Shareholders, investors and potential employees, all attach special importance to understanding a company through its annual report, the status of which has evolved over the years: from providing information for the adepts of competitive intelligence, it now provides information available to all stakeholders in the company. But one aspect has not changed: the keynote message of the president that prefaces the annual report. The present article indicates current practice in the matter in the case of 28 leading French companies.
We have made these companies the subject of a systematic and detailed computer‐assisted analysis.
Among the main conclusions to be noted are: a varied range of rhetorical cosmetics by way of embellishment, and attitudes either of prudence or optimism on the part of company heads; a type of discourse open to several levels of interpretation: from a literal level to a level allowing the reader to interpret the wider spirit and intention of the document.
In view of the time devoted to the preparation and fine‐tuning of a presidential letter, we feel justified in writing a modest letter of recommendations for the attention of the president at the end of this contribution.
