Shareholder Letters
In class we focused on Shareholder Letters. We had a very small class because many of the students are up in Portland for a communicators conference, so we had a good small group for discussion. We reviewed various shareholder letters from Smuckers, Disney and Chiquita, and they were all very different from one another. I liked all of them, yet Disney’s struck me as a little odd. First off, it was very lengthy. Almost to the point where it was overwhelming, littered with jargon and fuzzy phrases of inspiration and personal relationships. It was, in fact, exactly what you would envision when you think of Disney. I am unsure on how I feel about the consistency of Disney’s style, meaning that there is very little difference between Cinderella and their corporate philosophy documents. I think it is good to be consistent with your ideals and philosophy, yet I also feel there should be a stronger sense of formality in their annual report and letter to shareholders. What really ground my gears was the part in the letter where the alleged author, president and CEO Robert Iger states “And as I write this letter,” and then continues to discuss the the success of the company. Most likely Mr. Iger is NOT writing this letter, I would bet $10 he did not. I understand the Disney image and who it is really trying to reach, but I think there needs to be a little more professionalism in such documents. Yeah? Yeah? I thought so.
Pat,
I completely agree with you about Disney’s Shareholder letter.I thought that it was almost too perfect. I do understand that Disney portrays the “everything is always perfect here” image but I don’t think that it is all that professional when addressing shareholders. I am sure that not every year at Disney is perfect and also with the economy being at its low this year, there are bound to be ups and downs even for Disney. In class we also discussed that the letter did not address the writers’ strike at all. I believe that Disney was affected by that, however they did not even mention it. That just goes along the lines of not being completely professional. And i agree, I am sure the CEO did not draft the letter himself, that’s where PR professionals come in!
Also, thanks for the comment on my Starbucks post. You seemed very passionate about the logo change!