Jeff Cossette talks to Stephen Butler, director of investor engagement and ESG disclosure at Luminous, about how...Read more
Jeff Cossette

Latest articles
Researchers and regular folk alike note the association between suppressing one’s feelings and poor psychological and physical health...Read more
March 2015
Companies today feel significant pressure to establish some form of social media presence. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have...Read more
February 2015
With the 2015 proxy season approaching and shareholder activists promising to torment corporate Canada throughout the year, IROs are...Read more
December 2014
A sign of the growing influence of mobile communications – if from a rather leftfield source – has arrived from a team of US...Read more
October 2014
A pair of large-scale surveys of buy-side and sell-side analysts has uncovered an array of valuable and perhaps surprising insights...Read more
August 2014
Along with a variety of linguistic tips, the SEC’s Plain English Handbook encourages companies to adopt a presentation style in their...Read more
Last June a blockbuster academic analysis stunned many corporate governance aficionados with robust statistical evidence pointing to...Read more
Pulling off a successful investor/analyst day can make or break an IRO’s career. They are expensive, high-profile events where failure...Read more
June 2014
As executive vice president for strategy and communications at PGi, Sean O’Brien’s job is to help craft and communicate the vision,...Read more
Seeking to fish where the fish are, IROs have cast lures into a range of new media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn...Read more
May 2014
Managers with bad earnings news to report sometimes try to ‘hide’ it by announcing at times when they hope the market isn’t paying too...Read more
April 2014
Faced with the prospect of reporting poor earnings, firms may be tempted to mute market reaction by couching disclosures in positive...Read more
March 2014
Can events with utterly no information content affect stock price? Efficient market hypothesis proponents don’t believe so, yet...Read more
Since its commercial introduction in 1982, videoconferencing has offered the promise of better productivity and deeper, more...Read more
Investors punish companies whose chief executives sound too confident and directors are also more likely to fire them if performance...Read more
February 2014
It’s unlikely many of those who gathered at the RBC Centre in downtown Toronto for the IR Magazine Investor Perception Seminar ‒...Read more
January 2014
When considering the timing of a bad news earnings release, intuition suggests a day when many other companies are also announcing...Read more
December 2013
You can’t please all the people all the time – and when it comes to CSR, it pays to know just how far to go. Researchers at the...Read more
October 2013
An unintended consequence Proxy advisory firm recommendations have substantive impact on say-on-pay voting outcomes...Read more
A director has resigned and you’re concerned about the market’s reaction. Do you release the news ASAP or wait until the end of the...Read more
August 2013
Early morning wake-up call Managers and analysts play together best in the morning. Researchers say the tone of Q...Read more
A browse through Google Books reveals a fair smattering of tomes written on the subject of investor relations. I haven’t read any of...Read more
July 2013
US CEOs anxious about shareholders opining on their pay packages can take comfort: the yacht is safe. But they may find themselves...Read more
Companies with long-term investment plans often go to great lengths to attract long-term investors. But research suggests that once...Read more
Recent surveys portray US and Canadian investors as a reasonably happy lot, confident about the current equity picture and optimistic...Read more
June 2013
Trying to hide bad news? Only letting bullish analysts participate in earnings call Q&As? Researchers at Harvard and the London...Read more
May 2013
Pity the lowly retail investor. Shunned and ignored like a broken Ikea lamp, the investing masses languish in the communication...Read more
World o’ research 1. Got bad earnings news to deliver Friday morning? Then hope your community sports team wins the...Read more
April 2013
1. What is the most powerful driver of stock prices on the Nairobi Securities Exchange? (a) Earnings (b) Dividends (...Read more
March 2013
1. Which of these five countries is the clear leader in terms of corporate governance? (a) Qatar (b) Kuwait (c) UAE...Read more
February 2013
Companies loathe disclosing cyber-attacks. Beyond the effect on stock price, estimating the cost and materiality of economic espionage...Read more
Does being honest and transparent matter in the long run? To date, the depressing answer from academe has been ‘no’. But new research...Read more
January 2013
September 18, 2012 was the date investors had been waiting for: it was the day medical diagnostics provider CML HealthCare, one of...Read more
