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Strengths:
KPIs
Corporate responsibility information
Weaknesses:
Strategic detail
Business overview
Pearson has gone for a fairly plain and simple printed report. The content is neat but typographically-focused with mainly the KPIs breaking up the text. Indeed, it is the focus on a range of financial and non-financial KPIs that picks up the most marks. The media company includes financial measures at group level but then includes some non-financial indicators, such as US bestsellers, at divisional level.
The corporate responsibility section in the actual report is fairly small but it does make an effort to integrate the information and includes targets and plans for the year ahead. Supplier programmes also warrant more comment than in most reports and the employee information is a good overview.
But therein lies the rub: much of the expected narrative content is touched upon but not necessarily covered in great detail.
Strategy, for instance, only stretches to a few paragraphs and there is limited additional strategic content development in the divisional reports. Similarly, the business overview is very small to explain a business of this size.
Online:
The online report mirrors much of the plain and simple approach of the printed version. It is easy to move around with clear navigation and breadcrumb trails to aid users. There is also a good, effective search facility. Pearsonville, a multimedia guide to the company for shareholders, sits alongside the online report and is well worth a look.
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Print