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Special Feature Megatrends & Ra
How Integrated Thinking & Reporting is Helping Business Adapt
By Mark O’Sullivan, PwC
“There’s growing recognition around the world among company boards, regulators, governments, investors and others that integrated thinking and reporting is part of the solution to properly manage today’s rapid changes and business risks.” Mark O’Sullivan, Director of Corporate Reporting at PwC, explores the recently released International Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework, a cohesive approach to corporate reporting tipped as a key contributor to a more financially stable global economy.
S advances,
o, just how prepared are companies to deal with the fundamental external forces that CEOs think will have the most impact on their businesses over the next five years? Technological demographic changes and global
economic shifts are the ones to watch, according to this year’s PwC CEO Survey.
These rapidly developing megatrends are at the heart of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s thinking and its new framework that aims to help business and the capital markets thrive amidst rapid change. The idea is to help provide management, investors and others with more meaningful information to inform their
decisions and explain how value is created both today and in the longer term.
The framework was officially launched in December but it has been tested and developed by big business through the IIRCs Pilot Programme over the last three years. HSBC, Unilever, Deutsche Bank, China Light & Power, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Microsoft, National Australia Bank and Tata Steel are just a few of the companies that have been involved.
Dealing with rapid change and escalating risk The Integrated Reporting Framework encourages companies to consider a broader perspective of
growth and success - one focused on wider macro trends, critical resources and relationships and a longer-term perspective than increased output and short-term financial returns. It’s a widely supported tool and growing numbers are finding that it is helping them explain to investors and others their vision and strategy for creating value and sustaining the business over the longer-term. There’s growing recognition around the world among company boards, regulators, governments, investors and others that integrated thinking and reporting is part of the solution to properly manage today’s rapid changes and business risks. And many believe that this transparency and the longer-term focus it brings contributes to a more financially stable global economy.