Tuesday, January 29, 2008


Welcome to the IRonsideIR blog. Our goal here is to discuss the kinds of issues we deal with every day in investor relations, from financing to fiduciary responsibility. Well, actually, the range is more like A-Z, but I was liking the alliteration.

As all experienced investor-relations practitioners know, the IR officer or consultant gets dragged into many different debates, from heavy strategic topics like risk management to incidentals like grammar. A good IR officer is really a gifted generalist with broad interests, ready (after the necessary research) to provide a considered opinion on anything that has the potential to affect a company's share price.

At IRonsideIR we are already liberally equipped with opinions. Our goal, however, is to provide our clients with good IR consulting, and to make our good advice even better through discussion and debate on the issues. Open discussion improves our understanding and refines our products and services. Hence this blog.

The IRonside IR practice focusses on small-to-mid-cap companies. These types of clients are quite likely to bring us into debates on key issues that can have a significant impact on valuation, as their management is concentrating on building the business and, in addition, may not have huge experience in the public markets.

This is fun for us, as it means we get deeply involved in company strategy and tactics as well as communication. But it also means that we have a deeper responsibility for the IR program and how it is received by the Street. Coasting along doesn't work.