Describe how investor relations impact your work environment. Has the recession forced any changes?

The source of a company's fund can be creditors which are the banks or the investors who are the stockholders in the firm. The funds borrowed from creditors is termed as a debt and is a liability to the company whereas the investors money is accounted as the stockholders equity and company has a smaller liability towards the investors which makes investors very important for a firm.

It is natural that when an investor invests in a firm he expects a good return for his investments and hence it is the duty of the firm to enhance the stockholders' value. But sometimes when the company is not in a good shape or a new comer it is very difficult to attract and retain investors and to fulfill this goal it needs to have a healthy relation with its investors and hence investor relations come into play.

A deterioration in investor relationship could jeopardize a company's stability and its stock position. A company would lose its current investors and would fail to attract new investors and this could sink the stock prices of the company and make its future dull.

In order to retain investor relation the company should communicate with its investors effectively through media like websites, annual reports etc. A company should update its investors about its new innovations, projects and investments.

Describe how investor relations impact your work environment. Has the recession forced any changes?

 Investors relations are basically two way communication between a company, financial community and other constituencies. To ensure that constituents are secure with their investment, a company has to maintain a strong and healthy relationship with them. When someone invests in any firm, they want to know what their return will be on the investment. A firm has to communicate its strategies for reaching its goals with all its investors. Providing the proper information to them is just one aspect. Performance and company image are very important also, being a socially responsible corporation would attract more investors. When a company performs at top level, investors recognize it and are intrigued by it. They want to know that investing in your firm would be the best option for them if they want to make money. Making the price of your stocks reasonable also attracts investors. This allows them to purchase more shares, and again attracts more people.

There are numerous companies who make it top priority to build strong,lasting relationships with their investors. I visited the Apple webpage, where they had a page specifically for their investors. They have all of their stock prices along with recent news from within the company that investors would find interesting. This is Apple's way of acquiring investors and keeping them. They are making a conscious effort toward keeping strong relationships with investors. It's a strategic way to their company and seems to be working out well for them.

https://www.apple.com/investor/

Chapter 8-Investor relations in Chili's grill and gar restaurant, Brinker International Inc.

Chili’s grill and bar restaurant, under the Brinker International Inc. which is one of the world’s leading casual dining restaurant companies. With more than 1,700 restaurants and over 125,000 team members in 27 countries and two territories, Brinker and its brands welcome more than one million guests into the restaurants every day.

As one of the biggest restaurant company, Brinker build complete network with investors. If you check their website, you can see the annual financial reports from 2001 to 2010. They know how to use advantage of internet to build IR program. There is the website which Brinker International, Inc. builds for IR:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=119205&p=irol-irhome

The following chart is Brinker’s everyday stock performance shows on their website for all the investors and stockholder to easily get the latest update financial performance.




I was really surprised and happy to see how Brinker International Inc. build such completely IR grogram. Let all shareholders to know details of their annual performance.







Reference
http://www.brinker.com/company/default.asp

Investor Relations impact companies

Investor relations play an important role in a company now. It can affect a company’s operation activities and be a kind of channel that companies can use it to communicate with shareholders and investors. Companies have a department which provides accurate financial information and value to investors to help them with making buy or sell decisions. Building a good relationship with investors is also a good way to increase the stock value and company’s image. As the result, in most medium and large companies, building a good relationship with company’s investor is very important.

There are many different ways to build a good relationship with investors. I believe build a complete website for investors can provide investors understand a company more quickly and easier. It is an efficiency way to build good relationship with its investors and also can attract some other people who may be interested in this company.

This is Microsoft investor relation website. This website provides completed recent information about Microsoft, including financial reports, company’s events, and company information etc.

When I worked in the Globe Industries Corporation, a specialized adhesive tapes manufacturer in Taiwan, the shareholders and investors were very powerful in our company. Actually, we didn’t build a completed channel for our investors to understand our company.

We didn’t build a website just for our investors and any other channels to communicate with them, so we met a problem when we want to set a new plant in Zhu Hai which located in China. We need more money for investing in China. Unfortunately, we met the Financial Tsunami. Most of investors didn’t want to invest more money because they worried about the economy recession and they didn’t trust. As the result, our investor relation department tried to let our investors believe their investment is valuable. It is very difficult and waste much time and money to build trust with our investors.

reference:

http://www.microsoft.com/investor/default.aspx

http://www.globetape.com/tw/company.html

Describe how investor relations impact your work environment. Has the recession forced any changes relating to investor relations at your company?

As a matter of fact, investor relations is managed by the public relations or corporate communications department. That is to say, investor relations must be conscious of current issues because it works closely with the business law and regulatory matters that influence shareholders. MAZDA, for example, provides some informetion relating to investor relations on its website, not only concentrates on Stock and Bond information or Financial Data, but also offers some news about Social and Environment Reports. That means MAZDA emphasizes that Corporate Social Responsibility is also an important part of the entire company. In other words, good reputation results in value add to an organization. In sum, maintaining well contact with investors and concern with the real society is critical to investor relations of a company.


Reference:
Retrieved from http://www.mazda.com/

How do you see media relations used in your work environment?

"The pen is mightier than the sword" - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The quote signifies the importance of journalism and media in the 21st century. Media can cause companies to shut down. It can also help transfer minnows into giants. It can affect the decision of a customer who is going to choose a product from all the options available to him or her.

Media can even change a voter's mind and hence can affect the world politics.

Media is basically a medium of communicating. It can be in the form of news in newspaper, on radio, televisions or internet. Media also includes social networking sites which involve participation of all the members. Celebrities and top executives of multinationals have their blogs which they use officially or unofficially to interact with the world in order to keep their fans and followers aware of the truth and away from rumors about them. As far as work place is concerned various media is used to communicate globally spread businesses and to reduce the geographical distance. External media can also affect a firm by helping the firm gain or lose employees and customers.

Nike was severely criticized in media due to the sweat shops it partners ran in Asia and eventually it faced a boycott by many loyal customer.

How do you see media relations used in your work environment?

In the 21st century, media has become very powerful. It is the medium through which we get to know the happenings of the world. Media can remove the curtains to show the world the truth. Also media brings front the injustice done to people. Every company has to have positive relations with the media in oder to market there brand name , image and reputation. Media plays a big role in bringing new customers and retaining the old ones. New releases and new products can be marketed very well to the customers if the company has good relations with the media. Media can be of many type, television and radio where in existence since long but now social networking (  facebook and twitter) are becoming as important as others. 

Well I worked for Met life for a while and we used both the newspaper and television media for advertising both our existing and new products. Nowadays we have created a Facebook page and have more than 12000 members joined to it.  

http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_1eae8a8e-728f-5223-b05c-5a2a5f96dd43.html