The reimagined 10-k wrap — Is it right for you?
Reimagined 10-K wrap model
In The Medium Is the Massage (1967), Marshall McLuhan’s central idea was that the way information is delivered (the medium) shapes our perceptions of it. Though he primarily focused on electronic media, one of his observations has keen relevance to today’s 10-K wrap.
“Our official culture is striving to make the new media do the work of the old.”
Whenever a new medium was introduced, McLuhan saw it being used the same way as the medium it was replacing. Two modern examples: when email came along, users treated it like an electronic letter, and when the internet appeared, websites were wordy online brochures. It took years for companies to learn how to communicate effectively within those media.
When the 10-K wrap displaced the glossy annual report, it became the new medium for its content. That meant the report’s format—a shareholder letter packaged together with the SEC Form 10-K—was now expected to do the work of a 16-to-20-page glossy narrative.
Here’s how that went: covers became themeless, language turned boilerplate and generic, images and infographics lost their importance, strategic insight faded away, and transparency and candor all but vanished. The justification was that this content could be found on the company’s website, on third-party sites like Yahoo Finance, and major brokerage sites. But that put the onus on investors to ferret it out.
This makes apparent two shortcomings of the current 10-K wrap model:
Stakeholders aren’t getting the right information in the right form to accurately evaluate the company’s business, performance, and future.
CEOs are becoming less engaged in providing that information.
Since there are no SEC rules regarding the 10-K wrap’s format and content, why not present data and narrative content in a readable, logical flow?
I think it’s time for a new model. A reader-centric format that provides the right information to stakeholders with no increase in current page count and with minimal to zero increase in current production costs.
Want to know more about the reimagined 10-K wrap? Contact robert@annualreportwriter.com or click here and fill out a project form.