Lavonne Zdunich, Keyera Corp.
Summertime is often a period of vacation, taking in festivals and enjoying more moments with family and friends. With life being more relaxed, it is a great time to sit back and take stock of your IR program so that you are ready to hit the ground running in September.
A review of your program will help to ensure that you have the right resources, focus, and story for the current environment. It will also likely impress your boss, as I often find that in investor relations we are usually more reactive than
proactive. Finally, this is a great opportunity to show that you are on top of things and continue to add value to your company.
Review your 2015 goals. You are halfway through the year and this is the perfect time to take stock of where you are at in terms of achieving your goals for the year. You can likely check off a few, delete a couple of others (no longer applicable) and add one or two new ones. This is normal given the dynamic world in which we operate. For those of you who haven’t set your 2015 goals yet, it is time! Remember, ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’. Goals hold us accountable and force us to create a plan in order to deliver results. Otherwise, it is too easy to be caught up in our day-to-day ‘busy-ness’ and the next thing we know, the year has passed and we feel like we haven’t accomplished anything substantial. Don’t know where to start? Consider your investor material, your website, your brand, your processes and procedures, your boss’s goals, and your professional development – just to name a few items.
Consider overhauling your investor presentation. Although this doesn’t need to become a yearly activity, I do believe that about every two to three years you should look at your presentation with a fresh set of eyes. After a couple of years of ‘tweaks’ and adding new slides here and there, the story may not be as tight as it should or could be. Remember, the investor presentation is the most important communication piece you have as it is what you pull out for each investor meeting and often what stakeholders first review on your website. Do some fact finding; in order to identify the holes in the presentation, ask analysts and shareholders what they think the market is missing about your company. Put the presentation in front of one of your summer students and ask him or her to summarize your key messages. These are smart young minds and if they don’t get the story, you are likely missing the mark.
Review your staff. This is a great time to do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of your team. We all want our staff to be successful, as this ensures our success. Therefore, summertime is a great time to take stock of your group's SWOT. By doing such an analysis you may realize your staff has skills that you can leverage to deliver more value in the second half of the year. You may also realize there are some holes that need to be filled. I recently noticed some great skills in my staff that meant I didn’t need as much consulting help in certain areas as I had expected to require. By using consultants very strategically, I was able to deliver more value for the same cost.
Review your fall roadshow schedule. After a summer of relaxing, the market is ready to get back to business in September. Take stock of where you have been so far and places or people you still need to meet with before the end of the year. Don't just assume last year’s program should be repeated again this year. The world around us is changing and investor sentiment may be too. Consider the people and places that are currently interested in you and your industry. Call up a fellow IRO for a coffee or patio drink to chat about his or her fall program and get another perspective on the biggest opportunities. Two heads are always better than one.
Review your budget. Again, as you are half way through the year this is the perfect time to take stock of where you are in terms of your budget. Ask yourself if you have the financial resources to deliver your revised goals or if, perhaps, you have funds to ‘give back’! As one CEO told me: "Just because you have money in the budget doesn't mean you need to spend it and, conversely just because you don't have money in the budget doesn't mean you can't have it." If your financial needs have changed, go talk to your boss.
Wishing you a fun and fruitful summer that sets you up for a successful fall.
Lavonne Zdunich is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of finance and investor relations experience in Calgary and abroad. She is currently the Director of Investor Relations and Communications at Keyera Corp. in Calgary, Alberta.