In what is a relatively young profession, Lynn Antipas Tyson is an IR titan. With decades of experience at large and mega-cap companies such as Dell, Yum! Brands and PepsiCo and as an active member of NIRI, her words and actions have contributed to our picture of what a modern IRO should be.
On October 2, 2017, Tyson joined Ford as the executive director of investor relations, less than four months after the company had appointed Jim Hackett as its new president and chief executive. The next day Hackett gave a presentation to the Street, marking his 100th day in office and outlining his strategy for the future: to improve Ford’s operational fitness, refocus capital allocation and accelerate the introduction of smart vehicles and services.
‘I started day one sprinting… and I’m not a sprinter,’ Tyson says. ‘I was literally meeting my team and the full senior management team on day one for rehearsals [before the strategic update].’
The Ford IR team has stayed in top gear ever since. During the first three months of Tyson’s tenure, the company has met with ratings agencies, reported its third and fourth quarter earnings, conducted a non-deal roadshow and a separate ESG non-deal roadshow, had business reviews in Asia and Europe and delivered a keynote address at the CES technology conference and exhibition in Las Vegas.
And all of that for a company Tyson had reservations about joining. She had been a Ford truck owner for much of her adult life though in 2016 she switched to a different manufacturer amid frustration that her truck model hadn’t been updated. But her concerns ran deeper than being a lapsed customer.
‘When I was initially approached I was intrigued, but I had perceptions about the sector,’ Tyson says. ‘I had already been through massive sector disruption at Dell. Based on the challenges I saw the automotive space facing, I did not believe traditional auto original equipment manufacturers would be able to change in the way that was required.’
She researched Ford and the automotive sector and found it was even more complex than she had first thought, which is exactly what she told the management team members when she was interviewed. ‘I was very direct and viewed the interview process as a conversation about my concerns,’ she says. ‘I wanted to know whether this was a place that could adapt and where I could add value.’
Getting into gear
As Hackett was so new to the corner office, he didn’t yet have a fleshed-out public strategy to discuss in the interview process. But when Tyson met with Hackett, CFO Bob Shanks and Bill Ford, the firm’s executive chair, she was impressed by their transparency, vision and values. ‘What I respect most is a leader who puts his or her ego in the service of the business, versus using the market to feed his or her ego,’ she says.
Hackett, Shanks and Ford sold Tyson on the opportunity. And, Shanks says, Tyson very quickly sold them on her strengths. ‘There were two things that stood out about Lynn during the interview process,’ he recalls. ‘First of all, she quickly managed to change it from being an interview to a conversation. And the second thing was the extent to which she had done her research on the business and the challenges we’re facing. She talked about the challenges and issues in terms of value creation. Having looked at many outstanding people who had been with large reputable firms, we quickly concluded that Lynn is world class.’
Tyson’s skepticism during the interview process is proving to be of benefit now. Since Hackett unveiled his 100-day update, Tyson has started building out metrics that will communicate the strategy clearly to the Street. ‘I recognized that there was an opportunity to provide a lot of value: show what the strategy does to returns, to margins and to growth,’ she explains. ‘A lot of the questions I had when I was evaluating the company are questions I now have to answer.’ Putting metrics around these questions and building a narrative that resonates with internal and external stakeholders are Tyson’s priorities for her first year at Ford.
On the road
Building a strong relationship with senior management has always been a key part of Tyson’s IR strategy. In her view, one of the key responsibilities of the IR function is to survey what the Street is saying and then feed it back to senior management to help inform strategic and operational decisions.
At Dell she worked closely with CEOs Michael Dell and Kevin Rollins, and IR was so integrated into the business that Tyson was a member of the executive committee and participated in operating reviews. In a speech given to the NIRI national conference in 2003, Rollins said: ‘While a lot of corporations think IR’s job is just to flow information to and from the financial markets, we view investor relations as an important factor in our decision-making process.’
At PepsiCo, Tyson was actively involved in the spin-off of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell into what became Yum! Brands. After the transaction, she travelled the world with then company president David Novak, talking to employees about the deal. The Yum! Brands companies were being spun off because they were seen as an underperforming asset but, Tyson says, the outreach from her and Novak motivated employees and helped define the vision for the future of the company. ‘It was an amazing experience to learn how you can mobilize an organization just by helping it understand what it means to be a better public company,’ she says.
Transparency and honesty are central to these successful relationships with management. ‘I need the truth,’ Tyson says. ‘It’s like going to the doctor: you want to find out the condition of the patient and figure out what you’re going to do.’
Tyson is keen to point out that this level of trust cuts both ways – IROs must demonstrate that they can be trusted confidantes and have the backbone to speak honestly. There are lots of executives and companies that don’t truly understand what IR is or how it can add value, which Tyson says presents an opportunity for IROs to tell their own story.
‘No matter where you go, you have an opportunity to demonstrate how you provide value,’ she explains. ‘Pick the spots where you think your experience and capabilities can add value. And build trust by being realistic – don’t be a pessimist or an optimist. The one thing management needs from IROs is a reality check.’
Even at Ford, which has a sophisticated nine-person IR team, Shanks has been impressed by the value Tyson has provided in a short space of time. ‘Lynn has picked up a deep understanding of the business, its value creation and value disruption,’ he says. ‘And she has very quickly and effectively established a position of respect: hers is a voice respected by management. I recently had a very senior member of my team, who has been with Ford for a long time, say that every time he’s in a conversation with Lynn he feels like he learns something. That speaks to so many things: her ability to understand the business and bring value, and her gravitas.’
High-flying family
Tyson comes from a family of high achievers. Her father was a tireless civil rights activist and public servant, one of her brothers is an artist and art professor and the other is astrophysicist and TV personality Neil deGrasse Tyson. But perhaps the highest achiever in the family is Tyson’s mother: she stayed at home to raise the children, studied for her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at night and became an adjunct professor at Fordham University. Tyson says she and her siblings were raised to go after whatever they wanted – and they all knew early on what they wanted.
For someone who is surrounded by success, what keeps Tyson motivated? She clearly derives value and contentment from her work, but her motivations are even simpler than that. ‘I define success as happiness,’ she says. ‘If I can come home at the end of the day and feel happy, that’s success to me.’
And she’ll soon have another reason to feel happy when she comes home: Ford has released a new version of the truck she likes, so she has one on order.
Lynn Antipas Tyson’s life lessons
‘I probably don’t have enough time in my life to list all of the people who have influenced me,’ says Lynn Antipas Tyson, executive director of IR at Ford. ‘A great thing about investor relations is that you interact with a broad spectrum of people across an organization. That’s given me an opportunity over the last 20 years to watch people who are successful and also watch how people fail. That’s a gift – you can study and learn from it.’
Tyson adds that she has benefited from several defining mentoring relationships throughout her career and her life. Here are her life lessons, learned from both her personal and her professional life:
- Know what makes you happy and what you want from your life and start from there
- Be true to who you are
- Be self-aware
- Perception is reality
- You can be your biggest fan, but you must also be your toughest critic. Turn constructive feedback into actionable items
- Life is not always fair. Get over it. Focus on yourself, not on others
- Be unassailable.
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of IR Magazine.