June 25: The latest research from ACCA uncovers how business leaders – particularly finance professionals – approach opportunities in reporting while navigating concerns around commercially sensitive information, organisational readiness, and stakeholder expectations.
The leadership behind reporting opportunities research acknowledges humans’ hard wired tendency to focus on downside risks over upside opportunities. This instinct is clearly reflected in corporate reporting and amplified by geopolitical and geoeconomic uncertainties. However, such an imbalance may limit investment and access to the financing needed to drive innovation – and progress towards resilient, sustainable business models.
The research aims to stimulate much needed discussion on this relatively underexplored topic of opportunity reporting – and support leaders, organisations and professional accountants. According to the report, a balanced approach is vital when evaluating opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect the organisation’s prospects. For example, importance placed on sustainability and ESG factors should not automatically supersede financial or economic benefit and vice versa. Instead, organisations need to assess these considerations pragmatically in a balanced way.
Key findings from the report show that:
- Opportunities sit at the intersection of strategy, sustainability and capital allocation.
- When pursuing opportunities, organisations must first seek alignment and develop confidence internally – before working towards communicating opportunities externally.
- Connecting sustainability and financial information with long-term value creation and organisation resilience demands collaboration, co-creation and moving beyond compliance.
Hsiao Mei Chow, Head of Corporate Reporting Insights – Sustainability at ACCA said:
‘Business leaders, professional accountants and organisations must carefully tailor the timing of opportunity communication to their respective unique circumstances – and curate decision-useful information that safequards stakeholders’ trust while protecting competitive advantage. ‘
Research participants highlighted the need for policymakers and industry practitioners to work together to establish a common definition or set of criteria for ‘opportunity’. As corporate reporting progresses, greater alignment would support more consistent reporting and improve information comparability across industries and jurisdictions.