{"id":419,"date":"2015-07-16T20:21:59","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T20:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seci.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2015-07-16T20:21:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T20:21:59","slug":"disclosure-simplification-that-was-too-easy-for-ge-they-went-so-much-further","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/disclosure-simplification-that-was-too-easy-for-ge-they-went-so-much-further\/","title":{"rendered":"Disclosure Simplification? That was too easy for GE, they went so much further!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of our June workshops a participant brought the most recent GE Form 10-K into the group\u2019s discussions. GE has dramatically redesigned their Form 10-K to be a communication focused document<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If it weren\u2019t for the cover page, most SEC reporting professionals would not even recognize this filing as a 10-K. Right after the cover page is a picture of a GE worker and this is followed by an executive summary. It looks like an annual report to shareholders at first, but no, it is the ACTUAL FORM 10-K! It even has colors!<\/p>\n

The document is organized differently to tell GE\u2019s story in a meaningful and engaging way. When you think Form 10-K you usually think of a lock-step structure of Parts and Items, and this structure does not appear at all in this narrative document. GE has used General Instruction C.1. in a very innovative way. This instruction says:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Preparation of Report. <\/strong>\n
      \n
    1. (1) \u00a0This form is not to be used as a blank form to be filled in, but only as a guide in the preparation of the report on paper meeting the requirements of Rule 12b-12. Except as provided in General Instruction G, the answers to the items shall be prepared in the manner specified in Rule 12b-13. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      GE completely redesigned the structure and the flow. GE did not follow the lock-step format of the Form 10-K Parts and Items. Instead they reorganized the content into a logical structure and flow. In addition, you will see a variety of font sizes and headings, pictures, graphics and other tools to make information easier to follow and understand. (All of course looking back to the concepts of Plain English.)<\/p>\n

      When we here at the blog first read the document we wondered how it could even be grounded in the Form 10-K instructions, but check out page 231. Here is the linkage to the instructions. In the order of the Parts and Items in the Form 10-K instructions GE cross references to where the required disclosures are in their new 10-K.<\/p>\n

      The investment in improvement and change in this document is, well, WOW!<\/p>\n

      You can find the 10-K at:<\/p>\n

      www.ge.com\/ar2014\/assets\/pdf\/GE_2014_Form_10K.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

      As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      In one of our June workshops a participant brought the most recent GE Form 10-K into the group\u2019s discussions. GE has dramatically redesigned their Form 10-K to be a communication focused document. If it weren\u2019t for the cover page, most SEC reporting professionals would not even recognize this filing as a 10-K. Right after the … Continue reading Disclosure Simplification? That was too easy for GE, they went so much further!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[39,48,40,42,24,52,4,6,5],"coauthors":[163],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-k10-q-tips","tag-accountant","tag-accounting","tag-business","tag-financial-reporting","tag-financial-statements","tag-form-10-k","tag-sec","tag-sec-professionals","tag-sec-reporting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seciblog.pli.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}