Corporate Eye

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Ed Konczal

Ed Konczal

Russia’s Norilsk Nickel

I’ve written reviews of many corporate websites around the world, but none in one of the largest countries–Russia. I found a worthy site in Norilsk Nickel —

While not as refined as many corporate websites, the Home Page has useful content. Some observations–

1. Quick access to equity information

2. Internet resources links to a nice site for young people (adults might find this useful) and a corporate blog (Russian only, perhaps they will add other languages in the future)

3. Updated News

4. Corporate presentations, current available in HTML

5. Upper right navigation includes Nickel Advantages, a series of videos that are very instructive.

Next navigate to the Operations section–

The company provides summary displays of where they have a presence. This section also includes information about production and quality.

A few more noteworthy features include —

  • Norilsk displays extensive historical credit ratings
  • On the bottom of the Downloads page, which contains access to many company reports, there are two videos: a movie about the company, and one about ecology.

In sum, what Norilsk Nickel website may lack in glitz, it more than makes up for in offering useful information content.

UniCredit Group–Homepage and Integrity

Seems that more companies are using their homepage to grab visitors. I found this to be the case for Italy based UniCredit Group.

UniCredit packs the homepage with effective content–

  • Right on top are hard to miss testimonials. These are one of the most effective methods to establish credibility.
  • Access to press releases and news is available.
  • Share price and chart.
  • At the bottom, a series of links to what the company is doing to help clients and strengthen their financial base.
  • And finally a link to one of the best “at a glance” sections I have seen.

Well done. Next the About Us page–

Before getting to the comprehensive About US menu on the upper left, you see a strong corporate statement and a signed CEO letter. This is another effective website technique–prominently displaying the top manager with a short message enhances the the idea that the company is interested in the needs of visitors.

Next a visit to additional sections of About Us. I found the Values section to be unique —

Items of note–

  • Note the value chain of linking values to stakeholders, first time I have seen this technique
  • Integrity is a key element of the Values proposition

Also on this page is a further explanation regarding how the Values are related to stakeholder groups.

The Integrity Charter, as noted, is amply used in the discussion of Values. On The Integrity Charter page is —

With the aim to guarantee the proper application of the Integrity Charter, we have designed the Restorative Justice System. This System promotes individual responsibility and the voluntary resolution of matters between parties and it is supported by a Groupwide “Ombudsman” network that works to resolve matters in which the Values of the Integrity Charter may have been compromised.

The Ombudsmen are internal appointees completely independent who report directly to the Group’s Chairman, and they are responsible for assessing the validity of the claims in each case.

Every year all people who work for UniCredit Group are involved in the Integrity Charter Day, the annual Group event devoted to remember and discuss about the importance of the Integrity Charter and of its implications in every day working life.

Note the Ombudsman approach and the Integrity Charter Day. Now that is how to implement integrity. The Integrity Charter is only available as a PDF but is well worth a read. Within this document is a benchmark display of associating values and integrity to stakeholder groups–

Click to enlarge

I’ve seen enough and am ready to do business with UniCredit Group.

Belgium’s Bekaert — Engaging Home Page

Corporate websites continue to improve their ability to capture the attention of visitors. You might think that the best are those that offer consumer products. Well, I found a corporate website that —

is a global market leader in drawn steel wire products and applications and a technological leader in its two core competences: advanced metal transformation and advanced materials and coatings.

The company is Bekaert and it has been in business since 1880: a remarkable achievement.

The company must have realized that the above description might need a little expansion, so they also said —

You might know us for example as a supplier of steel cord products for tire reinforcement – one in every four tires in the world runs on Bekaert steel cord. Or maybe you know our Dramix® steel fibers, used to reinforce over five million cubic meters of concrete every year. But we also offer significant added value for various businesses in all kinds of markets, from automotive to construction and from utilities to the heavy equipment sector.

Somebody is on the ball, offering an informal translation. OK, on to the Home Page —

Bekaert goes right to the task. Information about the company is readily available.

1., 2. On the upper left is Bekaert in a nutshell; click on More About Us to obtain a well done summary of what the company does.

3. The Annual Report is prominently displayed. Click on the image and you get a easy to navigate online version. No PDFs here.

4. The company provides a search capability to find out more about their offerings. This is useful to a number of stakeholders, including potential customers, investors and the media.

5. Continuing on the theme in #4, the company offers stakeholders a more focused approach to match their products to industries.

6. News and share price and no need to go to Investors and more clicks unless you need more information.

7. Bekaert provides visitors with an easy to navigate map of the global locations. Click on the map and the home page shows the map in place of the Annual Report.

Another good feature is this graphic on pages that you navigate to from the Home Page (see right) —

An example of effective use of a corporate website for stakeholder communications. Bekaert’s website is a good example of using the Home Page for quick visitor communications.

France’s Crédit Agricole a Website to Bank on

Don’t know how I missed this one, but Crédit Agricole is the largest retail bank in Europe. Their website suits this status. In the Profile section, click on Organization and access an informative visual that gives the visitor a quick view of how the company and its components are organized.

