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Annual Reports Handy Hints for Assignment 2: Comparative Critique of Annual Reports
For additional information, refer to Sue’s posting on the discussion board, 30 Sep 2009.
The overall aim of the exercise: Every Australian public company is obliged by law to publish an Annual Report. These reports are subject to Corporations Law, a variety of regulations monitored by the ASIC, and listing rules imposed by the ASX; those factors should — one might think — lead to a great deal of uniformity in these reports. Yet we see some dramatic differences, as well as a number of similarities. The point is not merely to identify the similarities and differences, but to account for them: not only to answer the question “What are the reports like?”, but also to answer the more illuminating question “Why are they like that?”
Focus on purpose, message, and audience: Pause to reflect on the fundamental purposes of a company’s annual report. What audiences might be targeted, and for what reasons?
Questions of format: Reports are “published” as PDFs. This is a “controlled” format; the appearance of a web page is partly beyond the control of the company. The original www.ukassignment.org version of every report was printed; the online versions are provided only for convenience.
Making a comparison: The various pairings of reports were chosen to represent one of two situations: a single company has changed its market position recently (or the market itself has changed), and has experienced some problems in the process; or two companies are in overlapping markets, and one is not doing as well as the other. So you should be able to spot and account for a number of similarities and differences in the reports.
Overall treatment
As always, we are looking above all for an appreciation of the business objectives. What are the reports trying to accomplish?
The aim is not to present any kind of analysis of the company itself, or the financial details disclosed in the reports. (You do have to consider the company’s financial condition, since the report has to disclose this, and the directors will probably want an appropriate spin to be added. You should also consider the way the financial details are presented.) The aim is to identify in some detail what the report is doing, and why.
Again as always, clarity is vital. Marks will be deducted for unclear or ungrammatical writing.
Page 1
BBA 216 Assignment Two Comparative Review
Due: 5pm, Tuesday October 13
TOPIC: Write a critical comparative review of two company annual reports published online.
Different sets of reports have been selected for each tutorial class. The list is on page 2.
IMPORTANT: Please note that in each case the report you critique should be what is usually
called the concise annual report, and NOT the full financials. In those cases where the online#p#分页标题#e#
document contains too much material, we have given the numbers of the pages you should
review.
Word length and value:
BBA216 students 1000-1200 words (20% of total marks for unit)
You are not being asked to produce a summary. In order to comment on some aspects of the
reports, you will probably need to do some summarising of certain sections, but the summarising
is a means to an end. Your primary task is comparison and critical evaluation of the reports.
(“Critical” simply means questioning, rather than accepting things at face value. Remember that
these reports are professionally produced; they are always “good”. Questions you should ask are
about motivations and objectives: why are the reports like this?) In particular, you should try to
evaluate each company’s report against its place in the market, as well as making comparisons
with the other company’s report. The following aspects of the reports should be included in your
analysis, but please feel free to include any other aspects that seem to you to be relevant:
• format, layout and general design features, including how easy it is to find information. (Note
that most of the reports are published as PDFs. Web pages might look different depending on
the settings on your computer; PDFs are meant to look the same regardless of computer
settings.)
• content details: what have the directors chosen to put in the report (or leave out), and how
have they chosen to structure the content?
• attitude to audience: who is the report written for (be very careful about this!)
What is the approach (tenor)?
Look at the language: is the style heavy (very formal and impersonal) or light (less formal,
perhaps even at times informal)? Is there any direct communication with the audience
(we/us; you etc.)? Are considerations of audience reflected by the selection of content
details and the way it is structured?
• Look for any signs that the report mirrors something about what has been going on in the
market place for this company in the preceding 12 months; or perhaps something about how
the directors want to position their company in the market place now and in the future.
Page 2
Reports for comparison:
The following table shows which two reports you should compare. All the reports are available on the
web. Some classes are asked to compare reports from competing companies in the same year; others are
asked to compare reports from the same company in two consecutive years.
Step 1: Find the row for your tutorial class.
Step 2: Find the report names for your class in the column headed “Reports”.
Step 3: Go to the list of reports on page 3, and find the web addresses for the two reports.
