Annual Reports in the Time of Coronavirus

Timing, it’s been said, is everything.

But when it comes to your annual report, the timing likely could not be worse.

The rapid rise of the Coronavirus crisis has hit just as many organizations and companies are putting the final touches on annual reports.

While the financials and results for 2019 are already baked in, the tone and some of the forward-looking strategic messaging in these reports risk coming across as tone-deaf, insensitive, or irrelevant. 

Regardless of your situation, there is still an opportunity to use your annual report to connect with key stakeholders in ways that show you’re in tune with what’s happening and responsive to their concerns regarding the Coronavirus’ impact on your business.

If your report is still in progress, there may be time to adjust the tone and messaging to acknowledge the crisis and provide some early insights into how it will likely impact your business, and your financial results, moving forward.

For those whose annual reports have already gone to press, a viable option might be to send a follow-up letter or message to key stakeholders that notes that the report was completed before the crisis took hold, and then provide some context about how the pandemic is affecting your operations and will likely impact performance for the foreseeable future.

And if you have been thinking about migrating away from a print report and toward an online-only version, this year’s events might be enough to consider making that shift.

If you don’t do an annual report or release yours at other times of the year, now might be a good time to send a letter from leadership acknowledging challenges and offering authentic and proactive messaging about how you are responding. 

In any case, it’s not too late to make the best of a challenging situation.