When Piyush Pandey became the story of an annual report

Creating an annual report has always been an important agenda in the Chairman’s office. For large corporates, it is much more than a statutory document. It is an opportunity to present the company’s performance, personality, values and journey over the financial year. Considerable thought goes into its design, photography, production and presentation. In the past, companies would print these reports on high-quality paper and carefully mail them to shareholders, investors and other stakeholders.

Technology has changed that tradition. Annual reports today are increasingly available digitally, uploaded on corporate websites and circulated electronically. The convenience is undeniable, but something of the physical and emotional experience of receiving a beautifully produced annual report has inevitably been lost.

Which is why what Pidilite Industries has done with its FY2025-26 Annual Report is particularly interesting. It has taken an otherwise conventional corporate exercise and turned it into a tribute to one of Indian advertising’s most celebrated creative minds, the late Piyush Pandey.

For anyone who has followed Indian advertising, the Pidilite-Pandey association is a remarkable story. Pandey’s relationship with Fevicol began in the mid-1980s, when the brand was hardly the obvious creative playground for an advertising professional. Fevicol was an adhesive. It did not carry the glamour or emotional appeal associated with brands such as Cadbury or Asian Paints. Yet Pandey and his team saw something that others perhaps did not: an everyday product could become a cultural brand if it was presented with humour, insight and an unmistakably Indian voice.

Over the years, Fevicol became much more than a product. Its advertising became part of popular culture. The famous characters, situations, humour and memorable lines made the brand instantly recognisable. More importantly, Pandey’s creative thinking extended beyond Fevicol to several brands in Pidilite’s portfolio, including Fevikwik, M-Seal and Dr Fixit.

The new annual report revisits this extraordinary creative journey. It brings together stories behind campaigns such as How to Fish the Fevikwik Way, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, The Egg that Hatched a Legend, The Journey that Fevicol Bus Took, The Will that Changed the Game for M-Seal and The Fevikwik Kabadiwalli Fix.

What makes the exercise special is that the report does not merely reproduce advertisements. It attempts to capture the thinking, creativity, cultural understanding and human connections that made these campaigns memorable. In doing so, Pidilite has transformed an annual report into something closer to a piece of advertising history.

The concluding chapter, appropriately titled End of an Era, brings the tribute together by recognising Pandey’s contribution to Indian advertising. Contributions from Pidilite, its board, Ogilvy, Prasoon Pandey and others who were part of this long association make the report a collaborative celebration rather than simply a corporate publication.

There is an important lesson here for other companies.

Annual reports are often treated as documents meant primarily for shareholders and analysts. But a company’s annual report can also be an expression of its corporate personality. It can tell stories that numbers alone cannot. In an age when consumers are bombarded with content every day, creating something people want to keep, browse and share can itself become a powerful form of communication.

Pidilite has also demonstrated that corporate heritage can be made contemporary. Instead of simply talking about the company’s financial performance, the report celebrates an important part of its cultural and creative heritage. It reminds readers that behind successful brands are people, ideas, risks, failures and decades of creative experimentation.

There is also an opportunity to take the idea further. Why should this tribute remain confined to an annual report? Pidilite could potentially turn the creative legacy into a beautifully designed calendar featuring some of the most memorable campaigns from the Fevicol and Fevikwik journeys. Such a calendar could find its way into advertising agencies, offices, retail outlets and even the homes of advertising enthusiasts.

There could be exhibitions, digital archives, short films, social media storytelling and even a travelling showcase celebrating the creative journey of Pidilite’s brands. Every campaign has a story, and every story can create another point of engagement.

Perhaps that is the real strength of this annual report. It has taken a document traditionally associated with balance sheets, performance numbers and shareholder communication and given it an emotional dimension.

In doing so, Pidilite has not just honoured Piyush Pandey. It has honoured the power of an idea—and reminded the corporate world that sometimes the most effective annual report is one that people remember long after they have finished reading the numbers.