Strategic Financial and Investor Communication: The Stock Price Story - Hardcover

Westbrook, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415812054 ISBN 13: 9780415812054

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

In today's aggressive marketplace, listed companies can no longer rely on their numbers to do the talking. If companies can't communicate their achievements and strategy, mounting research evidence suggests, they will be overlooked, their cost of capital will increase and stock price will suffer.

In Strategic Financial and Investor Communication: the stock price story  Ian Westbrook, principal of Australia's leading independent financial communications firm, argues just this: stock price is more a story than a number. Moreover, the book will teach you how to tell your own story by guiding you through the fast-paced world of financial corporate communication with a professional's pragmatism as well as academic rigour.

Whether you're a student or a professional of PR, investor relations or corporate communications, this much-needed guide will teach you how to tell a compelling story about your company that the stockbroker, fund manager and corporate media cannot ignore.

About this title

Review:

‘In this new work on the vital linkage between communication and stock market price Ian Westbrook challenges a number of old assumptions and provides clear evidence that the future for corporate investment lies in the vertical integration of communication throughout the firm.

It is at once a good read and a significant contribution to the theory and practice of financial communication. Mr Westbrook has taken a considered approach to the vexed issue of how, why and when CEOs should engage with stakeholders: he provides timely advice on dealing with provocateurs such as news media, citizen journalists and activist investors.

His description of 'proxy fights' in which corporations allow others, particularly media, to become leading actors is engaging while the case studies he has chosen provide a well-balanced complement to the processes and theories set out in a highly readable narrative. This book should be a 'must read' for everyone in the corporate world, or as Mr Westbrook argues, engaged in the corporate 'stakeholder' world rather than the 'shareholder' world.’ - Dr Richard Stanton, Department of Media & Communications, The University of Sydney, Australia

‘Westbrook is most instructive and current with best practice and thinking as regards navigating the capital markets. He stresses an understanding of both non-financial and basic elements of the value mosaic and is realistic in his theses, which are well resourced in academic study. Westbrook recognizes that factual information and comparative metrics only tell part of the story...colour counts. He underscores the importance of communicating with one voice and in a timely manner. This text is for the serious student of capital and value formation. Westbrook digs deep into the underlayment of the art and presents a strong case for his conclusions. This book is a standard-setter for IROs, with valuable lessons.’ - Robert D. Ferris, Chair, Capital Markets Practice, RF Binder Partners

‘This outstanding book will be a great resource for students, scholars, and practitioners as it combines solid theoretical background with very practical and current examples from the world of financial communications and investor relations.’ - Alexander V. Laskin, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Public Relations, Quinnipiac University, USA

‘I am delighted to say that this is a fantastic book. Not only is it the first decent, dedicated financial communications book to emerge in many years (since 1989 by my reckoning); it's also the first text to apply academic theory to financial communications in a meaningful way. I recommend it both to business and communication students alike, as well as those readers with a general interest in contemporary strategies used in financial markets.' - Clea Bourne, Lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

‘Westbrook ends the debate on ‘art vs. science’ in the field of communications. For any corporate or investor communicator, The Stock Price Story quantifies the studies, metrics and conclusions which validate communications’ role in a company’s stock following and price. A must read for professionals in the field who need to answer to a board or the C-suite on the inherent value of communications for a public company avoid the steep costs for those who fail to tell their corporate story.’ - John Mattio, CEO & Founder of Lamnia International, a New York and Connecticut based corporate and investor communications firm focused on branding a company’s corporate story in US markets.

About the Author:

Ian Westbrook is Principal of Westbrook Financial Communications, Australia, and a part-time lecturer at the University of Sydney, having established the Financial and Investor Communication unit of study for postgraduate students in the Department of Media and Communications.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0415812054
• ISBN 13: 9780415812054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 306