Sage words from Fortune magazine in “How to Manage Your Business in a Recession” (January 19 issue):
The instinct of most executives is to hunker down in uncertain times, keeping quiet until they believe they have some answers. That’s the opposite of what’s needed. In a recession all of a company’s constituencies are nervous: Employees are worried that they’ll be fired, suppliers that they won’t be paid, customers that quality will decline or prices rise, investors that the stock will tank, communities that operations will close down. Your silence just makes them worry more.
Good managers respond by communicating even more than usual. They find that they needn’t have all the answers, but they do need to say what they’re thinking and be honest about conditions.
It may be preaching to the choir to say “get out and communicate” to investor relations folks, but it’s good advice for reticent CEOs and CFOs. To see the other nine tips for tough times, view the story.
Tags: Financial communication, Investor relations, Recession
January 19, 2009 at 10:50 am
Dick, my blog post to this effect on October 7th was very well received:
http://blog.agoracom.com/2008/10/07/best-ir-practices-during-market-turmoil/
It was the subject of a keynote speech I gave at a PIPEs conference in New York the following month:
http://blog.agoracom.com/2008/12/07/agoracom-keynote-investor-relations-speech-from-pipes-conference-2008/
I hope these help those who are sitting on the fence. Communicating during this “quiet” period should yield some great results for you.
Regards,
George