A Really Great Annual Report

If you want to see a really great annual report from a professional firm, look no further than Buchanan Ingersoll's brand new Industry Focus Annual Report 2003. The print edition is magnificent, and you can also get it online at www.bipc.com/annual/index.cfm.

The typical firm brochure, which focuses internally on the firm going "blah blah blah" about it's practice groups. Instead the Buchanan Ingersoll annual report is entitled "Business Solutions From the Client's Perspective" and it is organized according to 15 industries their clients are in. Instead of pictures of gavels and courthouses, there are pictures of construction workers in hardhats and medical workers in file rooms.

Sure they mention their practices, but they do so by telling short success stories on an industry page: "Refinancing: Represented the owner of PPG Place, a significant office and retail project in downtown Pittsburgh, in a $175 million securitized refinancing involving both mortgage and mezzanine loan components." So the Financial Services section has stories about work they did in Financial Services.

The report is so well-executed, that there is more space devoted to pictures than to text -- the typical success story runs only five lines long. This makes it very readable.

The "Firm Highlights" page, which I suppose is mandatory, is tucked away at the end on page 15 and quotes the firm's plaudits in Corporate Board Member magazine, American Lawyer and The BTI Client Service Survey. Very impressive. Congratulations to Director Of Client Services Jeanne Hammerstrom and her talented crew of in-house marketers.

Comments

[annual report printing]

It's so refreshing to see real people in real work situations as opposed to the same stock photos that get recycled by marketing firms and graphic designers. Thanks for the heads-up on this excellent annual report sample!

[Anastasya]

Thanks for this great suggestion. It's easy to forget that less (text) is more when it comes to corporate documents.

I'm working on an AR for the pharma/biotech industry and was browsing the web for inspiration. Your advice on section layout and images has been quite helpful!