While the financial crisis has helped bring investor relations to the fore, it has also made dealing with investors more stressful, according to a survey of top Canadian IROs undertaken by IR Insight, the research arm of IR magazine.
The report is based on a survey of all the winners and runners-up in the award for best IRO in the IR Magazine Canada Awards between 2007 and 2011. Some 40 percent of those IROs took part in the survey.
More than half of those surveyed say IR has changed post-crisis, with some saying it has enhanced the role in the eyes of management.
‘I am now a much larger source of information than previously,’ says one respondent. Another concurs: ‘Yes, I believe the CEO and CFO recognize the importance of the IRO more and more.’
Others say actual communications with investors have become more difficult, however, due to the fraught nature of post-recession finance.
‘Investors are more skittish and grumpy,’ remarks one IRO. ‘It’s frustrating to watch your stock price go down on good news only because of seemingly unrelated global issues,’ says another.
The survey also asked respondents to list the things most likely to keep them awake at night.
Only one claims to be sleeping perfectly, while 50 percent say they would frequently lose sleep about issues they and their company ‘had no control over’, especially macroeconomic factors.
‘A better question to ask would be what doesn’t keep me awake at night in relation to my job,’ comments one respondent.
