How We Work
Our Services
Our Senior Team
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IRSA’s senior consultant business model, where we partner with senior executives, is the core of our value-added approach. Junior consultants do not drive strategic advice, they drive tactical execution. To achieve each client’s specific goals, our senior consultants are the day-to-day contacts for our clients. On an ongoing basis, we focus on the next steps of your company’s evolving business and investment profile and investors’ perception of your company. Just as your business and the financial markets are dynamic, so too is the way IRSA approaches your IR needs. IRSA professionals will never ask “what do you want to do next?” – we consider that to be the expertise we bring to the table. We will proactively bring ideas and action items to your team.
- IR strategy and development of an IR plan
- Strategic Positioning and developing Key Messages
- Regulations, requirements and best-practices for both structured and unstructured corporate disclosure
- Sarbanes-Oxley, Regulation FD and Safe harbor guidelines
- Exchange listings, de-listing proceedings and market-maker programs to drive capital to support the client company and reduce volatility
- Corporate governance issues: Board composition & shareholder rights plans
- M&A communications and strategies to support sales, partners and employees
StreetAudit™ is our focused perception research customized in scope and content for each client and designed to impact near term performance and perception. Periodic perception research around significant announcements leads to actionable ideas that we use to re-calibrate and focus your IR program. By virtue of the fact that our research is both quantitative and qualitative, we can find the real insights on how the Street thinks about company specific matters like earnings or an M&A deal, an emerging competitive situation or one impacting the whole industry. The result of a StreetAudit is a focused, prepared management team with confirmation that their communication messages are on target to build value. Building management credibility through appropriate issues response is crucial to maintain value but also enables your IR efforts to unlock market value.
The single most important ingredient to an effective communications program is to define the overall positioning. One that is tightly linked to the overall business vision and strategy. This positioning must clearly identify a‘difference’ between your company and every other company. Differentiated positioning is what makes investors and all other audiences take notice. Some people like to think of this as “Branding”…it is NOT Branding! Positioning comes first, it is what you place in the public domain about your company. It is the ‘who you are’ not the ‘what you do’. Brand is created when the market recognizes, accepts and validates that positioning.
Investing strategies have never been as complex as they are in today’s market. This means companies must focus on the right mix of investors for their company. The wrong investors can lead to high turnover, increased volatility, unhappy shareholders and an undervalued stock. Designed specifically for each client, we deliver targeting programs focused on the appropriate institutional investor profile using IRSA’s proprietary databases and external resources. Our targeting strategies go well beyond focusing on who owns your peers. We focus on “equity peers”, those companies that may have similar investment profiles or analytics but not industry characteristics. The combination of industry peers and equity peers creates a larger universe of potential investors and over time leads to a broadening of the shareholder base and we believe lower turnover and reduced volatility.
As management maintains focus on managing the business, we maintain focus on setting meetings and keeping management in front of prospective investors and shareholders. IRSA’s full range of services will enable management to achieve success in these important discussions. Our services include introductions, arranging one-on-one and small group meetings, coordinating analyst visits and analysts days at client facilities, briefing sheets on the firm, analyst, investment style and portfolio characteristics. We’ll handle the important post-meeting follow-up evaluations. When executives travel for other business needs we will work to leverage time as we link investor meetings to executives travel schedules, an especially valuable strategy for non-major financial centers.
Successful companies recognize thechanges brought by the Internet and online investing. With an estimated four million investors online and billions of dollars in online assets, this represents a bright opportunity for the under-followed company. At IRSA we take a portfolio approach over time to develop retail program elements and manage execution to generate retail interest.
Quarterly conference calls have become the seminal event in IR after the face-to-face meeting. We not only provide logistical support but important insights from the Street through our pre-call survey of sell-side and buy-side sentiment. We do this to help map the content of the call directly to the topics of most interest to the Street. We’ll find out what issues are on the minds of your audiences so that we can assist you in crafting your conference call presentation. Importantly, we craft the script or bullets to the style and “voice” of each of the executives involved in the presentation. And in today’s era of SOX and Reg. FD, a well-crafted presentation will become essential. We also capture investor’s perceptions regarding the industry so that we project your management team as thought leaders on important industry developments. The final phase of our support is in post-call sampling of investors. Your company benefits through the capability we bring to recalibrate messages and investment themes for ongoing discussions.
We believe the most successful IPOs all have a number of key ingredients. Today, the IPO is a critical branding event where capturing mind-share leads to market share and optimum market value. Our deal experience has given us insights to managing public relations prior to the company being in registration. Excellent communications prior to the so-called quiet period and just after the completion of going public is essential. Companies with focused communications twelve months or more in advance are more widely recognized and we believe are more favorably viewed by all audiences. Effective IR begins well before the pricing of an IPO. IRSA will prepare your organization to deliver proactive IR on the first day of trading to the first earnings release and long after. We’ll design the necessary internal infrastructure for your company including disclosure policies, collateral material, databases, website coordination, earnings releases, conference calls/webcasts.
Active communications with the media supports an companies investor relations program. Media coverage is content that can be merchandised to the Street to create awareness, generate interest help maintain the Mind-share. Media success depends on contact with the press to build those relationships and understand story interests by editors, reporters and producers. IRSA professionals work with the media daily to develop the relationships to effectively manage client communications. We work with clients to craft newsworthy stories for the business press, industry verticals, broadcast and online. We identify the appropriate press outlet, coordinate management briefings, staff interviews and place feature stories. Clients who have an existing PR relationship will appreciate the proactive way IRSA integrates and supports the work of an existing PR firm.
We have the resources to help management excel in interviews and to present key messages in powerful presentations. Working closely with our executive coaches and trainers, we craft key messages and select the best media and distribution channels. Our professionals provide media training that enable senior executives and company spokespersons to develop skill-sets and effective speaking dynamics. Effective speaking strategies from sound bites to in-depth interviews result in better stories, more accurate coverage, improved understanding of the business model and positive perceptions of the company and management.
Investor kits, fact sheets, corporate backgrounders and press briefing materials are critically important tools to deliver company messages. IRSA works with management to assess each company’s needs, requirements and how to get the message out effectively and within an appropriate budget. We will work with your design team or we can bring a variety of professionals to the engagement. We work beside you to ensure that the design complements your communication messages.
The laptop presentation has become ubiquitous. Our experience has shown that five highly effective slides can often be used more effectively than twenty-five, especially in a one-on-one meeting. Investor presentations can make or break an opportunity. Our experience has shown that institutional investors are not looking for the presentation as a basis to buy or sell a stock but rather as a filter to decide if more analysis is warranted. We understand the five key elements investors wish to know. We then structure the presentation flow in the logical framework of the equity analyst’s mind. Our design specialists have experience to use graphics to simplify business concepts and help tell the story.
Our experience has shown that all crises have similar characteristics. Understanding these characteristics as we do enables us to effectively anticipate and manage the flow of events and information. From the initial surprise and the escalating series of events, we help clients regain control and avoid the siege mentality that often dooms the possibility for a quick and successful resolution. We help management maintain control of the situation rather than letting the situation get out of control and into the public arena for resolution. At the bare minimum, every company needs to identify the team that will be involved in any unpredictable situation, if not a fully developed contingency plan and training in event management.
In order to assist small and mid-cap companies, our experienced team of professionals will work with clients to deliver quality annual reports and assess the need for quarterly reports. We can undertake full scope responsibility for concept, theme development, messages, selection of designer and printer, photography, editorial support and production management. Importantly, we do this within a budget that is appropriate for each client.
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