What Does Frank Lloyd Wright Have to Do with Investor Relations

Similar to Architecture, Investor Relations represents an art form.

Many of the homes in Oak Park, Illinois, represent the beginnings of the Prairie Style Architecture that Frank Lloyd Wright made famous.

The idea revolves around designing the building in harmony with people and nature. Because the home blends into the natural surroundings it pops out to the viewer.

The Art of Investor Relations is quite similar.

The best Investor Relations Officers (IROs) are able to complement the natural communication style of the C-Suite and the Company as a whole.

Best-in-class Investor Relations revolves around designing communications and investor materials that reflect the company in its natural habitat.

The IRO must help management education investors on:

1.     Corporate Strategy

2.     Any Unique Proprietary Advantage

3.     Nuances Around How the Company Differs from Competitors

The goal is to sell a vision of the company on its terms that makes the most important features “pop” for investors in order to get them to invest.

For example, at DFT Data Centers, my value to the system revolved around educating investors. 

REIT investors were experts in the Triple Net Lease structure, but were less well-versed in the pervasiveness of the secular bull market in data and the cloud.

Through relentless education and management execution the company was sold to Digital Realty Trust for an attractive premium.

Lastly, I had an interesting discussion with a public company CEO this week on my flight to Chicago. 

We discussed how I interviewed for his IRO job, but did not get the job. I explained to him that I thought his company represented the next Prologis. 

His response was, “I need more people that think like you!”

Management teams need to be more creative and realize that one should hire an IRO to sell the strategic vision of the company to investors.

If investors do not believe in your strategic vision, it becomes significantly more important to hire an IRO voice that is credible to investors and can get them to buy into that strategic vision.

As always thank you to everyone for watching and engaging with my content here on LinkedIn!

Wishing you an epic first Sunday of 2024! 

Always here to help with your Capital Markets, Investor Relations, and Corporate Finance needs.

hashtag#investorrelations hashtag#IRChat hashtag#CFO hashtag#FP&A hashtag#CEO hashtag#capitalmarkets hashtag#corporatefinance hashtag#steverubis hashtag#reficioir