As a country, Finland defends its number one position in KWD Webranking’s 2011 survey of 950 websites in 40 countries. Results show that the 50 largest Finnish publicly traded companies excel in delivering the corporate, financial and shareholder information demanded by stakeholders in these troubles times. Nevertheless, there is an air of modesty over the Finns. Few mention their financial achievements, it is rare to find key strengths packaged into an investment case and boasting about the corporate brand seems to be a concern for one company only – Fortum. Nevertheless, it is Neste Oil that wins the annual ranking of corporate websites in Finland.
As a country, Finland strongly defends its number one position in Europe of producing the best corporate websites according to the demands of the capital market.
When comparing European countries, Finnish companies – just as in 2010 – make the best home pages, about us-, financial reporting-, IR- and Corporate governance sections.
Finland also lands in 1st place when it comes to informing about risk management on the corporate website – 82% describe the operational and/or financial risks and how they intend to react should they become a reality. Furthermore, Finnish companies provide to the highest extent information regarding market shares and are transparent with the company peer group and competitors.
Clear financial targets but little is said about achievements
3 out of 4 Finnish companies have a presentation of their financial goals and/or a description on how to reach them. This is the highest score in Europe. However, only 40% inform of their target achievements and well below half (40%) provide both targets and achievements on the website.
Investment cases are rare
With the capital market looking for a reason to invest – very few Finnish sites do a successful job in presenting an investment case. Merely 30% of the biggest companies in Finland take the time and effort to clearly outline their investment case on the corporate website.
Few recognise the power of the brand
All in all, 14 companies (28%) present and define the corporate brand on the website whereof Fortum is the only one giving information about how the company is working to preserve and strengthen the brand towards its stakeholders.
Film is an issue
In times when viewing, uploading and sharing videos over the internet is increasingly popular, only nine of Finland’s largest companies provide corporate films on their corporate website introducing the company. None provide embedded corporate films which can be downloaded.
Social media channels are not used to its full potential
With social media channels dramatically increasing the opportunities for corporate stakeholder dialogues and strengthening online corporate presence, it is not surprising that 49 out of 50 companies have a presence in social media channels. However, relatively few (36%) have a link between their website and their social media channels. Even less (12%) take the opportunity to link the home page to their Twitter feed, Facebook page and YouTube channel.
How rankings have changed over the year
The average score for Finnish corporate websites is 55.89 points out of 100 points, a drop with 2.14 points compared to 2010. The Finnish result is however far better than the average score for the 500 largest companies by market cap listed in Europe (44.17 points).
After two consecutive years ranked as Finland’s second best corporate website, Neste Oil claims the throne from Fortum with 79.25 points out of 100. Fortum lands soundly in 2nd place (78.50 points) and Rautaruukki climbs from 6th place in 2010 to 3rd in 2011 (74.5). Ranked 23rd in 2010, Outotec makes a remarkable leap landing in 7th place and thereby joining the top 10. The mining company Talvivaaran, the only newcomer to the survey, landed on the 41st place.
Tikkurila – this year’s climber
Climbing with 17.75 points and going from 51st place in 2010 to 23rd in 2011, Tikkurila improved its score the most since 2010 in the ranking of the 50 largest companies in Finland.
| Rank 2011 | Company | Points |
| 1 | Neste Oil | 79.25 |
| 2 | Fortum | 78.50 |
| 3 | Rautaruukki | 74.50 |
| 4 | Wärtsilä | 74.25 |
| 5 | Metso | 68.00 |
| 6 | Kesko | 67.00 |
| 7 | Outotec | 66.00 |
| 8 | TeliaSonera | 65.75 |
| 9 | Outokumpu | 64.50 |
| 10 | Nokia | 63.75 |
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- KWD Webranking Forum, London
