Topic Overview

Your “customer” is the investor. It is essential to know what they are looking for. Here are the 6 items investors are looking for. They are listed in order of most important to least important, but each one can be beneficial.

Every management team talks about building shareholder value. There are many ways to do this. Here are the most common ways in order of premium the Street places. A periodic reminder to the rest of the management team or the Street can be helpful.

Although Wall Street and business are not as straight-forward as the world of sports, there are some similarities. Both the best companies and best sports teams experience losses/mistakes/negative trends. However, unlike sports where records of losses are readily available, companies must choose how to discuss when things are not going as planned. We recommend balance. No one believes everything is going well all the time. This one-pager reminds us that even the most valuable sports teams don’t win all the time.

Here is detailed look as to how an IRO can leverage expertise within the company to deliver IR excellence.

IRO’s are essential to having an offense-driven IR program. Take a look here to see how best in class companies divide and conquer IR and financial initiatives. This team when working together can drive a premium valuation in your stock and allow the CEO and CFO to maximize their effectiveness.

Here is a nice overview of Minimum – Good – Best In Class methods for sharing information to the investment community. This includes Reporting, Marketing, Quiet Period and Guidance.

This is perhaps the coolest resource within the IR Barn. It is a comprehensive look at what separates World Class IR from the Bare Minimum/Required. Use this one-pager to assess where you can enhance your current offering. Play offense. Always.

Here is a one-page snapshot of the 4 worlds that IR serves, including The Story, Buy-Side World, Sell-Side Community and Financial/Media/Other. This will help provide you with an overview of the IR Landscape.

Here is a one-pager that shows the overall Wall Street Landscape. By knowing how all of the players work together, you can better understand and manage the process.

Transparency is of significant importance to your credibility. Here is a Sept 2015 article in the WSJ about a small tweak by Google which made a significant difference in perception from the investment community.