IIRC Newsletter

Jay OwenSustainability News, Beyond GDP

irIIRC Chief Executive Paul Druckman to step down during 2016

The Board of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has announced that Paul Druckman, CEO, will step down during 2016. Paul has agreed with the Board a process to ensure a smooth transition during the year and is flexible about the timing of his departure. He will continue to lead the IIRC on its ambitious programme for 2016, for example through his membership of the B20 SME Development Task Force and leading representations to the Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures.
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Integrated Reporting causes investors to revise upwards their estimates of future cash flows

Experts from the Universities of Stanford, Auckland and Pretoria have published academic research which finds that Integrated Reporting is positively associated with both stock liquidity and firm value. Their study was motivated by the “global interest shown by firms, investors and regulators in the work of the International Integrated Reporting Council.”
Using data from South Africa, where many companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are now in their fifth year of Integrated Reporting on a comply or explain basis, the research demonstrates that Integrated Reporting results in the market valuing companies higher. The paper states, “our evidence suggests that integrated reporting affects firm value mainly by increasing expected future cash flows, consistent with investors revising their estimates of future cash flows upward because they have a better understanding of the firm’s capitals and business strategy or with integrated reporting leading to better decisions being made by managers as a result of ‘integrated thinking’.”
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Implementing the Non-Financial Reporting Directive throughout Europe

The IIRC and the Federation of European Accountants are hosting an event exploring how Integrated Reporting can support an accelerated adoption by European businesses of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive. Around 6,000 European entities will need to implement the Non-Financial Reporting Directive and report information related to environmental, social, employee, human rights, corruption and bribery matters in their management reports. Businesses have a choice about how to approach the implementation of this directive, if they use it as a box ticking exercise for providing data into the market its use will only go so far. Through adopting Integrated Reporting businesses can go ‘a step ahead’, a phrase coined by the European Commission in its memo on releasing the Directive back in April 2014.
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A focus on ‘connectivity’ has clear business benefits

Connectivity of information is a guiding principle of Integrated Reporting. Aegon and Anglo American brought this principle to life on the latest <IR> Business Network webinar by explaining how a focus on connectivity is making a significant difference to understanding how they create value over time. It was clear in both cases that this connectivity in reporting reflected integrated thinking and decision making that continues to develop within both businesses.
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Every entrepreneur should want to save the world

 

A blog from Paul Druckman, CEO, IIRC

I had the immense privilege of speaking at the recent UK launch of Marga Hoek’s book, New Economy Business, held in the illustrious surroundings of the Dutch Ambassador’s London home. Marga leads the Dutch Sustainable Business Association and has been a CEO and advisor to many organizations so sees businesses from various perspectives.
The book’s first sentence, “Every entrepreneur should want to save the world”, sets the pace. It is a powerful opening line, and Marga revealed that it has also been controversial.  In that sentence, she is challenging the status quo of some western economies that businesses exist to further their own interests in isolation from society. Well, that idea is firmly rejected and Marga’s argument that, when over 40 of the world’s 100 most valuable entities today are companies, not countries, you quickly get the point about where accountability and responsibility must lie. Marga’s thesis is centred on giving prosperity a broader meaning, because “the new economy is focused on creating value for all our assets and all the movements within them that contribute to true prosperity”.
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