Our Major Initiatives for 2007
Each year, a poll of member challenges helps direct our agenda. To address these issues, we conduct hundreds of interviews with members and build quantitative databases from member-provided data.
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Evolving CFO Priorities for the Investor Relations Function
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The Challenge:
As hedge funds and institutional investors are demanding increasingly sophisticated information from companies, IR is shifting from a communications role toward a financial and analytical function. CFOs are demanding that IR executives become more credible proxies for senior management by evolving their capability set beyond responsive providers of financial data to sophisticated marketers of the company’s investment proposition. This initiative will survey CFOs regarding their expectations of changing needs and capabilities for the IR team.
Key Questions:
- How is the division of labor between IR teams and CFOs changing at progressive companies ?
- What are CFOs’ unspoken expectations for high-performing IR teams?
- What are the best strategies for using rotations in IR as a mechanism to develop high-potential talent in the Finance function?
Member Impact:
- Quantitative survey highlighting buy-side views on key investment decision drivers
- CFO-led teleconferences on emerging issues such as changing disclosure requirements
- Sample job descriptions to attract talented professionals into your IR team
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Improving the Yield on Investor Targeting
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The Challenge:
As sell-side analysts cater increasingly to hedge funds and high-volume traders, they become less reliable partners in IR road shows to target desirable long-term investors. CFOs indicate that targeting is a top priority for 2007 and want to double the amount of time dedicated to that activity, but only 10% believe that their current efforts are "very effective." This initiative will explore progressive strategies to improve the return on targeting efforts rather than simply increase the level of time invested. We will also include a comprehensive survey of buy-side investors to determine the most important drivers of their purchase decisions.
Key Questions:
- What information and management access is most convincing to investors to inform their view on "management quality"?
- What criteria are leading fi rms using to focus their attention on the most promising targets?
- How can IR teams better triage senior management time dedicated to targeting efforts?
Member Impact:
- Tactics for maximizing the conversion rate of meetings with prospective investors
- Toolkits for enhancing the value of vendor partners for targeting and surveillance
- Emerging scalable methods to educate potential investors such as webinars, Podcasts, and conference calls
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Other Initiatives Under Consideration
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Attributes of Best-in-Class Investor Relations Web Sites
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Managing a New Era in Executive Compensation Disclosure |
| Developing the Right Skill Set to Achieve Desired Next Steps After the IRO Role |