South Africa, March 17 -- Annual reports are so last year.

Merely reporting on your numbers and how the business impacts its shareholders used to be pretty one-sided. Enter Integrated Reporting (IR). While IR has been around since 2002 when a Danish CEO of Novozymes decided to report on the integrated financial, environmental, social and economic significance of his business, some people still wince at the thought of doing their business justice through this important document.

For a few years, the early adopters didn't have a clear framework until the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) decided on some guidelines in 2013. These are based on three pillars on which to build your framework around:

The Capitals

The Capitals...