Europe is short of good, experienced investor relations officers. As more and more European companies feel the pressure to devote resources toward the investor relations function they are finding that those qualified to do the job are in short supply. Two of this month’s feature articles highlight this fact. Our cover story, Soul searching, details some of the factors pushing European companies into employing investor relations officers for the first time. It includes an exhaustive list of the attributes expected of a top investor relations officer drawn up by a leading IR head-hunter. Take a good look at yourself to check out where you need a little extra work.
After you’ve genned up on what is required, turn to page 61 to see what the IR push means for one of Europe’s largest markets. Booming business finds that, at long last, IR is all the rage in Germany.
What does this all mean for Europe’s IR officers? Rising salaries for one. Basic economics dictates that the high level of demand is pushing up the price for the best IR practitioners in the region.
However, some companies, on seeing those rising remuneration packages, are dropping out of the race to attract IR talent. These management teams know they should be paying more attention to investor relations but haven’t quite got their heads around the idea that it might cost so much money. In their eyes, the job is still a glorified public relations role and surely no PR person can expect to command such an inflated salary.
Unfortunately, that means those companies don’t employ senior enough people to handle the IR function. The result is that the job isn’t done properly, management thinks it’s all a waste of time and money and IR continues to get a bad press in the boardroom.
Problems like these will level out, of course, particularly if development of continental Europe’s equity culture continues apace. More people will be attracted into the IR field and in a few years time everything will be hunky-dory. Salaries might not jump so high in relative terms but, hey, that’s the market for you.
In the short term, management teams which remain unconvinced of the value of IR might like to spare a thought for David Montgomery, the former chief executive of the UK’s Mirror Group. Montgomery was unceremoniously dumped by shareholders in January; they blamed him for blocking a possible merger with Trinity. Feedback from the institutions involved in the decision suggests that if he had spent just a little more time ‘investor relating’ over the past few years he might still be in a job.
