A- Congratulations and welcome to the club. The investor relations profession is a close-knit community of practitioners and counselors who are constantly in search of information about how to do things better and trends that impact their companies.
We are usually very comfortable sharing our hard-earned knowledge, much of which is gained through years of hands-on experience. Before you start reading, first get familiar and friendly with IR professionals in your industry.
Obviously you have already been exposed to our monthly bible, IR magazine. In addition, the National Investor Relations Institute (Niri) is a primary source of information for IR practitioners and counselors at all stages of their professional development. Rather than giving you a general reading list, I recommend you visit Niri’s online bookstore (www.niri.org), which has books for all professional experience levels. Some are focused on overall investor relations and corporate communication program building, while others are focused on understanding the world of Wall Street and financial statements.
Q- I have a question about education, but it’s not for me. I’m thinking about everyone else in the newly public company that I’ve just joined as head of investor relations. From the CEO on down to the sales reps, no one seems to have any idea of disclosure – or materiality, or non-public information, or who can say what and when. Should I organize some formal IR training for all our staff?
A- Organizing what I call Public Company 101 sessions within a company, where IR professionals and management can explain concepts like the IPO process, disclosure policies, insider trading and approved windows for insiders to trade, is a great idea that should be revisited periodically, especially by newly public businesses. In essence, all of your employees, from the corporate suite to those in the field, need to understand basic IR principles and what it means to be a publicly traded company.
I would also recommend that you break up these meetings to focus on particular topics and types of employees. For example, instruct sales and customer service reps in how to handle investment pros who go to trade shows or call customer service.
I would caution against providing too much knowledge of IR strategy beyond some basic investment messages, protocols and chain of command. All of your employees, regardless of status, should know that questions from outsiders are to be handled only by those designated to deal with such matters.
