Reading an Annual Report - Part 5

This is the 5th in a series of posts in which I look at Coca Cola's annual report and teach you how to read an annual report as part of any customer facing engagement. Here are the prior posts. Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4.

For today's post, I'm going to look at a few sections. These are important in knowing about the company and for creating starter conversations. This starts in Item 2, page 21 for those following at home.

The first part of this is Item 2, Properties. This section discusses where Coca Cola owns or leases property. If you sell property management software, you should have this memorized.

The second section is Item 3, Legal Proceedings. While Coca Cola likely gets sued on a daily basis, the disclosures here are lawsuits that could materially impact the company. If you sell something that can help them manage their lawsuits for effectively, this is something that you should understand.

The third section, Item 4, Mine Safety Disclosures, is something that seems fairly consistent to all reports and I don't think that I've ever seen it ever completed. I did find one for the Newmont Mining Company. In it, they discuss exactly what you'd imagine - what they are doing to keep their employees safe. Selling safety things, check this out.

Finally, for today, Item X, Executive Officers. If your goal is to get to a decision maker, these are likely the right people. There are a few things that I look for here.

1. Build an org chart. Figure out where your champion / coach rolls up, how they are connected, how well they know the person. These are the people that are likely measured and goaled on the risk factors that I mentioned in a prior post.
2. Who is new? You can start a conversation about how the person is doing? What has changed? What is their charter? What are they doing differently?
3. Who is retiring? Generally the report won't mention anything about retirement, but you can see someone in their mid-late 60's probably has a succession plan. If they have been at the company 30+years, they are likely thinking about moving on. This ins't a hard / fast rule, but something to keep in mind. Find out who the likely successor is.

That is all for the day. The next posts are going to go a lot quicker and cover a lot more ground in much less time. Section one is the money section.

This this working for you? Is this thing on?