Investor Relations

IMPLEMENTING BEST PRACTICES IN INVESTOR RELATIONS 133interest in what you are saying and move on to another worthwhile topicfor them or start inviting questions.Deliver a dynamic and concise speech, well synchronized with whatappears on the screen. Maintain consistency with what you may have been presenting inprevious meetingsBe open and candid in your dialogue, talking about your company’sweaknesses while, at the same time, never missing an opportunity tostress its strengths. Use stories and anecdotes to show how involved you are with yourcompany’s operations and to make your company alive.3.6.10 Solving the “Who Meets Who” ProblemAs discussed before, the IRO is the investment community’s primary pointof contact in the company. For a medium-sized company with no IRO, theCEO or CFO plays this role.In line with the “seed, harvest, and lock approach” described in section3.2.2., companies that have IR departments and IROs will want to organizethe interaction along the main following guidelines:The IRO is the main contact for sell-side analysts who are initiating andmaintaining coverage of the stock, and for portfolio managers who havenot yet bought stocks in the company. The IRO has the credibility andexpertise to present the company single-handedly.The chief financial officer can meet with influential analysts on acase-by-case basis, and meet with institutions that know more about thecompany and its outlook, especially those that already own shares.The CEO may be called upon to meet with the large institutional shareholdersand those mostly likely to significantly increase their stakes.Of course this “division of labor” should be flexible and change whenstrategic imperatives so require. Note that investors do not mind meetingseparately with different people from the same company as this can allowthem to obtain interesting additional information.The IRO should attend all meetings, noting the questions raised andanswers given, as most analysts and investors will compare what is said to