November 2012
1. CSR disclosure has no effect on the value of Indonesian banks, say researchers at Pelita Harapan University of...Read more
October 2012
1. Which Stock Exchange of Thailand industry group provides the most environmental disclosure? a) Agriculture b)...Read more
September 2012
If you’re looking to attract a base of sophisticated investors, you should regularly issue earnings guidance and consider pulling back...Read more
August 2012
Is your company ‘emerging’? Then Investor relations for the emerging company by Ralph Rieves may just be the holiday reading...Read more
July 2012
Questions 1. Analyst speaking tone during quarterly conference calls is most positive when the firm: a) Avoids...Read more
June 2012
Her first love was chemistry. But the passion soon faded when Yvette Lokker, who will take the reins as president and CEO of CIRI in...Read more
Companies with better segment disclosure enjoy lower cost of equity capital, say Spanish researchers. When they sampled SFAS 131...Read more
For IROs needing to stay informed about changing economic conditions, and for mortgage owners pondering locking in rates, the last day...Read more
Organizers chose Montreal for CIRI’s 25th annual conference; this was the first time the city hosted the event and the mood was...Read more
May 2012
In the average Latin American country, about half the largest companies are cross-listed in the US. But in Colombia just eight of the...Read more
April 2012
If you believe investor recognition affects company value and cost of capital – and what IRO doesn’t? – you’d probably appreciate an...Read more
March 2012
World o’ transparency update 1. Spain beats Mexico 80 to 59, according to an index of 70 major companies’ corporate transparency on...Read more
February 2012
Nigerians don’t trust annual reports: a recent survey finds 60 percent of equity investor respondents perceive them as unreliable...Read more
January 2012
Go ahead: make promises in your annual report; investors will assume you’re telling no lies. They will also reward you by paying up...Read more
December 2011
True or false? 1. Restaurant company annual reports contain more optimism and charismatic rhetoric than those issued by oil firms. 2...Read more
Day one Fly in to Milwaukee the night before and start with a breakfast meeting at the Pfister Hotel. ‘The Pfister is where all the...Read more
November 2011
Environment, social and governance Investors have a growing appetite for non-financial environmental, social and governance (ESG) data...Read more
October 2011
Companies that attempt to achieve ‘predictable earnings’ may be shooting themselves in the foot. A study examining the link between...Read more
Presenting at an analyst-sponsored conference can boost liquidity and lower cost of capital, but only if your company has sufficient...Read more
September 2011
More and more companies are turning to online video to disclose important information. In some instances, however, the endeavor may be...Read more
August 2011
Tired of pesky shareholder resolutions clogging up your AGM? Try listing in Canada. A recent survey reveals a ‘positively anemic’...Read more
Lake Louise is stunning: emerald and ice, ringed by rocky towers, shimmering in iconic glory – the mountain lake easily captivates...Read more
June 2011
Questions 1. Chief financial officers get involved in material accounting manipulations because: a) They succumb to pressure from...Read more
The battle for Toronto exchange operator TMX Group got a little more expensive yesterday as the London Stock Exchange (LSE) put a C$...Read more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has thrown its weight behind The London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) proposed merger with Toronto...Read more
Rocky Mountain weather can be unpredictable and attendees woke up to a very different climate on the final day of CIRI’s annual...Read more
Lake Louise is stunning this time of year. Emerald and ice, ringed by rocky towers, shimmering in iconic glory, the mountain lake...Read more
May 2011
The sooner a company announces bad earnings news, the less likely unhappy shareholders are to sue it. In fact, the temporal effect is...Read more
When it comes to roadshow broker escorts, North American IROs are still searching for Mr Goodfeedback. Sure, they hear plenty of...Read more
April 2011
An international investor group’s proposal for a so-called ‘fifth analyst conference call’ on governance issues has aroused remarkably...Read more
March 2011
Are local armed insurgencies affecting your company’s stock price? Don’t bother communicating intellectual capital to investors in...Read more
February 2011
Do graphs of pro forma earnings influence investor judgment? In most cases they do and, according to a trio of investigators at Iowa...Read more
The debacle at Target pointed to just how bad it could be. Despite a strong record in support of diversity, the Minnesota-based...Read more
