What is Chairman's Message & How Important it is in my company selection?

Chairman's Message is a letter from the chairman of the board to shareholders reporting on company's condition including summary of company top and bottom lines for the full financial year, the last whole year activities have been taken by the board, ongoing and going forward activities by the board (including any restructuring, merger & acquisitions), and personal perspective of the company in future. This has to cover the positive and negative (if any) outlook of the company.

It is the first few pages of Annual Report (normally after business vision & mission part) and it only has about 2 pages.

This Chairman' message is one of the most important criteria in selecting a company to invest.

Chairman's message presented has to be in candor and honest manner as this will at least explains indirectly about the integrity of the chairman and the board in the company. Having honesty and integrity are one of the most important qualities of great leadership in business. Good leaders give promises carefully with much thinking and consideration, and once they have given that promise, they follow through on the promise without fail. And they always tell the truth - even though the truth is negative. The reality of principle is seeing the world as it really is not as we wish it to be. When leaders make mistake, they also admit their mistakes. Leaders have to be confident but they also have to be open to any possibilities of their decision could be wrong, or even totally wrong.

Good chairman of a company always respect the people around them: board of directors, staffs, business partners, and they treasure the hard work of each of them. Leaders learn and are guided from the people below them under the organization chart too.

Good leaders/chairman have the courage to face fear with confident and good preparation.

I am learning to access company with one of the important criteria as above, to look for those which have a candor and honest chairman's message.