January 2, 2012 – 9:04 pm
Happy new year. A chatty column in the Financial Times, “Three cheers for new year trepidation,” touches on a central issue for investor relations in 2012: How should companies communicate with shareholders about what we can’t foresee? Citing the obvious risks in trying to predict what will happen in a fragile global economy, FT management editor [...]
September 27, 2011 – 10:30 am
In the “things could be worse” category: Unless you work for Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo! or News Corporation, your company isn’t discussed in “The Worst Board in America,” a video by Thomson Reuters tech correspondent Peter Lauria. “There’s basically a race to the bottom. They’re all dysfunctional in their own way,” Lauria says of the trio of [...]
A contrarian approach to messaging for investor relations is to ask yourself, “What’s wrong with this company?” Then, in IR reports and presentations, address the weak points of your business – what causes investors to turn up their noses – along with your solutions. This offbeat idea was prompted by an interview with Anne Gudefin, a [...]
As an investor relations person, I love this time of year. I enjoy working on clients’ year-end reporting, of course – but it’s also a time when I get to experience IR from the other side, as a member of the audience. Believe me when I say I am a small shareholder of a few [...]
February 27, 2011 – 4:05 pm
Warren Buffett’s latest letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, posted Saturday, rewards the reader with pithy quotes on nearly everything in business, as have so many of his annual reports in the past (a 34-year archive is here). Most of us wouldn’t suggest that our CEOs write a 25-page shareholder letter, but neither do we [...]
February 9, 2011 – 12:12 pm
While shoveling snow this morning – yet again! – I was thinking about how quick the media are quick to hype the latest “blizzard” or “worst winter since the Ice Age.” But should investor relations blame weather for missed earnings or a chill in sales? It’s not an easy question, but IR people (like the [...]
October 30, 2010 – 1:13 pm
Legendary value investor Marty Whitman gives a good interview on investing in the October 30 Barron’s. It’s a fun read, if you like to gather wisdom from folks who have been around Wall Street for more than a few bull – and bear – markets. The 86-year-old founder (and still chairman) of Third Avenue Management [...]
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 [...]
“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 [...]
