Having to delay any kind of investor event is not something any IRO would like to do. But having to postpone your long-planned investor day – just as you report a steep drop in revenue and have recently replaced your CEO – is definitely not ideal.
Spare a thought then for the team at Nike, which had to do exactly that earlier this week. Net profits for the latest quarter at the US sportswear giant have fallen 28 percent year on year, with revenues down 10 percent, as it briefs new CEO Elliot Hill, who was announced as a replacement for John Donahoe earlier this month.
I’m sure the Nike team thought long and hard before delaying the event, though it led to a near 7 percent drop in the firm’s share price over the day. Investors will make their thoughts clear about the move in the coming weeks.
But for many of the IROs we’ve spoken to about the logistical undertaking of an investor day, two hallmarks of a successful event really stand out: meticulous forward planning and the utmost standards of transparency throughout.
Take Ford’s award-winning investor day, which involved attendees being able to race around in the US car maker’s latest models. The company’s director of IR, Lynn Antipas Tyson, describes it as a ‘big undertaking’ that required plenty of planning in advance – presumably that’s not just a reference to getting investors up to speed on their hairpin turns.
Peregrine Riviere, London Stock Exchange Group’s head of IR, told my colleague Tim Human that he gives investors a very long lead-time and sends them a ‘save the date’ about seven months in advance to ensure good attendance. ‘There’s quite a lot of competition for dates, so choosing the date and getting it in people’s diaries early is important,’ Riviere explained.
Another award-winner – Stephanie Corrente, director of corporate communications at Stella-Jones, a Canadian manufacturer of pressure-treated wood products – told us something subtly different: while planning was crucial for her successful investor day, she made sure flexibility was built into the schedule.
‘You want to make sure you set yourself up for success… making sure you have a robust schedule, that accountabilities are properly mapped out, regular touch points are scheduled and the content is developed,’ she said. Perhaps allowing for a tumultuous corporate situation and the capability to call the whole thing off was part of that.
Does that make Nike’s decision to postpone its investor day the wrong one? Perhaps not. Early signs are that the investment community thinks it’s a good idea to give Hill a bit more time to bed in: Piper Sandler’s equity research managing director and senior research analyst Anna Andreeva told Bloomberg the move was ‘prudent’.
When United Airlines did the same thing in April, due to increased scrutiny on the air carrier following a string of safety incidents, the move was met with muted understanding. And though its share price did drop in the immediate aftermath, it is now trading at around 25 percent higher.
Which all goes to show that the best possible view to take is a long-term one, whether that’s in the meticulous planning stage of an investor day or when weighing up whether you can postpone it at the last minute.
What are your thoughts about Nike’s move? Have you ever had to delay an important investor event? Let us know at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.
Laurie Havelock
Laurie has been part of the IR Magazine team for more than a decade, starting out as a reporter and research editor before becoming editor in 2023. He was previously acting business editor at the i newspaper and deputy business editor at The Daily...
