Stakeholders expect it. And smart companies are doing it: integrating their reporting of financial and nonfinancial performance in order to improve sustainable strategy.

How can managers better identify, describe, and confront the issues of environmental and social sustainability that their companies increasingly encounter? One answer is One Report, a method of integrating information about financial and nonfinancial performance into a single, jargon-free document.

HBS senior lecturer Robert G. Eccles and coauthor Michael P. Krzus explain the benefits and value of the One Report method. Plus: book excerpt from One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy.

One Report: Better Strategy through Integrated Reporting

Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist of Weber Shandwick, commented in the article that "In today’s multi-stakeholder and multi-channel society, CEOs are increasingly concerned about reputational risk, both for their company and themselves. Now is the time for CEOs to carefully explain their companies to stakeholders, engage in productive two-way conversations, and clearly communicate their contributions to the market and society.

If stakeholders are left on their own to unify all the information they need about an enterprise, companies could find themselves vulnerable to misinformation and hearsay and put their reputations at risk."

Just reading this quote also defines a new look at the use of social media in an organisation. How to integrate not just reporting but two-way conversations with stakeholders. And, the importance of integrating reporting and use of social media into a company’s strategic communications plan.

Interesting and essential reading for Stakeholder Reputation Managers.