If you have ever felt that your life was not your own because of the demands of this profession we serve, please raise your hand now. As investor relations officers, we bear the weight of our companies on our backs. And 24 hours a day, at that, especially now that markets are truly global. There’s no rest for the weary – here, there or anywhere – in this job.
Even professional pleasures are all too often cut short by urgent business back home. Take, for example, my own experience at the end of last September’s IIRF conference in Germany. My original plan had been to stay until the end of the meeting and enjoy the wrap-up festivities. However, I received word from back at corporate headquarters: plans for an investor relations event I had thought would not be implemented for a while were being brought forward – to a month earlier than originally foreseen. Since it was important that I be in the office, I had no choice but to leave the conference early and miss the best part.
As misery loves company, I seek consolation by reminding myself that I am not alone in having to give up some personal pleasure for the job. Many are the stories of birthday celebrations having to be deferred, weddings or graduations missed, and vacations lost or delayed.
The dilemma in such instances is often whether it is better to give up a vacation altogether or somehow try to deal with things from afar. Mark Steinkrauss of Fruit of the Loom in Chicago opted for this latter approach a few years ago, soon after he had joined the company. Before taking up his new post, Mark had already arranged to take his family to Hawaii for spring break.
Unfortunately, after arriving in Hawaii a problem arose at the office which required many phone calls, both to company officials and to the financial community and press. The six-hour time difference between New York and Hawaii meant that Mark had to get up at 3.00 am. To avoid disturbing his family, he spoke from the phone in the kitchen which was next to the refrigerator; and so came to appreciate the glow of the sunrise glinting off the shiny surface of a major domestic appliance.
I, on the other hand, have a standing rule that I may only be contacted on vacation in the direst of circumstances, even when that vacation just takes the form of time spent at home working in my garden. I can have the confidence to be so demanding on this point partly because of the excellence of my staff, who mind the shop and fight the fires in my absence. My first lieutenant, Frank Murdolo, came to investor relations from finance and has managed in just a few years to master the nuances of our profession. Our sergeant-at-arms is Patty Cullim who, in addition to keeping me in line, manages our databases, arranges meetings and handles all manner of technical matters.
When I think about it, I am amazed that the three of us manage to get so much done. As I checked around, though, I found that ours is quite typical of investor relations departments around the world. Gary Lloyd, who is with TransCanada Pipelines Ltd and is a member of the IIRF Governing Council, has an assistant and a secretary. He said the job of the assistant is to keep track of the details. I suggested, and Gary agreed, that this means his mind can remain uncluttered for grander matters.
I managed to collect some statistics while doing this research and I would like to present one case which is typical of the type of workload we IR professionals undertake.
IIRF Executive Board member Klaus Jessen of BASF in Germany manages, with his assistant and secretary, to do the following: see people for one-on-one meetings two to three times per week; give 25-30 presentations per year in major international financial centres; and hold 80-100 meetings at headquarters. Note that this list does not include special activities such as planning an IIRF conference.
Strategies for dividing tasks among the members of an IR department vary from company to company. Larry Bishop of Boeing has one professional and one support person. His assistant, who also comes from finance, provides back-up to Larry across the board on all matters.
By contrast, Rusty Page of NationsBank Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina, who is an alternate representative on the IIRF Governing Council, organises his two professional reports into specialties. One of them handles the interpretation of financial results to the investment community; the other manages investment communications – preparing the earnings releases, for example. Hans Richard Schmitz of Abteilung Berichtswesen, who is a member of the IIRF Governing Council, organises his two assistants along geographical lines: one handles the US; the other the UK.
I found another example of geographical division of responsibilities in a US company which is currently experimenting with an investor relations department structure that divides the domestic US market into Eastern, Midwestern and Western regions. One manager has been assigned to each of these areas, and another is responsible for the whole of Europe. This is an innovative idea which might prove worth following: time will tell if it’s a successful formula – and an economic one.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, Amelia Soares’s IR department at Sasol provides an impressive example of a company doing more with less. She has an assistant only on a part time basis, usually an engineer, to help her with some of the more technical questions that arise about Sasol’s business during roadshows. On her own, she manages to see an average of one person a day in the office; attend meetings outside the office; and still do some jobs for the corporate communications department where she worked before taking on the IR role.
One particularly interesting approach to IR department staffing was related to me by Peggy Moore, vice president of investor relations at PepsiCo. The position for her professional assistant is designed to rotate every two to three years as a developmental tool for training future management. This obviously creates some short-term turbulence every time the person changes, but in the long-term her job is made easier by the presence of managers with hands-on IR experience throughout the company.
As I talk to IR people about their staffs, I find that the prevailing opinion is one of praise for and appreciation of these people who carry the ball and pick up the pieces. Take Kate Woods of Waban, Inc. She was on medical leave when a change of vendor created a problem which could have been very unpleasant had it been allowed to get out of control. Kate’s assistant, however, resolved the problem on her own so that Kate was not bothered; and she did it so well that senior management was unaware anything had been amiss. I think we can all agree that this is the way things should work out, and often do, to the credit of the people who work for us.
The moral of the story (if there is one) is of course that while any executive may work from sun to sun – an IR department’s job is never done!
