Smart CEO’s are starting to realize the importance of online investor relations. Starting. If they are, it is only from the point of using search engines and other online tools to target new investors.
However, very few realize the importance of speaking, collaborating, sharing and listening with those shareholders once you have attracted them. They’ll do it on the phone, they’ll talk all day at a booth – but they suddenly stop at the web. The one place where they would have the farthest reaching impact.
Unfortunately, their failure to do so adds up to a massive lost opportunity to gain the loyalty and trust of shareholders. it In fact, it is going to be the basis of an upcoming post titled “Why Aren’t You Talking?” in which I’ll debunk some of those fears and show how simple, yet powerful, it would be.
In the meantime, as a pre-cursor, have a look at the following quote from a post on the Harvard Business Blog titled The Finance 2.0 Manifesto:
“Stakeholder communities. Institutional investors are so 20th century. Centralizing control over our biggest corporations in the hands of a bunch of old dudes asleep at the wheel was as good an idea as the spork: interesting in theory, useless in practice. Tomorrow’s radical innovators are already updating corporate governance for the 21st century, by letting communities of stakeholders shape managerial decision-making. Think mega-Etsy.”
Now, I’m not willing to go as far as shareholder communities shaping managerial decision-making – but I am willing to say that CEO’s that engage shareholder communities will see tremendous impacts on their business. How? Engaging thousands of investors gives you:
- Thousands of IR evangelists to help you gain more shareholders
- Instant feedback on the effectiveness of your message
- Mass competitor intelligence gathering by a motivated and passionate shareholder community
- …More
Unless you think you are the perfect CEO that has hired the perfect team and getting advice from the perfect board, you need to start giving this some serious thought. Investor Relations 2.0 is coming whether you like it or not.
Regards,
George
The fact that one of the top ivy league schools in the continent is willing to acknowledge this paradigm shift is really something to take note of. I agree with your point regarding creating IR evangelists. Word of mouth is an EXTREMELY powerful tool.
[…] Harvard Business: “Communities Of Stakeholders Will Help Shape Managerial Decisions” […]