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With the fast pace of communications and change in today's global marketplace, investing in equities has become increasingly complex. Communicating a clear, concise, meaningful message to investors is critical. Dr. Higgins and his contributing authors provide a broad set of perspectives, lessons learned, and best practices in global investor relations. They examine the fundamentals of investor relations from a theoretical and practical perspective. They explore individual company strategies and challenges for investor relations in unique and meaningful situations-all from their own vantages and experiences at six topflight corporations with world-class investor relations organizations: AT&T, Schering-Plough, BASF, Reuters, Sony, and Toyota. Readers will get detailed pragmatic insights into the way IR is done in these important, highly visible corporations, plus the results of a unique five-year study of global strategy communications, complete with ideas and concepts they can use immediately in developing and influencing investor relations in their own organizations.
But Higgins' book is more than a collection of company studies. Impinging upon the strategic and financial communications of virtually every global corporation are institutional, market, and technological forces that are shaping the current practice of investor relations. The book examines these forces and their impact on strategic financial communications. It also explores the theoretical and empirical foundations underlying the practice of investor relations and presents a conceptual model-a strategic perspective-for viewing and analyzing best practices. In addition, the book presents the results of a recent survey of global investor relations practices in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Japan, plus two new studies of the latest communication technologies in U.S. companies.
List of contents
Foreword by Mark W. Begor
Preface
Introduction
Conceptual, Institutional and Technological Foundations of this BookStrategic Credibility
Current State of Investor Relations: Theory and Practice
Global Strategy Communications
The Use of Technology in Corporate Financial Communications
Cases in Global Strategic/Financial Communications: United States, Europe and JapanAT&T: Communication in the Midst of Change by Connie Weaver
Investor Relations at Schering Plough Corporation: When Less is More by Geraldine U. Foster and Stephen K. Galpin, Jr.
The Strategic Role of Corporate Financial Communications/Investor Relations at BASF by Klaus D. Jessen
Reuters PLC: A Global Information Wholesaler to the Financial Community by Peter Gregson and Geoffrey Wicks
SONY: The Story of a Unique Management Style and Financial Communications with Investors by Yoshiko Sato
Toyota Motors: Strategic/Financial Communications During Difficult Times by Yoshiko Sato and Toru Yoshikawa
Lessons to be Learned from Leading Strategic/Financial Communications CompaniesKey Success Factors in Global Strategic/Financial Communications
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
RICHARD B. HIGGINS is Founder and Managing Director of Stratcom Associates, Grantham, New Hampshire, a management consulting firm specializing in strategic and financial communications. He is a former professor of management at the College of Business Administration, Northeastern University, and visiting professor, International Management Development Institute, Lausanne, Switzerland. He is author of
The Search for Corporate Strategic Credibility: Concepts and Cases in Global Strategy Communications (Quorum, 1996).
