Teaching New Tricks to an Old Dog

Just digging myself out from beneath the pile of “stuff” that grew on my desk while I was presenting at NIRI’s latest Intro to IR seminar and wanted to pass along some things from Santa Monica while they’re still fresh in my mind:

1. The folks at Aflac deserve all the IR awards they win. Wow, that’s an impressive team and program. One of the things I love that they do is their yearly Financial Analysts Briefing Book that they use to help educate investors on the various components of the business (think: a mashup of an annual report and an offering memorandum but on steroids). While not the most aesthetically pleasing piece I’ve ever seen, it is truly a disclosure piece of art. Talk about treating IR as a customer service function!

2.  Along those same lines, one of the other presenters said that he sends a copy of their quarterly conference call transcripts to his investors to save them the step of having to find it online themselves. Brilliant. I will steal that one.

3. The message from the sell side and the buy side was identical - “make it easy for us.”  By that they meant both make the company’s business easy to understand and make it easy for them to get the information they are looking for.

4. There was a lot of discussion on disclosure policies, which was good to see as I think this document is too often overlooked or under developed. During one of the discussions, someone mentioned that they include a policy on participating in corporate surveys (e.g., CSR practices). Very smart idea. I will also steal this one.

5. I was surprised at how little discussion there was on intangible assets, particularly given how much influence they have on valuation. Transparency on these mostly invisible growth catalysts is a critical component of an effective investor relations program. I’ll have to remember to ask the NIRI powers-that-be why that aspect was all but omitted from the program.

6. Similarly, there was very little discussion on how to effectively leverage financial or trade media within an IR program. Research continues to show that media coverage is a top source for investment ideas among buy-side investors. I’ll have to add that to my NIRI follow-up list.

On a slightly unrelated note, Kirk Cameron was apparently in Cleveland two weeks/weekends ago as he was on my flight to LAX. Who knew?!!?

This article has 0 comments. Join the conversation