Importance of Relationships

It is extremely important to have a strong relationship between your company's IRO's and the rest of the business community. In this context, the rest of the business community involves the company's investors, financial analysts as well as the rest of the financial community that can be potential investors.

Many IRO professionals believe that the relationship between an investor and an IRO means more than the actual numbers on Wall St. A strong relationship will overcome a dip in share price and the negative media attention of a scandal or situation that involves your company.

But how do we measure relationships? We can directly ask investors and financial analysts of their experience with your company and the IRO's they've dealt with. You can also ask all investors to give feedback in the form of questionnaires. Also, it's most likely that a relationship is strong if an investor has invested with the company for an extended period of time.

Let's take two companies, Disney and Apple. Disney is more likely to rely upon these relationships because they are not frequently coming out with new products that have a direct effect on their share price or brand in the eyes of the consumers. Apple however is constantly coming out with cutting edge technology that is re-inforcing its brand image and affecting its share price.

Disney needs to consistently engage in strong relationships and reinforce their "family experience" and "strong and reliable" share price. Apple doesn't have to rely on relationships as much as its cutting edge products will attract consumers and keep it in the fore-front of its consumers and investors minds.