Transparency and the Sustainability Agenda | FTSE 100 Website Reviews
March 10, 2010
General Industrials is one of those catch all phrases within the London Stock Exchange. It’s not quite an “and everything else” hold all, but neither is it particularly specific about what the companies do. They just do industry.. generally.
There are only two General Industrial companies within the FTSE 100: Smiths Group, and Rexam.
Smiths focuses upon threat & contraband detection, medical devices, energy, communications and engineered components, while Rexam is the world’s second largest consumer packaging group and a leading global beverage can maker.
There’s no particular reason for them to be in competition with each other, other than the fact they both fit into this “other” category. Read more
SKF Little Glitz, Lots of Content
February 11, 2010
SKF is one of the leading global suppliers of products, solutions and services within rolling bearings, seals, mechatronics, services and lubrication systems.
Industrial products – so I expected a more serious corporate website without the “bells and whistles” you see on consumer products and services companies.
Right? Well, not entirely… The company has a video and some interactive items on the homepage, and there are plenty more “bells and whistles” elsewhere. Plus, they do a good job of integrating product information with corporate material here (not always easy).
But the real story is how they present the company.
First, the About Us section is called This Is SKF. This is only a portion of the page — the company offers too much information to display in one image.
So let’s see the menu on this page:
- The Power of Knowledge Engineering
- Fast facts
- The SKF Culture
- Living the Vision
- Six Sigma
- Board and management
- Division overview
- Awards
- In focus
- SKF History
- SKF Supplier Centre
- SKF Nova
- Corporate sponsorships
- This website
Pretty comprehensive, and there are bells and whistles all over the place: see Living the Vision and the Power of Knowledge Engineering, and do go to look at the history timeline. The In Focus section has loads of information about the various components of the company (very interesting). And “This website” is something I have never seen on a corporate website: it describes the organization of the website. Much better than a site map.
Next a visit to Corporate Governance.
The theme of rich content continues here but, unlike other sections, there is too much use of PDFs rather than online sources for my taste.
Suggestion for SKF–apply your overall content strategy in the Corporate Governance section as well as elsewhere.
Despite this minor quibble, SKF’s website is content rich for stakeholders.
Something for everyone…
Holcim–Communicating Process and Strategy
December 15, 2009
Zurich based Holcim, a construction materials and consulting company, knows something about how to use their website to provide stakeholder information. You only need to to look at the About Us section…
Some highlights:
- a good landing page, with teaser links to Strategy, Videos and more
- “This Could Be Interesting”: an unusual title for related links, which contains a link to an good explanation of how the company manufactures their main products
- a factsheet, “Holcim at a Glance”, is available but alas only as a PDF.
Holcim uses a well organized approach to explain its strategy to visitors in some detail.
The strategy is explained with the use of visuals. The link to the Value Chain displays a comprehensive visual and a portfolio analysis of its product lines.
The company also includes targets related to the strategy. This is an item overlooked by some companies.
This post would not be complete without a visit to the Corporate Governance section.
There is a link to Vision and Mission. Also visit the Organization section. The only suggestion I would make is to offer more content as HTML in addition to PDFs.
Georg Fischer–Beyond PDFs and More
September 22, 2009
In a few of my recent posts, I’ve suggested that company websites should include reports and documents in both online and download versions. Switzerland based Georg Fischer embraces this idea. Besides displaying an outstanding website, the company offers HTML and PDF options.
On the information rich About Us section, note the options to view reports on the right in both online and PDF versions. The video about the company is also a good feature. However, the Fact Sheet in the middle of the page should also be offered online. Also note the menu on the upper left, which is comprehensive. The Vision and Strategy is a bit terse but what is notable is the Trend Key Figures.
Many companies display their strategies; some in great detail. But a limited number go the extra step and show how they are performing against the strategy. Georg Fischer not only shows their performance but note that in addition to PDFS you can get the data in Excel. This should be a standard feature on websites.
Another item that shows Georg Fischer’s going the extra step is their display of Broker Recommendations. I have seen a number of companies that list brokers who cover the company, but I don’t always see what the recommendations are. Georg Fischer shows the recommendations, even those that are unfavorable –
This is not only useful but it shows the company’s transparency.
This site has so much information you might have to use the sitemap. Other content of note –
- Top Stories a wide variety of articles about the company
- Competition by industry segment
- Company History nicely done, informative timeline.
Well done Georg Fischer!
Belgium’s Bekaert — Engaging Home Page
August 25, 2009
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.
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