April 22, 2003

LJ Rittenhouse
President, andBEYOND Communications
New York, NY 10025
Telephone: (212) 580-9176
Fax: (212) 580-1906

• Treasury & Risk Management Express, summed up an andBEYOND goal quite succinctly:  Write clearly and perform well.  This financial newsletter, with a readership composed of the nation's top CFOs and treasurers, reported our finding that companies with the most clearly written shareholder letters tended to outperform companies with letters full of jargon.

• Jerry Walker, a senior editor with O'Dwyers PR Daily posted our news release that highlighted McDonald's consistent practice of candidly reporting problems about the company to its investors.  O'Dwyers is a leading publisher on the public relations industry.

Survey Links Spin and Jargon in CEO Letters with Earnings Losses, March 10, 2003

 

HealthSouth Shows Pitfalls of Ignoring CEO Shareholder Letters, March 25, 2003

 

Unlike Most Companies Surveyed, McDonald's Alerted Investors to Company Problems, April 9, 2003

 

• Barron's, the influential business weekly, recognized the importance of our "linguistic red flags" several years ago and has tracked our progress ever since.  Two articles in March and April highlight recent findings.  Click the following links:

• A Word to the Wise:  Reading Between the Lines of Spin-Doctor CEO Letters, and

• Austerity Binge:  Next They'll Be Recycling Those Annual Reports

• CBS MarketWatch's Kristen Gerencher wrote an extensive report on andBEYOND Communications entitled, "Corner-office spin doctors - Study: Losses linked to jargon in CEO correspondence."  Click here to read the article online.

• Bloomberg Radio reporter Patty Hall provided on-air commentary for our news release on HealthSouth.  The release detailed HealthSouth's failure in its 2001 shareholder letter in three simple tests for financial reporting integrity. CEO Richard Scrushy: (1) failed to distinguish between GAAP and pro forma earnings, (2) failed to demonstrate capital stewardship, and (3) boasted of meeting Wall Street's expectations.  If you have yet to read the release, click here to learn more about these red flags in CEO messages to shareholders.

• The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) gave front-page coverage of andBEYOND in their Fall '02 edition.  Click here to read Laura's article, "Shareholder Letter Revelations: Can You Trust the Corporate Leader?"

• andBEYOND - a group of "Language Hawks"? Corporate Babble thinks so. The website, which exists to "promote clear, accountable communication in business, preferably while amusing its readers," deemed us potential allies in the "ongoing War on Babblism."  They cited our shareholder letter rankings and were interested in our research on jargon, spin and confusing statements in financial reporting.  Visit their informative, and often hilarious site: www.corporatebabble.com.

• Ciao Italia!  Look for us in an April 28th article about our corporate spin findings, written by Maria Teresa Cometto for Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest daily newspaper.

• Jolly Good!  Brian Birkenhead of the U.K added the newest review for Tru$t on Amazon.com writing: 

Laura Rittenhouse has done us all a great favour in her book "Do Business with People you can Trust." It should be required reading for all CEOs and corporate communicators. At last we can see the prospects for creating shareholder value by full and honest disclosure.

• "Oh Canada, Oh Canada..."  In March, Laura gave a keynote address on Building Communication Advantage to the Independent Power Producers Association in sunny Banff, Alberta.  Later that day, she lectured on sustainable investing at the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business.