Mark Fasken: This is Winning IR, a podcast exploring the diverse insights within the IR community. Join me, Mark Fasken, as I sit down with IROs and other IR stakeholders to discuss the winning strategies, tactics, and shifts in thinking that are redefining the profession. At Irwin, we get a lot of questions from the IR community about best practices for effective investor days.

There are so many considerations for IR and management teams when it comes to the purpose, goals, and planning that goes into a meaningful event. And today's guest has amazing experience and expertise on this topic. Helene Dina is the president and strategy partner at HD Strategies, a unique advisory practice that provides strategic planning and communications for every critical stage in the life cycle of high-growth companies, from early scaling through operating as a public company post-IPO.

She has over 20 years of experience in strategy, operations, investor relations, and digital transformation. She has served in senior internal strategy and investor relations roles at various firms, including as the VP of investor relations at the Walt Disney company. She has worked extensively with newly public companies to shape their investment narratives for capital markets and create best-in-class investor communications programs.

Helene shares really practical and actionable advice for running best in class investor days in today's episode, and I'm excited to share her insight with you today.

Introduction to Investor Days

Mark Fasken: So Helene, we know that investor days are an essential tool for companies to showcase their strategic vision. And build trust within the investment community. With that in mind, I wanted to start by asking, in your experience, why are investor days so important for companies and what does management typically aim to achieve with an investor day?

Helene Dina: Thanks for having me on the show, Mark. I'm a listener of your podcasts and your episodes are full of practical insights not shared anywhere else. So I'm happy to be here. I've also just helped a client deliver their investor day. So, I've been looking forward to our conversation. I have a fresh perspective on your question.

The Importance of Investor Days

Helene Dina: Investor days are important for public companies to hold when there's a significant gap between what the company believes is its intrinsic value and the price that an investor is willing to pay, given the risk and the level of risk in a company, and its current market valuation, which is based on the stock price that you see.

And this happens when investors aren't aware of new strategies, the company is implementing, the business has complexities that need to be explained, or investors don't know the management team well because they're new. So an example is Southwest had a recent investor day, and they laid out their transformation plan with an update on what their customer value proposition looks like and also to explain how they're going to drive long-term revenue and margin improvements.

So that's an example. Investor days are a great opportunity for companies to communicate their strategy, build trust in the management's ability to deliver that strategy, manage expectations for financial outlook, and strengthen relationships with investors and analysts. When doing an investor day, companies usually look to achieve three things. One, they want to clarify their long term vision and strategy. Second, they want to showcase the leadership team. And third, they want to address key concerns and doubts that investors have related to industry risk, competitive threats, or changing business models through a well-executed investor day, a company can refresh the investment narrative build trust, and they can influence investor sentiment, which along with execution, and financial performance, over the long term helps to lead to a higher valuation for the company.

Mark Fasken: That's a great answer. And so, Helene, is it safe to say that you shouldn't have an investor day if you don't have anything to talk about?

Is that a reasonable summary?

Helene Dina: I would say, yeah, I mean, usually, you want investors to take away something from the event. And so most companies have something new to say, whether it's, you know, describing a product rollout or an announcement rolling out a new strategy or just putting more meat on the bones of a strategy structure that they've been talking about. Or you want to detail your innovation pipeline, your product pipeline. You want to showcase new management team, or you want to really describe the new direction for a particular business unit. So, it's not, particularly, that you have new news, but you are providing a lot more details and richness to your strategy and to how your business operates.

Mark Fasken: That's great. Yeah, I know. I've had conversations with a few IROs who have really highlighted that maybe there isn't always a need for an investor day every year. I've had some IROs who say maybe every other year, every third year, to ensure that there's a lot to talk about, right?

That there's a lot of value to provide to anybody who's attending. And so I think those are great examples too, of things that you can share in an investor day.

Planning an Impactful Investor Day

Mark Fasken: So let's talk a little bit about the planning. A lot of work goes into investor days as many of our listeners know.

What are some of the key elements that companies should consider to ensure that the event is impactful and that it aligns with those strategic goals that they've laid out?

Helene Dina: There are three key elements that companies should consider to create in an impactful day. One is you want to have a clear investment narrative that tells a cohesive, simple, incredible growth story across all the presentations during the investor day.

The second is, you need to define your key goals for the event. What are we trying to accomplish? Who's our target audience? And what does success look like? And then third, you want to have effective storytelling. And so that's through your speakers, but also the event formats that you choose in terms of your presentation, videos, demos, and the Q and A, you want them to be highly engaging.

So yeah, maybe I can speak a little bit about each element. So the first element is, you want to create a clear and consistent equity narrative across the entire event, and investors, in my experience, look for three things that make an investment narrative compelling. I call them the three T's. The first is TAM.

