“This was the first time we had developed and published our annual reporting including both an annual and a sustainability report. Linkgroup gave us perfect, comprehensive support. Their rich experience and our knowledge were a great match, and we were able to make clear progress in terms of value reporting. We were particularly impressed by Linkgroup’s proposal for a cross-media strategy encompassing significantly improved publication on the corporate website, an online annual report and quick report, a CEO video, social media and a rethink of our report as a magazine. The fact that Linkgroup offers in-house services spanning everything from the concept, content creation and design to implementation made things more efficient for Sika.”
2022 Swiss Annual Report Rating
We helped Sika to first place and Holcim to second place in the 2022 overall ratings. We work for four of the top twelve companies. In the overall online and print design rating we were involved in twelve of the top 30 solutions. Our customers Phoenix Mecano and Jungfraubahn Holding are the two biggest climbers of the year in the Design rating. Our business partners Phoenix Mecano, Valiant and Sika have taken the top three places in the text category.
The 2022 Swiss Annual Report Rating involved assessing the annual reports (for the 2021 financial year) of all companies that were on the Swiss Performance Index (SPI) at the end of 2021, plus the 50 companies in Switzerland with the highest sales, the 25 banks with the highest balance sheet total, and the 15 insurance companies with the highest technical income according to FINMA, not all of which are stock-exchange listed. The 2022 Annual Report Rating covered a total of 236 organisations.
This sample was evaluated by three panels. The first was the Value Reporting panel headed by Professor Alexander F. Wagner at the University of Zurich Department of Banking and Finance. The list of value reporting criteria comprises ten blocks of individual sub-criteria; in its turn, each of these sub-criteria is based on individual questions. The resulting evaluations were then aggregated to draw up a final ranking list.
Secondly the Design panel, under the patronage of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and headed by Jiří Chmelik at Noir Associates, assessed the design of the reports. The panel of experts rated the online version and the print edition; if no print edition was available, the PDF posted on the internet was rated. The output from the overall ranking of the Value Reporting and Design panels took the form of a list of the twelve best-ranked annual reports. On this basis the finalists panel, which in addition to representatives of the Value Reporting and Design panels included additional experts working in practice, decided on the three overall winners.
In addition, a further panel rated the quality of the text in the twelve top-ranked annual reports and the biggest climbers in the Design an Value Reporting category. The Text panel was headed by Professor Aleksandra Gnach and Professor Wibke Weber at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).
All the results of the Swiss Annual Report Rating can be accessed online. The website, designed and produced by Linkgroup, features rankings of all the annual reports rated in the Value Reporting and Design categories. By way of added value, all the rated reports can be downloaded as a PDF, and there are links to the respective online versions.
Specialists in financial publishing
Our Financial Publishing service package is aimed at listed and non-listed companies that see the value of professional financial and sustainability communications. It is targeted at investors, financial analysts and the media. Our clients benefit from our cross-media capabilities and deep vertical integration, all on a one-stop basis. We can provide you with advice and support on cross-media communications strategies and developing content. We also make sure that content is orchestrated properly across channels. In addition we can provide you with web-based publishing systems to make the process effective and efficient. Our clientele includes many well-known organisations.
Linkgroup: Platinum Partner to the HarbourClub Symposium 2022
www.harbourclub.ch
The symposium will take place at the Siemens Campus in Zug on 17 November 2022 under the banner “Let’s dance”. The speakers: IMD professor Dr David Bach, Siemens Switzerland CEO Gerd Scheller and Gen Z expert Steffi Burkhart. As usual, case studies featuring relevant organisations will be presented in the breakout sessions, and a special surprise guest promises an exciting conclusion to the event. Programme and registration: www.harbourclub.ch
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More information
Marc Lehmann
Partner
T +41 44 268 12 04
M +41 79 656 89 42
marc.lehmann @ linkgroup.ch
Othmar Krienbühl
Partner
T +41 44 268 12 62
M +41 79 430 11 91
othmar.krienbuehl @ linkgroup.ch