Credit Organisation

Next Economic Research is a major navigational component and for good reason. This section contains a robust supply of economic information on a very wide array of subjects.

Credit Eco Research

In the upper left navigation box, you have access to–

  • Perspectives

A quarterly publication setting out the Crédit Agricole scenario for the economy, interest rates and currencies in the main economic regions, ie, the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Aperiodic publication – Tabular data for Crédit Agricole economic and financial forecasts.

  • Eco News

Eco News is an aperiodic publication providing up-to-the-minute analysis of a current topic.

  • Eclairages

Monthly Eclairages

Éclairages is a monthly publication featuring a series of articles addressing a single issue from a range of different viewpoints. The core topic is examined according to the different specializations of teams from the Economic and Banking Studies Department: macroeconomics, country risk, banking and finance, and economic analysis of individual sectors.

Eclairages Emergents

Eclairages Emergents is an aperiodic publication offering a series of articles addressing emerging economies or an emerging region from a variety of angles.

  • Eclairages Research

Eclairages Research is an aperiodic publication providing in-depth analysis of a specific topic.

An impressive menu of information and research offerings. Each topic can be viewed as a summary so you can decide if you want to download a PDF. Better if it was available as HTML and an option to download. Note the effective use of Tag Cloud that links to various topics.

My favorite section of this site is the Shareholders Corner. A link to this section is prominently displayed under the major navigation link Finance & Shareholders. This is the company’s unique method of communicating with its shareholders. What a great idea!

Credit Corner

Skeptics might say that this is nothing new since most companies already provide this type of information. This is only partially true — Crédit Agricole goes the extra effort to provide a section that makes easy access to relevant shareholder information on one page. Note how resources are organized and see the upper right Direct Access navigation. Then there’s the Shareholder Club and Consultative Committee.

To develop close relations and regular dialogue with shareholders, Crédit Agricole S.A. set up the Shareholders’ Club in June 2002. Its main purpose is to inform shareholders, helping them understand the company, its organisation and businesses, to learn about the stockmarket and finance, and to provide them with our analysis of the economy.

The Club provides information, publications and other resources to what appears to be investors with modest holdings. Another good idea. But the pièce de résistance is the Consultative Committee —

Crédit Agricole S.A. set up in 2003 a Consultative Committee to help the company communicate as effectively as possible with its retail shareholders.

Members of the Committee are judiciously drawn from representative geographic areas —

Credit Agricole

Brilliant!

Crédit Agricole clearly is an example of how to engage a company’s most important stakeholders — Investors, including those with modest holdings.

Websites Offering Business Management Tools

Maybe you landed a new job or got transferred to another unit in your company and you need to “”bone up” on management tools. You could read some books but you don’t have the time. Once again websites come to your aid.   My first suggestions are websites offered by two of the largest management consulting companies — Bain & Company, and Booz & Co.

Bain

Let’s say you need to learn more about such items as the Balanced Scorecard or Customer segmentation. Go to Bain’s Management Tools to find an overview of these tools and more —

Note the menu of tools and articles. You don’t have to register, Bain makes the tools freely available. OK maybe this is a promotional technique, but it does develop good will. Thanks Bain.

(As always, click on the images to expand them.)

Next Booz & Co. offers some interactive tools. Not as many as Bain but more comprehensive —

Booz

Note the topics are on target for the current business environment. These tools are well done, something you would expect from Booz. They are easy and fun to use. The Working Capital Profiler allows you to test various scenarios and immediately portrays the results. As with Bain, no registration needed and no ads. Kudos to both firms for offering useful tools.

Need to understand the three primary financial reports: income statement, balance sheet and cash flow? Go to New York based Baruch College’s “Guide To Financial Statements” for a 45 minute tutorial. OK, this will not make you a CPA but you will at least understand the basics.

SkyMark

Back to comprehensive. A vey comprehensive offering of management methods is offered by SkyMark, a software and consulting firm.

A bit more designed to get you to use their products and services but still well done. Note the wide menu of references. Good job SkyMark.

Need more? Try UK based BusinessBalls. Be careful, this one is loaded with information.

Now go to that new job or assignment with confidence.

Toray Group Website — Effective Use Of Visuals

Based in Japan, Toray Group is an integrated chemical company. The company has 37,924 employees and 1,471.6 billion yen (2009/03) in sales. First let’s go to About Us

Toray Group: About Section

Note the use of image visuals. This gives a personality to the website. You get a feeling that there are people are behind this site. Profiling the message from the CEO also is an effective technique. Also deciding to put “Our People” is telling, hmm what’s that phrase “people are our most important asset”.

Navigate to Corporate Governance. There is a comprehensive description but not overly wordy explanation of the company’s Governance process supplemented by a visual diagram —

Toray Group Corporate Governance

The visual is a good supplement to the text and enhances communicating Toray’s Governance process.

Now let’s view what is an excellent use of a video, Toray at a Glance, to explain the company’s businesses, performance, strategies and at the end links to more information.

Toray Group At a Glance

This is one of the most effective website communication techniques I have seen.

Lesson Learned — enhance your website communications by thoughtful use of visuals.