December 2010
Why do extreme positive earnings surprises occur? Sometimes you can chalk it up to analyst inattention; sometimes, it seems, managers...Read more
When Ahmad Aweidah and his delegation of leading Palestinian companies visited the City this spring, many of the fund managers they...Read more
The political affiliations of equity analysts can affect earnings forecasts and market prices. Using data from 1993 to 2009, US...Read more
Some say it all began with Bernie Madoff. As a young pre-felon, he merged a payment-for-order flow model with technology to devise a...Read more
October 2010
Before Reg FD, US analysts who went to the same school as the senior management and board members of companies they covered could...Read more
Companies with short, easy-to-pronounce names experience greater liquidity, breadth of ownership and ultimately higher value,...Read more
Institutional investors are heading into the fourth quarter with an overall ‘heightened sense of caution’ but are once again bullish...Read more
September 2010
Whether corporations have a social responsibility beyond increasing profits is outside the realm of adult discourse. Whether they can...Read more
1. Companies that miss expectations by just one cent have quarterly conference calls that are 1.1 minutes longer than those that meet...Read more
July 2010
A new European Commission (EC) Green Paper has launched a summer of debate on corporate governance at financial institutions, and IROs...Read more
Pessimistic is the word that best sums up descriptions of global equity investor sentiment in recent months, with concern about public...Read more
Pictures of women Women are under-represented in Canadian annual report photographs and usually depicted as less powerful than men in...Read more
June 2010
Canadian companies are only months away from their changeover to reporting under IFRS in 2011. Yet all indications are that many...Read more
May 2010
Hard economic times haven't much dampened demand for good IR according to a new survey conducted by NIRI and management talent scout...Read more
April 2010
It’s getting harder to lie – just ask UK housing benefit fraudsters, or US insurance company swindlers. Plenty of each group have been...Read more
March 2010
Profit warnings: Will openness be rewarded? The answer is a qualified ‘yes’, according to researchers at the...Read more
February 2010
Liking the right thing Plenty of research links institutional investors’ stock preferences with socially responsible...Read more
January 2010
Objects of investment desire What’s the biggest non-financial decision driver among individual investors? Recent...Read more
November 2009
Asians don’t invest in Asia, it seems. During 2006 investment in countries within the region accounted for only 10 percent of local...Read more
October 2009
Spin equals sizzle Hiring an IR company to generate positive media coverage works. According to a study by David...Read more
Set the date and time (and make sure people show up) 1 In beginnings are the seeds of endings. The...Read more
August 2009
Companies are generally seen to have four primary governance mechanisms: management, board of directors/audit committee, external...Read more
July 2009
Where more is less Empirical studies on disclosure generally agree with finance theory predictions that more public...Read more
Congratulations! You have just taken a big step. You’ve begun to read this article on corporate advertising and media buying. When you...Read more
June 2009
In their heyday, Canada’s income trusts boasted over C$200 bn ($170 bn) in stock market capitalization. Yet by 2011, when their ‘tax...Read more
IR managers aspiring to a board-level position can boost their chances by applying concrete metrics to their performance and...Read more
March 2009
Investors often say environmental disclosure plays a small role in their decision making. According to Danish researchers, however,...Read more
February 2009
In a world frantically grasping for information content, the financial statements of UK biotechs are notably bereft. According to a...Read more
January 2009
Oil giant Nexen calculates that one entire ‘person-year’ will end up being devoted to complying with Canada’s new executive...Read more
We have all pondered the same question: ‘Is it really worth it?’ Well, Dr Sushma Vishnani decided to find out. As an India-based...Read more
December 2008
An investigation into the medieval roots of corporate communications points to 14th century business school teacher Sampson of Oxford’...Read more
October 2008
His wife pointed to the newspaper ad and said, ‘You could do this.’ Peter Kruse considered it: the world’s largest wind turbine...Read more
August 2008
In March 2005 the floodgates to a multi-billion-dollar pool of capital suddenly and unexpectedly burst open. That’s when the Canadian...Read more
March 2008
The practice of providing regular mid-quarter performance updates, now increasingly shunned by US companies, emerged with a promising...Read more
