Corporate Forum Blog

So let me see if I’ve got this straight.  It’s a good thing that high-speed trading firm Virtu Financial can front-run the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s computer system because the data helps them to “manage risk and post more quotes that benefit other buyers and sellers.”   This is pink slime repositioned as nutritious eating. 

Jeffrey Sprecher is right. The US stock market has completely lost sight of its original purpose.  Rather than acting in support of listed companies, the exchanges today not only tolerate, but actually encourage disruptive high-speed trading.   

Remember the sanctimonious, in-your-face Lance Armstrong when doping accusations were beginning to ensnare members of his peloton?  “I’ll you what I’m on… I’m on my bike 6 hours a day” he sneered.  Can’t be guilty because he never tested positive we were told.  Again and again.   “I assert my innocence,” he stated. “Certainly I have never tested positive. I have never been caught with anything.” 

XBRL for was announced with great promise.    These computer-readable tags, in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), would allow companies to label precisely thousands of numbers from their financial statements.   Then investors, analysts, journalists, SEC staff and others could easily search, access and analyze the data.

It’s easy to see why JC Penney hired Ron Johnson – clearly this was a man who knew how to envisage cool ideas.     From his stint at Target where he helped “win the discount retailer a reputation for style” to Apple, where he helped “create the mystique surrounding Apple’s successful retail operation.”     “The fact that he has a lot of creative ideas was very appealing to the board, " said the JC Penney board in June 2011.  

There’s a big kerfuffle astir.  A CEO used “salty” language in response to a challenging question following an IR presentation.  The language itself, “g− d− it” can be heard on any media outlet except maybe [maybe] The Disney Channel.  But the tone and the setting, an angry outburst at an analyst meeting, does raise a question.  Is this person well-suited to the role?  Can he lead and listen, evaluate and respond to objections, frame and express a point of view? 

I am really sorry the Jets will not be in the play-offs.  Not only because my hometown heroes the Patriots would have easily defeated them, but also because Jason Gay will no longer be using some of the best imagery in sports writing to describe the Jets.  The acquisition of Tim Tebow and subsequent benching?  “It’s as if Rex Ryan got himself a hot pink Jet-Ski and left it out on the front lawn to rust.”

I am forever interested in the way the practice of investor relations is equal to the action of political campaigning. The IR PPT is the campaign stump speech, and the prospective investor can be courted just as a prospective voter.  Note too: once a prospective shareholder becomes an investor, or a voter becomes a constituent, in both cases it can be even harder to meet their demands.  But that’s a subject for another post.  

There is a hilarious send-up of the movie Liz & Dick, see: Lifetime Original, starring Lindsay Lohan (need I say more?).  But actually the critique provides valuable lessons for all type of narratives, including IR presentations.  Those lessons include pacing, context and plot development.

Opposition research is standard operating procedure in political campaigns whereby there is an effort not only to highlight a candidate’s strengths, but also to uncover the opponent’s weaknesses.  Importantly, opposition research is not designed to spread untruths.  Rather, the goal is to highlight the “votes and quotes” that diminish an opponent’s statements.  As any “oppo” practitioner can attest, it is no accident when a candidate campaigning on a platform of lower income taxes is revealed to have signed legislation raising property taxes.