Note the range of pages we want you to consider; you should ignore all excluded pages.#p#分页标题#e#
Class Day Time Tutor Reports
1 Mon 3pm Judith Booth Wesfarmers 2007; Wesfarmers 2008
2 Mon 4pm Judith Booth Wesfarmers 2007; Wesfarmers 2008
3 Mon 5pm Judith Booth Wesfarmers 2007; Wesfarmers 2008
4 Tue Noon Michael Lewis News Corp 2008; Fairfax Media 2008
5 Tue 1pm Cintia Agosti Woolworths 2007; Woolworths 2008
6 Tue 2pm Cintia Agosti Woolworths 2007; Woolworths 2008
8 Wed 11am Caroline Henderson-Brooks NAB 2007; NAB 2008
9 Wed 4pm Caroline Henderson-Brooks NAB 2007; NAB 2008
10 Wed 6pm Maria Herke Westpac 2008; CBA 2008
11 Wed 7pm Maria Herke Westpac 2008; CBA 2008
12 Thur 1pm Teresa Swirski Macquarie Airports 2007;
Macquarie Airports 2008
13 Thur 2pm Rebekah Wegener Telstra 2007; Telstra 2008
14 Thur 5pm Teresa Swirski Macquarie Airports 2007;
Macquarie Airports 2008
16 Fri 10am Sue Spinks Rio Tinto 2008; BHP Billiton 2008
17 Fri 1pm Christine Joyce Macquarie Media 2007;
Macquarie Media 2008
18 Fri 3pm Christine Joyce Macquarie Media 2007;
Macquarie Media 2008
Page 3
Web addresses
BHP Billiton 2008: Business Review
http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bbContentRepository/docs/businessReview2008.pdf
CBA 2008: Shareholder Review
http://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/shareholders/pdfs/shareholder-information/Shareholder_review_2008.pdf
Fairfax Media 2008: up to page 29
http://www.fxj.com.au/resources/annual-reports/FXJ_Annual_Report_FINAL_v3_2008.pdf
Macquarie Airports 2007: up to page 46
http://map.republicast.com/ar2007/MAp%20Annual%20Report%202007.pdf
Macquarie Airports 2008: up to page 50
http://www.macquarie.com.au/au/map/annual-reports/2008/annual-report.pdf
Macquarie Media 2007: up to page 28
http://mmg.republicast.com/ar2007/MMG_Annual_Report_2007.pdf
Macquarie Media 2008: up to page 35
http://www.macquarie.com.au/au/mmg/acrobat/ar2008.pdf
NAB 2007: up to but excluding “selected financial data” section
http://www.ukassignment.org
Go to http://www.nabgroup.com/0,,32863,00.html then click on “2007 Shareholder Review”
NAB 2008: up to but excluding “selected financial data” section
Go to http://www.nabgroup.com/0,,32863,00.html#p#分页标题#e# then click on “2008 Shareholder Review”
News Corp 2008: up to page 49
http://www.newscorp.com/Report2008/AR2008.pdf
Rio Tinto 2008: Annual report, excluding pages 92 – 130
http://www.riotinto.com/annualreport2008/pdfs/AnnualReport2008.pdf
Telstra 2007: Shareholder Update
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/investor/docs/tls560_shareholderupdate2007.pdf
Telstra 2008: Shareholder Update
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/investor/docs/6263_TEL_ShareUpdate_V2.pdf
Wesfarmers 2007: Annual Report – main body (i.e., excluding financials)
http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/14/144/144042/items/319532/729DDB4A-AF8D-40C3-8DA3-F1CB037B0F7F_mainbody.pdf
Wesfarmers 2008: Annual Report – main body (i.e., excluding financials)
http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/14/144/144042/items/319515/BCEEFD55-77B2-4C24-9DD4-935B6C9A3929_mainbody.pdf
Westpac 2008: Annual Review
http://www.westpac.com.au/manage/pdf.nsf/80AD56EC491613BACA2574F90018B11D/$File/WAR2008_AnnualReview.pdf?OpenElement
Woolworths 2007: up to page 37
http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/14/144/144044/items/268152/wol137+ar07_fa_r.pdf
Woolworths 2008: up to page 27
http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/14/144/144044/items/312267/FinalAnnualReport08.pdf
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