The Team Te IROs first job is to put together an internal team with enough resources to execute an effective and impressive Investor Day,” says Ditmire. “Form a coalition of people who have important parts of the presentation. Tink about who in your organization would be well-positioned as chief operating officer to the project – it would be a great experience for them.” “Te head of IR has many roles to fill as ‘project CEO,’” adds Fine. “An aligned team, focused on the


“Your message needs to be streamlined to differentiate and bring clarity to your strategy, and this takes time as you delve deeper into the relevant areas of the business to be showcased on the day.” — Nicole Nordwall, Rivel StoryLign


right issues makes the entire process smoother and the event more successful.” Nordwall stresses it is essential to establish that


partnership and trust with the IRO, management and speakers early on in the process. “One of the most important initial decisions for a


potential client is whether there’s a close cultural fit and communication cadence between the advisory team and the investor relations team,” Hayes says. “I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with IR teams where the level of partnership and engagement allowed us to really show up as one team for the CEO and their team, and then activate seamlessly and for impact as a result.” “Even if you’ve got a well-defined management team and strategy, all management teams have blind spots,” Hobbs says. “IR teams can really benefit from a third party to help refine messages and improve the presentation of materials.” Hobbs recalls using an outside advisory team


that helped to refine Investor Day messages for the audience and produce the finished presentation material. “It truly was one of the most successful investor days that I’ve produced,” he says. “Te event


22 WI N T E R 2 0 24 ■ IR UPDAT E


was held back in May 2022, and even today, I hear those key messages fed back to us from investors and prospective investors.” Hobbs views that as a huge win for the company.


Time Management Ditmire points out that the right resources are criti- cal at the front end of the project. “Assess whether you need outside resources and whether your team can do all this work while preserving the ability to conduct normal IR business at the same time,” he says. “You can’t take three or four months off just to execute Investor Day.” To execute a successful Investor Day, an important


element is allowing enough time to plan and execute — ideally four to six months, To suggests. “Invest the right amount of time and capital to ensure success. While your company is planning for an investor day, which is a fulltime work scope, there are still earnings calls, board meetings and competing time commitments.” An Investor Day isn’t just an extended earnings session taking the typical six weeks of planning, points out Nordwall. “Articulate the timeline and deliverables to man-


agement and the speakers clearly and often to manage expectations and avoid any surprises,” Nordwall advises. “Giving yourself a minimum of four months creates a buffer to absorb the other demands on the IRO’s and management’s time, such as a quarterly earnings cycle.” “Your message needs to be streamlined to dif-


ferentiate and bring clarity to your strategy, and this takes time as you delve deeper into the relevant areas of the business to be showcased on the day,” Nord- wall says. “Given the shorter events with the wider global audience, tighter and more concise messages perversely can take longer. As various dignitaries have noted over the years, ‘It takes a long time to write a short letter.’” “Everyone tells you about the time management


piece, but no one ever tells you there are specific points where teams often stall,” says Marcus. “You have to practice meticulous time management – the story outline is one of those stall points where it is easy for the team to fiddle around with the outline and think they’re making progress.” Marcus adds he thinks that moving from outline to script is a moment


niri.org/ irupdate


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