable them to make an informed investment decision.
Companies that put a lot of thought into the rest of their websites often treat the IR section largely as a repository for existing information: press releases, financial reports, investor presentations and conference calls. Surprisingly few take advantage of the opportunity to populate their web pages with more valuable information about the underlying elements of the investment proposition, such as what management’s vision is for the future of the company or how the company plans to grow.
In many cases the information already exists in the public domain, having been painstakingly created for annual reports or investor presentations. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense to bury your most important messages on page 9 of a PDF document that people may or may not bother to open. Why not make it easy for them? For example, I know from personal experience that it can take many hours to adapt a growth strategy and core strategic principles for use in a company’s annual report, but only a few minutes to re-purpose that content for the website.
Year after year, the CICA award winners clearly have the mindset of treating the website as a communications vehicle in its own right. They create meaningful strategic content specifically for use on the site. As simple as it sounds, following the recommendations in the preceding paragraphs would, in my experience, differentiate your website from the vast majority of those out there today.
Winners of this year’s awards will be announced next week. You can find the full set of judging criteria on the CICA website.