Easing the small-cap regulatory burden
Companies at the low end of the market cap spectrum often view compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations as a Sisyphean burden, with costly, recurring, quarterly and yearly work....
View ArticleSkin in the game: ‘I’ and ‘We’
Investors like to know a CEO and other leaders have “skin in the game” – a personal stake in the company’s success in creating value. Now a study by accounting profs at Tulane University suggests that...
View ArticleWhat’s the value of your brand?
Andy Warhol’s “Coca-Cola [3]” Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art The typical raw materials of valuation are numbers – and investor relations people get very comfortable working with metrics that...
View ArticleGift bags and a chat with shareholders
A nice feature on the Estée Lauder annual meeting ritual – a gathering of mostly older ladies dressed to a T, gathering for a continental breakfast “beautifully displayed,” a gift bag of cosmetics,...
View ArticleHillary (or Donald) ate my homework
Ya gotta love it! This just in from today’s Wall Street Journal: If you believe U.S. corporations, Americans are drinking less coffee, eating fewer doughnuts and taking fewer cruises, all because of...
View Article‘That’s not a strategy’
Henry R. Kravis, co-chair of KKR, in the July/August Bloomberg Markets, on interviewing CEOs of potential investments: I compare their responses to the dot-com period around 2000. Back then I’d ask,...
View ArticleIR webpage: connecting with investors
Looking at the IR page on Mattel’s website the other day, I saw something worthy of emulation. Not some fancy technology – the toy maker uses a standard back-end system with an automated feed. No...
View ArticleMind the GAAP – and the perceptions
One of many fond impressions London offers to visitors is the warning “Mind the gap” – a uniquely British way of cautioning subway riders not to trip over, or get their foot stuck in, that space...
View ArticleBeware of spell check
There is a double warning in an advertisement by Hartford Funds in the July-August 2016 issue of Bloomberg Markets. First, the disclaimer cautions investors that things don’t always work out as hoped....
View ArticleAltitude sickness, anyone?
Headlines like “Dow Presses On to Historic Peak” seem a little scary. Yet there it is, splashed across page 1 of today’s Wall Street Journal. Being part of anything cyclical can bring its chills as...
View ArticleWhat’s material? It depends …
Materiality is one of those fuzzy ideas. Is it a piece of information that makes your stock price move (or would if disclosed)? A change that impacts sales or profit by 10% … or 5 … or 1? One of those...
View ArticleRelationships, not just road shows
What makes for a successful IPO? Or sustained capital markets success for established public companies? Discussing the boom (or bubble) in biotech IPOs, an investment banker who specializes in capital...
View ArticleAttracting like-minded investors
How do we bring in long-term investors? By disdaining short-termism and managing the business for results over the long haul. That, at least, is the short answer in an interview of Tim Cook, CEO of...
View ArticleDisclosure committees and IR
With ever-growing regulatory requirements and the complexity of global business, disclosure committees are playing a crucial role in ensuring accurate and useful reporting to investors, according to...
View ArticleCan companies think & act long-term?
When former Merck & Co. CEO Ray Gilmartin sat down with a governance guru to reflect on “The Board’s Role in Strategy” for the National Association of Corporate Directors’ Directorship magazine,...
View Article‘Key to success … is preparation’
Juan Ramón Alaix, CEO of the animal health giant Zoetis Inc. (formerly Pfizer Animal Health, spun off as a NYSE-listed company last year), offers wise counsel on communicating effectively with...
View ArticleLet’s make a deal
Mergers and acquisitions are resurgent – a factor in the stock market’s buoyancy, a topic of conversation everywhere and a sometimes challenging reality in our jobs as investor relations professionals....
View ArticleDo we focus on the long term?
We often hear CEOs complain about the short-termism of Wall Street, but a commentary by value investor Francois Ticart in this week’s Barron’s questions whether most companies really focus on long-term...
View ArticleHow IR adds value for investors
At the NIRI Kansas City chapter’s “IR and Governance Bootcamp” today, Debbie Hancock, vice president of investor relations for Hasbro, Inc. did a great job – with an assist from Bruce Burns, director...
View ArticleWhat’s your creation story?
As investor relations people, we often hear or talk about stocks that have a great “story” – by which we mean a memorable explanation of how the business generates value. Stockbrokers and the buy side...
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