January 2008
The affect effect Just as you always suspected, it really is about more than mere money. While traditional finance theory determines...Read more
March 2015
Companies today feel significant pressure to establish some form of social media presence. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have...Read more
February 2015
With the 2015 proxy season approaching and shareholder activists promising to torment corporate Canada throughout the year, IROs are...Read more
December 2014
A sign of the growing influence of mobile communications – if from a rather leftfield source – has arrived from a team of US...Read more
October 2014
A pair of large-scale surveys of buy-side and sell-side analysts has uncovered an array of valuable and perhaps surprising insights...Read more
August 2014
Along with a variety of linguistic tips, the SEC’s Plain English Handbook encourages companies to adopt a presentation style in their...Read more
Last June a blockbuster academic analysis stunned many corporate governance aficionados with robust statistical evidence pointing to...Read more
Pulling off a successful investor/analyst day can make or break an IRO’s career. They are expensive, high-profile events where failure...Read more
June 2014
As executive vice president for strategy and communications at PGi, Sean O’Brien’s job is to help craft and communicate the vision,...Read more
Seeking to fish where the fish are, IROs have cast lures into a range of new media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn...Read more
May 2014
Managers with bad earnings news to report sometimes try to ‘hide’ it by announcing at times when they hope the market isn’t paying too...Read more
April 2014
Faced with the prospect of reporting poor earnings, firms may be tempted to mute market reaction by couching disclosures in positive...Read more
March 2014
Can events with utterly no information content affect stock price? Efficient market hypothesis proponents don’t believe so, yet...Read more
Since its commercial introduction in 1982, videoconferencing has offered the promise of better productivity and deeper, more...Read more
Investors punish companies whose chief executives sound too confident and directors are also more likely to fire them if performance...Read more
February 2014
It’s unlikely many of those who gathered at the RBC Centre in downtown Toronto for the IR Magazine Investor Perception Seminar ‒...Read more
January 2014
When considering the timing of a bad news earnings release, intuition suggests a day when many other companies are also announcing...Read more
December 2013
You can’t please all the people all the time – and when it comes to CSR, it pays to know just how far to go. Researchers at the...Read more
October 2013
An unintended consequence Proxy advisory firm recommendations have substantive impact on say-on-pay voting outcomes...Read more
A director has resigned and you’re concerned about the market’s reaction. Do you release the news ASAP or wait until the end of the...Read more
August 2013
Early morning wake-up call Managers and analysts play together best in the morning. Researchers say the tone of Q...Read more
A browse through Google Books reveals a fair smattering of tomes written on the subject of investor relations. I haven’t read any of...Read more
July 2013
US CEOs anxious about shareholders opining on their pay packages can take comfort: the yacht is safe. But they may find themselves...Read more
Companies with long-term investment plans often go to great lengths to attract long-term investors. But research suggests that once...Read more
Recent surveys portray US and Canadian investors as a reasonably happy lot, confident about the current equity picture and optimistic...Read more
June 2013
Trying to hide bad news? Only letting bullish analysts participate in earnings call Q&As? Researchers at Harvard and the London...Read more
May 2013
Pity the lowly retail investor. Shunned and ignored like a broken Ikea lamp, the investing masses languish in the communication...Read more
World o’ research 1. Got bad earnings news to deliver Friday morning? Then hope your community sports team wins the...Read more
April 2013
1. What is the most powerful driver of stock prices on the Nairobi Securities Exchange? (a) Earnings (b) Dividends (...Read more
March 2013
1. Which of these five countries is the clear leader in terms of corporate governance? (a) Qatar (b) Kuwait (c) UAE...Read more
February 2013
Companies loathe disclosing cyber-attacks. Beyond the effect on stock price, estimating the cost and materiality of economic espionage...Read more
Does being honest and transparent matter in the long run? To date, the depressing answer from academe has been ‘no’. But new research...Read more
January 2013
September 18, 2012 was the date investors had been waiting for: it was the day medical diagnostics provider CML HealthCare, one of...Read more
November 2012
1. CSR disclosure has no effect on the value of Indonesian banks, say researchers at Pelita Harapan University of...Read more
