The November issue of Update, the publication of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), features an article titled, “Corporate Transparency in the Internet Age.”
Lynn Casey, CEO of communications firm Padilla Spear Beardsley, writes: “Performance first. Recognition, second, achieved by professionally planned and executed communication. At its best that means that a publicly held company walks its talk with all the people who are important to its success – customers, employees, Wall Street, lawmakers, special interest groups, the communities in which it operates. Then it communicates with them about its performance – clearly and consistently – so they will recognize that the company is trying to do what it said it will do.”
In the same issue, Carol Metzker quotes an Investor Relations Officer as follows: “In this storm, you’re not going to boost your company’s valuation much by presenting your best case scenario. Instead, aim to maintain credibility by presenting a fair picture.”
Both Casey and Metzker confirm what CommCore has been advising for a while now: in an age of 24/7 cross-platform multimedia and user-generated content, PR must have a strategic partnership with all communications functions. This includes on-point, timely and above all consistent executive-level messaging via IR, corporate communications, public affairs, and marketing communications.
Are Casey and Metzker preaching to the NIRI choir about the importance of cross-functional executive communications planning and skills – translation: transparency? What’s been your experience of how IR and PR are changing and collaborating? What challenges do you face?