So a study out of the University of Miami discovers this:
“Better-looking documents produce increased pride of ownership for a company, and this pride increases valuation.”
Should this surprise us? Not at all. But consider how much of an impact aesthetics had in this study:
When students were given the first three pages of two annual reports with the exact same financial information, those students priced the stock shares of the firm with the “more attractive” annual report almost 70% higher than the other firm.
But what do they know? Those are just students, right?
Wrong.
The study also experimented with “experienced investors” and the findings showed that the mere inclusion of one additional colour in a firm’s annual report has roughly the same impact on an investor’s evaluation of the firm as a 20 percent improvement in revenue from the previous year.
Maybe your planning reports aren’t saying what you think they’re saying. Put a different way: Maybe they aren’t saying everything they could be saying.