Integrated Report: An Introduction (Part 2)
Part 2 provides the 7 guiding principles and 8 content elements of an integrated report.
7 Guiding principles for preparation of an integrated report
The following Guiding Principles underpin the preparation of an integrated report, informing the content of the report and how information is presented:
(1) Strategic focus and future orientation: An integrated report should provide insight into the organization’s strategy, and how it relates to the organization’s ability to create value in the short, medium and long term, and to its use of and effects on the capitals.
(2) Connectivity of information: An integrated report should show a holistic picture of the combination, interrelatedness and dependencies between the factors that affect the organization’s ability to create value over time.
(3) Stakeholder relationships: An integrated report should provide insight into the nature and quality of the organization’s relationships with its key stakeholders, including how and to what extent the organization understands, takes into account and responds to their legitimate needs and interests.
(4) Materiality: An integrated report should disclose information about matters that substantively affect the organization’s ability to create value over the short, medium and long term.
(5) Conciseness: An integrated report should be concise
(6) Reliability and completeness: An integrated report should include all material matters, both positive and negative, in a balanced way and without material error.
(7) Consistency and comparability: The information in an integrated report should be presented: (a) on a basis that is consistent over time; and (b) in a way that enables comparison with other organizations to the extent it is material to the organization’s own ability to create value over time.
8 Content elements of an integrated report
An integrated report includes eight Content Elements that are fundamentally linked to each other and are not mutually exclusive:
(1) Organizational overview and external environment: What does the organization do and what are the circumstances under which it operates?
(2) Governance: How does the organization’s governance structure support its ability to create value in the short, medium and long term?
(3) Business model: What is the organization’s business model?
(4) Risks and opportunities: What are the specific risks and opportunities that affect the organization’s ability to create value over the short, medium and long term, and how is the organization dealing with them?
(5) Strategy and resource allocation: Where does the organization want to go and how does it intend to get there?
(6) Performance: To what extent has the organization achieved its strategic objectives for the period and what are its outcomes in terms of effects on the capitals?
(7) Outlook: What challenges and uncertainties is the organization likely to encounter in pursuing its strategy, and what are the potential implications for its business model and future performance?
(8) Basis of presentation: How does the organization determine what matters to include in the integrated report and how are such matters quantified or evaluated?