Second is targets, and the third is tangible proof points. So TAM is total addressable market. The second is our targets in terms of either financial targets, or performance targets. And then the third is you want to provide tangible proof points that your business strategy is already underway and is starting to show green shoots.

The second element is you want to define your why for having the event. And so you covered that a little bit and that, typically companies have something new to say, new ish but you want to figure out what do you want investors to take away from the event? And, it's important that you define the goals for the event and set expectations both internally and externally for what an investor day can do and what it can't do.

What it can do is communicate long-term growth strategy and your financial outlook, which you don't get to do during quarterly earnings very much. What it can't do and is probably not a good idea is it's not a great way to artificially lift your stock in the near term. And it's important to remember that.

And so, in order to set your key goals, you need a deep understanding of investor and market perception. And then the third, you've got to have effective storytelling. And so that's through your speakers. You want to prepare your speakers to be effective storytellers. They are the ones who are going to demonstrate the deep, deep bench of management and build your credibility through the format, right?

So it's all, it's. It's show and tell, right? You've got to not only clearly state your strategy simply, but you want to use engaging stories with data to illustrate the company's market opportunity and how it's uniquely positioned to win.

Mark Fasken: That's great. And so we talked a little bit about some great comments there on goals and goal setting being realistic.

Best Practices for Content and Delivery

Mark Fasken: Can you share some best practices around the development of the content you talked about, ensuring that you have effective speakers, you have an effective communication strategy? So what can companies do to ensure that they have quality content, that the speakers are prepared, and just that the overall communication strategy is aligned, that you don't have a bunch of speakers that are maybe going in different directions in terms of the core message?

Helene Dina: Yeah, I'll share four best practices that, in my experience, helped to deliver a successful investor day. One is you want to set the right mindset across your speakers and your C-Suite.

Treat this like it's the most important thing that your company will do this year. And so you want to build a sense of urgency within the C-Suite, for hitting the milestones on your project plan. And you want to communicate early and often throughout the investor day planning process. This is one of the most cross-functional and most high visibility project for the CFO and the IRO. And you want to set expectations and be proactive in communicating in a detailed way, from what will be said, to what speakers should wear on stage. The second best practice I often follow with clients is you want to structure your storytelling in a persuasive way. And people are more likely to understand and accept a message when it's presented in a clear and logical manner.

When we are a business operator, we tend to be very focused on this is what I've done. This is what's going great with the business. But you really want to structure your storytelling more in a top down approach where you put the most important point at the top of what you're going to do.

And then supporting details underneath. And so this is a a structure that was coined formerly by a McKinsey consultant, Barbara Minto. And it's fundamental as a framework that I use both in my strategy work with client as well as investor relations. So whether I'm laying out findings of a strategy analysis, or convincing a board on a new strategy or shaping the investment narrative of an investor day, this is the same framework that I use.

And what you want to set out, what's the situation? What are the challenges coming up for the company? And then, you want to pose the question that the company needs to answer, and then answer and provide the solution. And once you provide the solution, then you want to support that with evidence, right?

Why is this the right strategy? What are the proof points that this is going to work? Why is your company uniquely positioned to win here? And why do consumers want the solution? So those are two areas where, if you follow this structure with a clear, logical, and persuasive way, it'll make it more likely to be accepted and remembered by investors.

The third best practice is, I say, prepare your speakers to be effective storytellers. So rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, leave time, lots of time for rehearsing. Investor Day is about content and delivery. It's as much about what you say as it is about how you deliver this message. So you want to have, you want to secure the right resources early, right?

Executive coaching, media training, reg FD training. And I typically take a bespoke approach to working with each speaker and their, according to their needs. You know, a speaker who's an introvert versus an extrovert may have different learning ways. A person who's very good on screen may not be good in person or vice versa.

So you want to really kind of work with their strengths there. And then lastly, on your question on communication plan, even though I always recommend people really speak to a target audience when they develop their content, your communication plan overall should address many stakeholders. So while investors are the focus, There's audiences to keep in mind. Press, right?

Business and trade and consumer press. You want to work with your comms person as a partner across the board there. You want to think on who can help you amplify your message, whether that's business partners, employees, retail shareholders, sometimes, community partners or board members. And you have to keep in mind competitors are listening and other people.

So you may want to think about objections. Some of your key audience has and adjust that as well. To summarize, four best practices, right mindset, right storytelling structure, prepare your speakers to be effective and communicate to all key stakeholders.

Mark Fasken: Fantastic. Fantastic. And so, we're working through this plan in a very structured way, which I love.

We've talked about the goals. We've talked about the communication strategy, how do you make sure you have the right people in the right message?

Engaging Formats and Avoiding Pitfalls

Mark Fasken: The other thing that I want to talk about is the format. Okay. Right. And so I've had, you know, IROs and people talk about investor days and how do you make them interesting?

