Landing the plane in

the

uncharted islet: GRI

and

Integrated

Reporting

in

Zimbabwe.

Pascal Shuro

Michael Rea says that "By making public every company's compliance with GRI

Guidelines, I believe company officials will strive not only to report better but use

this information to bring the most important issues to the attention of their boards,

and consequently, be more responsible in their business dealings."

The Climate crisis has adverse impacts on the local, national, regional and

international economies; there is a need for reporting frameworks that can make

companies sustainable. Let's assume you are an investor, which weather-related,

social, and corporate governance risks would you consider when approaching an

investment opportunity? Which reports would use to see the potential of the

company? Corporate governance, financial statements and social responsibility reporting

standards have been with us for some time, nonetheless now there is a need for

reporting standard frameworks that encompass all the non-financial aspects and

link them to financial performance. The 21st century has experienced changes, and

appreciation of intangible assets over tangible assets is one. Sceptics would the

tempted to go with the notion that financial statements show a lot, but it’s

unrealistic. Then how so?

Ocean Tomo identifies that in 2021 tangible assets are commanding 80% more

value than their tangible assets. Income balance sheet, cash flow and statements of

shareholder equity are just not enough to measure a company's performance. But

non-financial (intellectual property, human capital, environmental, and social and

relationships) have more worth. And can influence a company's value.

Companies have become more aware of the effect of society how it sees them, that

it is more powerful than usually anticipated. Robert Greene says that reputation is

far more important to be protected, and one should guard it with their life; Using

non-financial reports can help keep the reputation alive. Zimbabwe lags. This is a

problem when one looks into the medium and long-run of the organization. Several

reporting standard frameworks look into non-financial aspects. The major two are

the Global Reporting Initiative and Integrated Reporting (created by International

Reporting Council) standard framework. GRI and IR have been used in South

Africa by gurus such as Michael Rea to produce compliance and sustainability

reports.

Using Global Reporting Initiative allows companies to identify risks that might

affect the business. GRI reports show organizational impact on the environment

and allow investors to identify risks and companies which meet their criteria. Implementing GRI reporting helps customers and other stakeholders to understand to identify the organization's nature stewardship initiatives. The greenness of a company is often used to identify fitting holders of tenders and protects the

organization from public scrutiny and litigation. These have the potential to disrupt

the acceptability of the firm by its local and international customers. The GRI

standard framework is easy to use and can be applied to any industry and provides

simple language than the G4 framework. Transitioning to use GRI helps in

identifying strengths and weaknesses and makes it possible to come up with

strategies to motivate employees. And helps to improve vision and strategy, and

Management systems.

Integrated Reporting is another framework that can be implemented. IR can be

implemented to help companies to create and protect their value. By looking into

six capital essentials and how they relate with the company value. There is a need

for corporate, human capital, intellectual, environmental reporting so that investors

better understand how much the company is worth and what risks is it associated

with. These two frameworks if implemented by companies they will see their

profits triple, allows them to better plan as they have the data, and make the

company more trustworthy and accountable.

Implementing GRI and IR standard frameworks is vital for companies, and this can

help companies lure capital investment to the company. If implemented in

Zimbabwe will see companies competing with regional competitors in South

Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria to mention a few of the countries where the

frameworks have been implemented. Furthermore, using the two will help in strengthening stakeholder engagement and identifying competitive advantage. And trust. When one looks at Zimbabwe we are in a (VUCA)volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment, consequently, there is a need for tools that can solidify and strengthen companies value.