A general piece of advice that we have provided to CEOs and CFOs over the years is to make your company’s story easy for investors to understand.
One can not overstate the importance of simplicity when communicating a company’s story to investors. It is important for management teams to succinctly describe:
- the market opportunity;
- the customer value proposition for each product and service offered;
- the go-to-market strategy for each product and service offered;
- sources of competitive differentiation across the product and service portfolio;
- capital allocation strategy;
- revenue model and various input costs for each product and service provided.
It is easier than ever for management teams to craft corporate stories given the various communication tools that are available. Too many companies are mired in old habits such as creating static “Company Overview” investor presentations in PDF or PowerPoint format. Those traditional investor decks are fine. However, a YouTube version of the investor deck that incorporates facts and figures overlayed with narrative audio in a dynamic video wrapper is far more powerful. Further, a narrative video is less likely to be interpreted incorrectly by investors as compared to a static investor deck that may lack context.
Separately, we published our Earnings Call Survival Kit for public company management teams several years ago that is relevant given earnings season is upon us. You may access the CEORater Earnings Call Survival Kit HERE.