How do you make them engaging? Cause to your point, there's a lot of talking, there's a lot of information, there's a lot of numbers and strategy, and you want to make sure that people are paying attention. And so, any examples or advice that you can share in terms of how to ensure that there is some creativity and that you're creating a bit of a dialogue with investors so that they're continuing to pay attention and stay engaged?

Helene Dina: Yeah, the number one reason why, you know, your audience, so you want to give them the reason to tune in live or to attend in person. And the number one reason that people attend in person and come is because they want to engage with management one-on-one and that's beyond the CEO and the CFO, who they get to interact with, or many of them get to interact with every earnings call. They want to really talk to line business leaders and really understand your strategy.

And then in terms of the format and making that engaging, there's several ways you could do that. I think that cocktail receptions are a great way to casually have people mingle. Another way are investor dinners, which tend to be very well received, but also think about showcasing your product and inviting folks that people may not get to interact with there.

So those are kind of fun ways. And then if you've got a fun brand, like, let's say, Disney, you know, bringing characters or ways to take pictures and have a memorable moment helps. The other thing you want to think about is try to make it easy for them to come, so that whether that's piggybacking on another event that's happening or going to them, which is most likely in New York City.

Another interesting thing that I've seen is you know, people putting it in an attractive venue. So whether that's Las Vegas or Florida, perhaps not right now, but Florida in during the winter time, those are also great ways to make it compelling for people to come.

Mark Fasken: Excellent. Excellent.

Okay. And so we've talked a lot about things to do, and best practices, and you've shared, a lot of great tips here. We also always find it helpful to talk about things not to do and common pitfalls. So from your experience here, what are some common pitfalls that you've seen companies encounter? Whether it's in, you know, the goal setting, the planning, the delivery, the content.

You know, things that you would recommend IROs try to avoid.

Helene Dina: Yeah, I'll share four here too. One is they don't plan early enough. So when I get frantic phone calls two months before an investor day, I feel terrible, and I want to do as much as possible, but sometimes you can only do so much, so I recommend companies start thinking six to nine months ahead.

Start planning six nine months ahead. 12 months ahead, there are decisions that you ought to make like picking a date, maybe thinking about the venue, blocking calendars. You know, very sort of blocking and tackling things that you can avoid. The second one is companies have an off the shelf playbook, but it doesn't reflect current environment, or take into account the company's ways of working.

So an example would be budget has changed significantly, given inflation, but also in companies' desire for level of polish. I find that, especially with hybrid investor days, they want to get attention from people who are dialing in or who are live streaming as much as it is an in-person event. And so that can affect your budget.

And then, in terms of companies' ways of working, if this is a new initiative for your company and the people involved, it's like building a new muscle in the organization. So you want to really take more time to think about it, and you want to, you know, figure out how people are working together and over-communicate that sense.

And that takes some time along the way, but you really want to kind of take the time to over communicate. The third pitfall is companies treat this like a developer conference or a trade conference, and many times that's because that's usually what their event planning department you know, deals with, and they're really two different characteristics about investor day.

One is the audience is different. As this audience is savvy, they ask insightful questions, and they don't show overt enthusiasm for things like product launches or new movie slates, and they appreciate a straightforward approach to communicating, and so some of your speakers.

Speakers who are used to having a call and response interaction with the audience that, they just have, they need to be prepared that the energy just feels different and is unique. And then the last, oh the second thing about that's different about investor day is the lead times are different and longer.

Right? Content review, because this is a financial event, involves a lot of people that vet this. So legal, finance, accounting, comms, IR, and that takes a lot of time. The other thing that takes time is video production, right? It can change. It's hard to make changes and increases costs. And then lastly, I'll say, people don't prepare enough for Q&A and I feel like this is a missed opportunity, is speakers are, get wrapped up into making sure they've got the perfect presentation and the perfect delivery, which is the right thing to focus on.

But, from an investor perspective, management interactions and speaker dynamics during a Q&A, are as much part of how they're listening. And so, they want to figure out how you how well you work together and how aligned you are in strategy. And so, scheduling Q&A rehearsal ahead of time and really sticking to that.

That's one of the areas I also recommend that companies do.

Mark Fasken: That's great. I think the piece that I really take away from that, and the point that you made where it's possible that many of the people that are participating in this event are going to approach it almost like a customer conference, it's like where we're going out to sell and get everybody excited.

And to your point, it's just a very different audience. It's very factual. It can be very technical. And so you really need to be prepared for that in a way that some of those people probably have never experienced before. I think that point you made as well, a little bit earlier in the call, around really setting the tone for the importance of the investor day, like this may be the most important event that we do all year, and making sure that people are very aware of that for sure is a good way to set the right expectations and the right level of urgency.

