here is a mystique to annual reports， and for good reason. The?， are
not only the most important document for most companies， they
are also in many cases the most expensive. It ts a prolect that has the
direct involvement of the CEO， while involving literally scores of people
in the company， some of whose jobs or status in the company may de
pend on how well they perform on this project.
Reports today need to communicate to a variety of audiences: share
holders， brokers， stock analysts， lending institutions， employees， cus-
tomers， prospective employees， the business and public presses and
government officials. With such multiple audiences， there are quite natu-
rally a number of agendas and expectations for the report， depending on
whom in the company one talks to.
Whose Book Is This， Anyway?
In most cases the annual report is， quite simply， the CEO s book. Just as
most corporations reflect the personality and direction of the person at
the top， so the annual report reflects the chief executive officer s outlook，
philosophy and vision--and aesthetic taste，
The annual report is a very personal project for most CEOs. It is a re-
flection on them personally， and they care a great deal about how they are
presented to their peers， their shareholders and their many publics. Think
about it: Their picture is displayed， they sign their name to the text， their
successes and failures are the subject of the report. Yet， even with all this
riding on the report， many CEOs are shielded from much of the process
by their own organization.
~Because of the CEO s pivotal role， it is virtually impossible for a de-
signer to create an effective annual report without first finding out what s
on the CEO s mind，\" says Richard Lewis， chairman of Corporate Annual
Reports Inc.， a leading producer of annual reports for major American
corporations. \"The designer has to spend time with the CEO or be ex-
tremely well briefed by someone close to him. Without that kind of input，
a designer falls into a bottom-up trap--dealing several rungs down the
corporate ladder while trying to guess which topics and themes the CEO
considers most important for inclusion in the report.\"
Involve Top Management Early in the Process
I once worked on an annual repor~ for the holding company of a large
bank. The writer and I were at the corporate offices going over the final
mechanicals when the director of investor relations， our client， informed
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