Communications & Reporting

Internet security giant Symantec reports its current performance well, but lets itself down on past and future targets

Symantec’s latest report reflects a step-change in the company’s thinking and presentation of its corporate responsibility approach and performance. For the first time – the company has been reporting since 2008 – the report is organised around Symantec’s three strategic responsibility priorities: people (employees), world (environment, human rights, sourcing and community) and information (online security). These three focus areas form the basis of the structure of this report, which, at 43 pages, covers a healthy breadth of information in a crisp, coherent and intelligent way, while retaining focus.

As reports go, this has all the positive elements: materiality matrix, input from internal and external stakeholders, clearly laid-out performance data over three financial years, and even a few failures frankly discussed. In fact, this is one of the few reports that lend themselves to reading cover to cover without inducing sleep.

The graphics are clean and unobtrusive, supporting the text with light...