Measuring Success and Maintaining Momentum

Mark Fasken: You know, we're now getting sorted through the event. Let's say we've now executed a successful event.

Everything's worked out. Of course, you've had Helene's help, and so everything's gone off without a hitch. You talked earlier about goal setting, and obviously, the goals and everything are going to be somewhat unique to every company. And sometimes, I imagine, You know, the success of the event is it could take a while to really show up, but are there any shorter term ways that an investor relations team and a company can get a feel for whether that investor day was successful?

Did we communicate effectively? Did people understand our story? Yeah. What would you recommend IR teams could do to get that shorter term feedback?

Helene Dina: Yeah, here's some tangible ways to measure success on investor day. And to your point, it is a long-term success story that you're developing, but a couple of tangible ways is you want to take a look at investor sentiment change sort of early, early signs of that.

And that could show up in the equity research that analysts write about, You know, are they talking about the key messages that you really put out there, the targets or the products or the insights that you communicated, right? Is that resonating with them? The second aspect is you can also do a perception study post an investor day.

So I typically recommend companies have a perception study six to nine months before and then one after in order to start gauging whether are there certain things resonating and then are there still perception gaps that we ought to be addressing. So that's that's one way.

Another way is looking at target price changes. And to your point, that can happen over the next three to four quarters, or depending on your business. It could take a few years as well, right? If you've got a long lead time, stock rating changes, you know, I'd say over the next 12 months or so, can probably be related to some of the key new messages that you've delivered, and people seeing whether you are delivering against those things.

And then internally there are some key things that are happening. It typically, in my experience, so, you know, teams have more clarity in the strategy and what they need to do, and what are the priority initiatives that they need to get done. And then you get further alignment with stakeholders, right?

Whether it's sales and partnership narratives are really sinking and echoing the overall strategy that you're laying out. Senior teams are aligned, and so now you've really got, you've written a chapter that now people are filling in throughout, and it really helps. And then, performance targets are a lot clearer for everybody.

What's not a good measure, to your point, are near-term changes in the stock price, right? So those really reflect more of what the street had built in, in terms of expectations into the stock. And then if your growth sector, for example, they tend to focus on the upcoming quarter or this year's guidance, and that kind of fluctuates the the stock in the near term.

So those are key few things that I look for in terms of how to measure success.

Mark Fasken: Excellent. And following off that theme, it's a long-term effort. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You know, these, investor days, they're also really not meant to be a one and done, you know, we went in and communicate with the investors.

Okay, we're good for another 12 to 24 months, right? It's part of an ongoing conversation with your stakeholders. And so any suggestions around how companies can really maintain the momentum, and maintain that ongoing conversation with investors, and ensure that they maintain that consistent communication.

Helene Dina: Yeah, exactly, to your point, you want to repeat your messaging and your investment narrative as often and share timely updates to that, whether it's in your quarterly earnings calls or in investment conferences that you attend, and go to or group settings or NDRs. And I, you know, typically you want to make, you want to make it very easy and straightforward, right?

You want to say, we told you we would do X, and realize Y by this date, and we're delivering on it. Right? And so repeating that over and over really builds credibility over time. And if you're prioritizing frequent communication, it helps to build trust with investors that you didn't forget that you put some goals out there.

And now you're ready to put points on the board. In your investor meetings and NDRs, as I mentioned, you want to ask for feedback on some of the key topics, and then reiterate the key messages, but then build upon them as well because people will have follow-up questions. And you want to address the gap areas that you're hearing from post investor day.

So that could be whether there's unclear messages or there's excitement around a new initiative. And so, you really kind of want to take that momentum and share more there. So you want to build content related to those areas. The other aspect is momentum, you want to revisit some of these goals pretty often with the key business stakeholders, go back and tell them how are the investors taking that message, and what are some following questions that they may have.

Whether it's also one way or two way communication channels, you want to provide investors with the flexibility and on how and when to consume this. So that could be earnings calls, NDRs, one on one meetings, or your IR website, your investor presentation. You want to put it out as clearly as possible out there.

Mark Fasken: Awesome.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Mark Fasken: Helene, this has been really, really helpful. I mean,  there's a lot to think about as, as you know, Investor Days takes six to nine months to plan and there's a lot involved. And so really appreciate all the useful insights here. I mean, for anybody who's listening, Helene has a blog on her website where she, actually posts thoughts and guides around these types of topics.

But Helene, really appreciate your time. Thank you.

Helene Dina: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me, Mark. This was great.

Mark Fasken: I hope you enjoyed this episode of Winning IR, the Investor Relations Podcast. Winning IR is brought to you by Irwin, the IR solution designed with engagement in mind. For more information and episodes, visit www.getirwin.com.

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