As a child, I and my neighborhood friends would play wiffle ball in my parents front yard. Our neighbor, an older, retired gentleman, would sit in his window watching and waiting to yell in a staccato tone, "Get Off the Grass! Get Off the Grass!" Clearly, my childhood represents the genesis of today's topic: The Get Off the Grass IRO. You may know or may have interacted with The Get Off the Grass IRO. This type of IRO does as little as possible in order to foster as few interactions with investors as possible. The hallmarks are clear: 1.) No comment responses 2.) We don't disclose that responses 3.) I don't know, and will never follow up with an answer 4.) Go look it up yourself, signalling no empathy for the question or the human asking the question. The failure to show or signal empathy represents one of the biggest missing pieces in investor relations. Empathetic IROs are great at building relationships both inside the firm and outside the firm with investors. An executive needs an engaging IRO because: it minimizes investor problems, and maximizes executive tenure.
