Summarizing A Year, And A Culture

Maybe I’m dating myself here, but do you remember back in high school when the annual yearbook came out?Annual report cover w.o graphics blog

There was a formula to the books. Every class had row after row of headshots. There were portraits of the teachers and office staff.

And, of course, there were the predictable photos of the clubs and sports teams and cheerleading squads, all arranged just perfectly.

But usually, none of those created the excited clusters of kids in the hallways paging through the book in an eager search.

Those little gatherings developed as kids were looking for the candid shots. Did they make the cut? And if they did, what did the photographer capture them doing? That’s what always made each year’s book release such a party.

To be honest, corporate annual reports aren’t much different. There’s a formula to them. There’s the CEO’s report. The posed portraits of senior executives and the board of directors. And don’t forget the financial statements.

But beyond all of the somewhat staid but important information, there’s an opportunity to tell a larger story in a company’s annual yearbook.

That’s what we hope we’ve done with our own annual report this year. We hope to tell our customers, agents, employees and the general public how we live our Main Street values to Do good. Be good. Make good.

You’ll see employees on bicycles, clients living a better life because of our products, and teachers being honored for being LifeChangers. There are photos and videos and the story of who we are, what we do and how we do it.

And don’t worry. We’ve got plenty of charts and graphs, financials, and a nice helping of footnotes! Let us know what you think.

 

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