CEOs spend more time on vacation than they do on investors.
I was disappointed, but not surprised, when I put together a couple data points from different surveys showing that CEOs actually spend more time on vacation than they do on investors every year.
And these are reputable surveys from IR Magazine, S&P and the Predictive Index’s CEO benchmarking survey.
So, it’s no wonder institutional investors are dissatisfied with how much time they get with the CEO, which surveys have noted consistently for many years.
But instead of focusing on the negatives, I want to talk about how this reveals a significant opportunity for peer group differentiation and stock value expansion.
Look at it this way. If most of your peer competitors behaves this way, there is a big opportunity to improve your standing against them with institutional investors, your industry’s sell side analysts as well as industry analysts (like Gartner) and individual investors.
Investors perceiving that you have better communication and openness with them can be the key to higher stock valuation.
So how do we do this without killing the CEO and CFO with demands on their time?
The key is to utilize some new marketing technologies that LEVERAGE your C-suite’s time – in other words, get more miles out of every minute they invest in IR.
The best example I can give you is video. Video is taking over marketing in every industry that I know, and its unique benefits are especially important in IR.
For example, why do investors want to meet directly with the CEO and CFO? Because they want to look them in the eye. They want to judge their credibility.
What’s the best way to deliver that without an actual meeting – short, close-up interview style videos like this. The leverage magic is created because you shoot it one time, and then make it available and merchandise it across all your channels, web site, X, YouTube, your sell side analysts, etc.
I recommend beginning with capturing the CEO explaining their industry vision and expectations, the company’s core differentiation, and answering a handful of investors most common questions.
I would do the same with the CFO. I might start with capital deployment strategy, cost management strategy, sales funnel management, and specific questions unique to your industry like revenue recognition.
It’s leverageable tools like this that help you easily raise your standing within your industry that leads to higher valuation.
Other tools include easy things like more frequent fireside chats, and not just with the CEO or CFO, but with customers, the head of sales, division heads and geographic leaders.
Also leveraging this kind of content into AI-discoverable formats is key, which is the new go-to search tool.
If taking care of your customers better than your competitors is one of your company’s key principles, all I’m advocating is doing the same with investors – or at least looking like you do.
And, as I have laid out here, you can do so without taking any more of the CEO and CFO’s time.
In fact, I have found you can often SAVE them time spent on IR.
So, let’s HELP the CEO spend more time on vacation than they do on IR by being more efficient and effective -- and give them more money to spend there by driving our stock prices faster than our peers at the same time.