October 2012
1. Which Stock Exchange of Thailand industry group provides the most environmental disclosure? a) Agriculture b)...Read more
September 2012
If you’re looking to attract a base of sophisticated investors, you should regularly issue earnings guidance and consider pulling back...Read more
August 2012
Is your company ‘emerging’? Then Investor relations for the emerging company by Ralph Rieves may just be the holiday reading...Read more
July 2012
Questions 1. Analyst speaking tone during quarterly conference calls is most positive when the firm: a) Avoids...Read more
June 2012
Her first love was chemistry. But the passion soon faded when Yvette Lokker, who will take the reins as president and CEO of CIRI in...Read more
Companies with better segment disclosure enjoy lower cost of equity capital, say Spanish researchers. When they sampled SFAS 131...Read more
For IROs needing to stay informed about changing economic conditions, and for mortgage owners pondering locking in rates, the last day...Read more
Organizers chose Montreal for CIRI’s 25th annual conference; this was the first time the city hosted the event and the mood was...Read more
May 2012
In the average Latin American country, about half the largest companies are cross-listed in the US. But in Colombia just eight of the...Read more
April 2012
If you believe investor recognition affects company value and cost of capital – and what IRO doesn’t? – you’d probably appreciate an...Read more
March 2012
World o’ transparency update 1. Spain beats Mexico 80 to 59, according to an index of 70 major companies’ corporate transparency on...Read more
February 2012
Nigerians don’t trust annual reports: a recent survey finds 60 percent of equity investor respondents perceive them as unreliable...Read more
January 2012
Go ahead: make promises in your annual report; investors will assume you’re telling no lies. They will also reward you by paying up...Read more
December 2011
True or false? 1. Restaurant company annual reports contain more optimism and charismatic rhetoric than those issued by oil firms. 2...Read more
Day one Fly in to Milwaukee the night before and start with a breakfast meeting at the Pfister Hotel. ‘The Pfister is where all the...Read more
November 2011
Environment, social and governance Investors have a growing appetite for non-financial environmental, social and governance (ESG) data...Read more
October 2011
Companies that attempt to achieve ‘predictable earnings’ may be shooting themselves in the foot. A study examining the link between...Read more
Presenting at an analyst-sponsored conference can boost liquidity and lower cost of capital, but only if your company has sufficient...Read more
September 2011
More and more companies are turning to online video to disclose important information. In some instances, however, the endeavor may be...Read more
August 2011
Tired of pesky shareholder resolutions clogging up your AGM? Try listing in Canada. A recent survey reveals a ‘positively anemic’...Read more
Lake Louise is stunning: emerald and ice, ringed by rocky towers, shimmering in iconic glory – the mountain lake easily captivates...Read more
June 2011
Questions 1. Chief financial officers get involved in material accounting manipulations because: a) They succumb to pressure from...Read more
The battle for Toronto exchange operator TMX Group got a little more expensive yesterday as the London Stock Exchange (LSE) put a C$...Read more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has thrown its weight behind The London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) proposed merger with Toronto...Read more
Rocky Mountain weather can be unpredictable and attendees woke up to a very different climate on the final day of CIRI’s annual...Read more
Lake Louise is stunning this time of year. Emerald and ice, ringed by rocky towers, shimmering in iconic glory, the mountain lake...Read more
May 2011
The sooner a company announces bad earnings news, the less likely unhappy shareholders are to sue it. In fact, the temporal effect is...Read more
When it comes to roadshow broker escorts, North American IROs are still searching for Mr Goodfeedback. Sure, they hear plenty of...Read more
April 2011
An international investor group’s proposal for a so-called ‘fifth analyst conference call’ on governance issues has aroused remarkably...Read more
March 2011
Are local armed insurgencies affecting your company’s stock price? Don’t bother communicating intellectual capital to investors in...Read more
February 2011
Do graphs of pro forma earnings influence investor judgment? In most cases they do and, according to a trio of investigators at Iowa...Read more
The debacle at Target pointed to just how bad it could be. Despite a strong record in support of diversity, the Minnesota-based...Read more
December 2010
Why do extreme positive earnings surprises occur? Sometimes you can chalk it up to analyst inattention; sometimes, it seems, managers...Read more
