‘If you want to launch big ships you have to go where the water is deep'.  The source of this quote is unknown but it sums up where the Tomorrow's Corporate Reporting (TCR) Team are.  The big ship refers to the important question we are trying to answer ‘what has held corporate reporting back from developing into a really effective communication tool?'  And the deep water?  Well this is a global survey and although I am an avid amateur stargazer that's about as far as we can go at this stage.

As first mentioned in Charles Tilley's blog the TCR team are CIMA, Tomorrow's Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, each with a long-standing commitment to the development of effective corporate reporting.  The project has now reached the stage of launching its Call for Evidence (see attachment) which is seeking views on the following questions by the closing date of 17 September 2010.

1. What are the weaknesses and strengths in the current system?

2. What are the barriers obstructing the evolution of corporate reporting?

3. What solutions would you propose to rectify these weaknesses?

I would encourage you to input your views and ideas on the following questions via evidence@tomorrowscompany.com

We intend to supplement the responses we get with a number of dialogues with stakeholders in London, New York, Paris, Brussels and Asia and look to produce a preliminary report by the end of the year so as to coincide with the work of the International Integrated Reporting Committee to lobby the G20 for the support for a new integrated reporting model. 

Last night I was out starring up at the heavens.  It was a particularly clear night and although my back garden suffers from a lot of light pollution there were still a multitude of stars visible.  At first all I could make out were a myriad of twinkling lights showing no discernible pattern or message.  But with the aid of a star chart I started to pick out various constellations - the Plough or Big Dipper, Bootes, Hercules, Cygnus and Cassiopeia - and with that the stars started to communicate to me.  The Big Dipper points the way to the North Star Polaris and also to, one of the brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere sky, Arcturus the guardian of the bears Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.  The Cygnus constellation reminds me that Black Swans do exist and have been around since this constellation was included in Ptolemy's 2nd Century list of 48 constellations.

The analogy is plain to see without an effective communication tool such as my star chart last night's sky could have only confirmed to me that the universe is full of stars - data but no real information.  The same could be said of many corporate reports - they portray facts and figures but without communicating the context and story behind these bare data points, again data but no real information.  What is so frustrating is that the best corporate reports do communicate useful information and we are left asking why don't they all?  It is this question that the TCR Call for Evidence is probing and we need your help to ensure we are not left in the equivalent of a moonless, overcast night when there is literally nothing to see.