August 10, 2010 – 9:54 am
They don’t give Pulitzer prizes for earnings releases. Or annual reports. Or conference call scripts. But if public companies were to be judged on efforts to communicate with investors, the judges’ list of criteria would surely include clarity. The top three standards might be accuracy, timeliness and clarity. This is the stuff of investor relations. And after all, [...]
The CEO of Abbott Laboratories, Miles White, comments on the interplay between corporate strategy and long-term investor relationships in an August 6 interview with Investors Business Daily. Asked about ABT’s record of increasing dividends each year for 38 years, cultivating a diversified medical product line that lacks “pure pharma” sizzle, and following the slow-but-steady approach [...]
OK, this is not my usual earnest, well-reasoned post. Just so you’re forewarned: Here’s a bit of summer fluff. And this may be in bad taste, or even sexist. Sex appeal isn’t an aspect of investor relations I ever considered, well, an aspect of investor relations. I’ve always thought of IR professionals as a cross [...]
As the role of the CEO changes in 21st Century corporations, the mission of investor relations and corporate communications also evolves. These staff functions often support the chief executive in achieving success – or fall short along with the boss. We ought to take note of subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in the corner office. Cliff [...]
Today President Obama signed into law the far-reaching expansion of federal regulation of US banking and capital markets. The overhaul has been brewing in Washington since the financial crisis in 2008 – and the 848-page heft of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (PDF here) may have something to do with the [...]
Institutional investors are relying a bit more for equity research on mid-sized firms, regional brokers and industry-sector specialists as the bulge-bracket investment banks continue to reel from the effects of the financial crisis, Greenwich Associates reports in its 2010 U.S. Equity Analysts Study. Investor relations people reaching out to analysts might consider the changing sell side [...]
“Keeping Your Foot Away From Your Mouth” This headline in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal piece (p.D1) highlights a common human frailty. Citing gaffes from business leaders, politicians and entertainers, the WSJ says words do matter – and verbal errors can cause lasting damage. In investor relations, of course, foot-in-mouth syndrome is one of our worst [...]
Going into Fourth of July weekend, a friend who has helped raise capital for privately owned businesses – and a couple of public companies – offered his theory about why capital isn’t flowing into enterprises that could reignite our economy. There’s “plenty of money” sitting in private equity funds and other investors’ stashes, this serial [...]
Arrival of the second half, naturally I think, sets investors and investor relations people to thinking about year-end. We’re halfway through 2010, so we begin to ask, “What will the outcome of this year be, in earnings and other accomplishments? … or in disappointments?” As an IR person in the US, I’ve always seen Fourth [...]
Think twice – maybe you should even take a third, fourth or fifth look – before going public, Erik Birkerts advises private-company owners in a piece called ”Hey, Where’s My Gulfstream?!” in the July 2010 issue of Mergers & Acquisitions. Birkerts, a veteran of venture-backed companies that did IPOs in 1999 and 2007, now is a partner [...]
