What’s the real impact of your corporate reporting on your stakeholders?
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals an “unprecedented global decline for employer trust” and a growing public fear that business leaders will “purposely mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” Meanwhile, 44% of investors believe corporate sustainability reports contain “unsupported claims” (PwC, 2024).
In other words, your annual and quarterly reports may be actively eroding trust.
Success is a matter of trust
Eroding trust isn’t an abstract idea; it’s your company’s canary in the coal mine.
As Robert Eccles, global ESG integration and reporting expert and professor at University of Oxford, says: “For stakeholders to have trust, they need to know their expectations and concerns are being heard and that the company is honestly and forthrightly reporting on the meeting of expectations.”
- Customers choose your products over the competitor’s because they trust your claims – about your products, financial durability, and impact on people and planet.
- Investors buy your shares, because they trust that you will not only deliver results, but also openly communicate about shortcomings or risks.
- Top talent in your industry choose to work for you, and not the competition, because they trust you will deliver on the promises you’ve made – including how you’ve presented yourself as an ethical employer.
Once trust begins to erode among these key stakeholders, you should pay attention: They may eventually turn their backs on you.
Three questions for 21st century reporting
If you are paying attention, this moment of eroding public trust presents a huge opportunity.
Businesses willing to change can build lasting trust with their core audiences – and reduce future risk to their reputation – by transforming how they report. Customers, investors, and top talent may come to see you as the most reliable, trustworthy company in your industry. And that’s good for business.
So, when it comes to your annual reporting, start by asking yourself these three questions:
- Are we focused exclusively on meeting government regulations?
- Are we meeting our audience’s needs?
- Are we truly owning our story?
Most of today’s 100+ page PDFs serve up a glossy data dump while stakeholders go hungry for authenticity and real-time engagement. Government regulations mandate transparent reporting of numbers. But the readers of your report have different expectations. And they’re savvy. They know the difference between ‘publishing reports’ and ‘reporting to stakeholders’ – between informing and communicating, between one-way broadcasting and two-way dialogue.
Evolving from one-way broadcasting to two-way dialogue
Through our experience working in the field of reporting and our research across industries, we see a trend taking shape. Companies tend to move through three stages:
1. Compliant:
- Meeting requirements
- Basic financial reports and mandatory disclosures
- Reactive communications engaging a small group of stakeholders – usually investors, employees, and some customers
- Siloed process, with a poor return on investment for your communications budget
2. Targeted:
- Meeting needs
- Tailored reports addressing specific stakeholder interests
- Active engagement seeking feedback, with audiences as “targets”
- Medium cost efficiency through greater cross-department collaboration
3. Holistic:
- Owning your story
- Cohesive 360-degree channel strategy that integrates financial, business, and ESG performance
- Proactive, continuous engagement and thought leadership that turns audiences into “followers”
- High cost efficiency through a fully integrated approach
The closer you get to holistic reporting, the more you are “honestly and forthrightly reporting,” as Robert Eccles says. Some companies are already committed to this new kind of reporting – and they are reaping the benefits through a stronger brand and greater stakeholder loyalty.
Get started
Moving from compliant to targeted to holistic reporting isn’t just about better content – such as an interactive website instead of a PDF. It’s a strategic transformation from compliance-focused to stakeholder-focused engagement. Ultimately, this is about putting a long-term strategy into practice that will yield more value from your investment in reporting and contribute to your company’s success.
Does this sound like a lot of work? It doesn’t have to be. You can start small and scale your change, gradually moving through the stages of evolution.
To get started, you need to audit your current approach, craft a new reporting strategy, make a roadmap for change, and establish a resilient process that will ensure you incorporate feedback and continue to evolve – even after ‘reporting season’ is officially over.
