In this otherwise decent essay on the end of the glossy annual report (blame Sarbox), I find:
In general, Stenitzer thinks annual reports should always contain financial highlights with percentage changes, an 11-year financial history because it allows investors to calculate a 10-year compound annual growth rate, some breakouts for the segments within divisions of the company, and forward-looking information that really gives a sense of what management thinks. Yet in the Sarbanes-Oxley era, such candor is increasingly rare.
Eleven years of history are crucial, because a ten-year earnings-growth history is the best. Sound familiar?
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.