When Ahmad Aweidah and his delegation of leading Palestinian companies visited the City this spring, many of the fund managers they...Read more
The political affiliations of equity analysts can affect earnings forecasts and market prices. Using data from 1993 to 2009, US...Read more
Some say it all began with Bernie Madoff. As a young pre-felon, he merged a payment-for-order flow model with technology to devise a...Read more
October 2010
Before Reg FD, US analysts who went to the same school as the senior management and board members of companies they covered could...Read more
Companies with short, easy-to-pronounce names experience greater liquidity, breadth of ownership and ultimately higher value,...Read more
Institutional investors are heading into the fourth quarter with an overall ‘heightened sense of caution’ but are once again bullish...Read more
September 2010
Whether corporations have a social responsibility beyond increasing profits is outside the realm of adult discourse. Whether they can...Read more
1. Companies that miss expectations by just one cent have quarterly conference calls that are 1.1 minutes longer than those that meet...Read more
July 2010
A new European Commission (EC) Green Paper has launched a summer of debate on corporate governance at financial institutions, and IROs...Read more
Pessimistic is the word that best sums up descriptions of global equity investor sentiment in recent months, with concern about public...Read more
Pictures of women Women are under-represented in Canadian annual report photographs and usually depicted as less powerful than men in...Read more
June 2010
Canadian companies are only months away from their changeover to reporting under IFRS in 2011. Yet all indications are that many...Read more
May 2010
Hard economic times haven't much dampened demand for good IR according to a new survey conducted by NIRI and management talent scout...Read more
April 2010
It’s getting harder to lie – just ask UK housing benefit fraudsters, or US insurance company swindlers. Plenty of each group have been...Read more
March 2010
Profit warnings: Will openness be rewarded? The answer is a qualified ‘yes’, according to researchers at the...Read more
February 2010
Liking the right thing Plenty of research links institutional investors’ stock preferences with socially responsible...Read more
January 2010
Objects of investment desire What’s the biggest non-financial decision driver among individual investors? Recent...Read more
November 2009
Asians don’t invest in Asia, it seems. During 2006 investment in countries within the region accounted for only 10 percent of local...Read more
October 2009
Spin equals sizzle Hiring an IR company to generate positive media coverage works. According to a study by David...Read more
Set the date and time (and make sure people show up) 1 In beginnings are the seeds of endings. The...Read more
August 2009
Companies are generally seen to have four primary governance mechanisms: management, board of directors/audit committee, external...Read more
July 2009
Where more is less Empirical studies on disclosure generally agree with finance theory predictions that more public...Read more
Congratulations! You have just taken a big step. You’ve begun to read this article on corporate advertising and media buying. When you...Read more
June 2009
In their heyday, Canada’s income trusts boasted over C$200 bn ($170 bn) in stock market capitalization. Yet by 2011, when their ‘tax...Read more
IR managers aspiring to a board-level position can boost their chances by applying concrete metrics to their performance and...Read more
March 2009
Investors often say environmental disclosure plays a small role in their decision making. According to Danish researchers, however,...Read more
February 2009
In a world frantically grasping for information content, the financial statements of UK biotechs are notably bereft. According to a...Read more
January 2009
Oil giant Nexen calculates that one entire ‘person-year’ will end up being devoted to complying with Canada’s new executive...Read more
We have all pondered the same question: ‘Is it really worth it?’ Well, Dr Sushma Vishnani decided to find out. As an India-based...Read more
December 2008
An investigation into the medieval roots of corporate communications points to 14th century business school teacher Sampson of Oxford’...Read more
October 2008
His wife pointed to the newspaper ad and said, ‘You could do this.’ Peter Kruse considered it: the world’s largest wind turbine...Read more
August 2008
In March 2005 the floodgates to a multi-billion-dollar pool of capital suddenly and unexpectedly burst open. That’s when the Canadian...Read more
March 2008
The practice of providing regular mid-quarter performance updates, now increasingly shunned by US companies, emerged with a promising...Read more
January 2008
The affect effect Just as you always suspected, it really is about more than mere money. While traditional finance theory determines...Read more