Navigating investor perceptions is crucial for any company aiming to enhance its market valuation. Concerns such as attracting the best shareholders, achieving higher valuation multiples than competitors, and effectively handling earnings calls are common. These questions reveal the critical importance of strategic communication and effective investor relations in driving company growth and market valuation.
To overcome these challenges, leaders must develop a robust communication strategy that clearly conveys their company’s growth potential and strategic direction. This involves understanding and articulating key value drivers, incorporating investor feedback into strategic decisions, and mastering the art of corporate storytelling. By honing these strategic communication skills, executives can enhance their market valuation, attract the right investors, and ensure long-term success for their company.
Leveraging Investor Relations: Unlock Your Business’s Potential is a three-day strategic communication executive education program designed to teach leaders how to craft an effective story to communicate their growth strategy. Participants will learn to provide proof points of success, incorporate shareholder feedback into strategic and governance decisions, and fine-tune their approach to targeting the most appropriate investor clientele.
As governance becomes an increasingly critical focus for investors, companies are navigating a rapidly evolving landscape to align their strategies with stakeholder expectations.
Hear from our faculty director about how Leveraging Investor Relations: Unlock Your Business’s Potential prepares leaders to navigate investor perceptions, communicate growth strategies, and enhance market valuation.
With Columbia Business School’s Leveraging Investor Relations: Unlock Your Business’s Potential program, participants will:
Our Leveraging Investor Relations: Unlock Your Business’s Potential program is designed for high-level executives and professionals who play a pivotal role in their company’s investor relations and strategic communication. Ideal participants include:
The Leveraging Investor Relations: Unlock Your Business’s Potential program is designed to help participants—current and aspiring executives and investor relations professionals—craft an effective story to communicate their growth strategy. Over three immersive days, participants will learn how to provide proof points of success and incorporate feedback from shareholders into their governance. Additionally, they will refine their skills in targeting the investor clientele most appropriate for their company, ensuring their message resonates with the right audience. The curriculum includes:
Formulate Your Investor Relations Strategy : Discover how to evaluate a firm’s business model and its position within the competitive landscape, focusing on financial reporting, disclosure processes, forecasts, and earnings guidance. Learn to develop paths to higher valuation through effective communication strategies and corporate storytelling techniques, manage regulatory report filings, connect with service providers, and measure the success of your efforts. This session also explores best practices in communicating with investors, equipping you with the tools to enhance investor perception and achieve strategic goals.
Nurturing the Right Shareholder Clientele : Gain insights into identifying and understanding your current stockholders and potential target owners. Learn how to nurture effective investor relationships with key buy-side and sell-side analysts and understand trading behaviors in both the short and long term. This session explores how such analysis informs capital structure decisions, including debt and equity mix, on- and off-balance sheet financing, cash management, and the allocation of capital among CapEx (capital expenditure), intangibles, dividends, stock buybacks, and acquisitions.
Manage Quarterly Conference Calls: Learn the essentials of preparing and executing effective quarterly conference calls. This session covers what guidance to provide before, during, and after the call, how to keep the capital market informed of day-to-day events, and how to prepare the C-suite for the Q&A portion of the call. Discover strategies to reinforce the company’s long-term vision at appropriate times, monitor analyst feedback, and measure the call's impact through stock trading and social media messaging.
Manage Proxy Season: Navigate the complexities of the proxy season by understanding governance trends and anticipating shareholder voting preferences. This session delves into handling shareholder proposals, including controversial ones, and managing the “get the vote out” campaign among institutional and retail investors. Learn to monitor voting patterns and develop post-voting strategies to improve governance practices going forward.
Messaging Strategy on Sustainability Practices: Develop a rigorous and authentic sustainability strategy that aligns with both company values and shareholder values. This session covers prioritizing key sustainability issues, understanding investor expectations regarding stakeholder behavior, and assessing industry and peer practices. Learn how to evaluate the company’s standing with rating agencies and create a clear communication plan for the company’s sustainability position. Consider innovative approaches, such as hosting a sustainability conference call similar to a standard earnings call to effectively convey your message to investors.
What If an Activist Attacks?: Stay ahead of the latest trends in shareholder activism and proxy fights. This session explores why activists target companies and how they do it, including the intersection of activism and sustainability. Engage in self-reflection on whether your company’s governance, performance, and capital allocation need change. Prepare a mock activist deck to ensure management is aware and ready for potential activist approaches, and learn effective investor relations strategies for dealing with activists when they arrive.
Investor relations is often treated as a reporting function, but it is in fact one of the most powerful levers executives have to shape market perception and unlock long-term value. In this Q&A, Columbia Business School Professor Shiva Rajgopal shares lessons from real-world cases—including Lyft’s costly typo—and offers practical guidance for communicating credibly with shareholders in both good times and bad.
Certification
I’m interested in the Certificate in Business Excellence (CIBE), how do I get started?
At Columbia Business School Executive Education, you’ll be able to customize a unique learning experience by selecting programs that best interest you and are most suited for your needs. Any completed program, regardless of format (live online, in-person, or online), will count towards the Certificate in Business Excellence.
Which programs qualify for the CIBE?
Any completed executive education program, regardless of format (live-online, in-person, or online), will count towards the Certificate in Business Excellence. Partner programs will also count towards the certificate.
What programs are considered partner programs?
Executive education programs developed and administered with our educational partners, bring the best of our combined knowledge, thought leadership, resources, and expertise. Kindly find a list of our partners here on our partnership page.
What are the costs of the certificate?
There’s no set cost associated with the certificate path since you’re able to customize your learning journey with in-person and online programs (price will vary depending on the program type and length).
Are there any tuition assistance or scholarships?
At Columbia Business School Executive Education, we offer non-degree and non-credit-based professional development programs to the global business community. As our programs are non-degree and non-credit, they do not qualify for financial aid.
How are CIBE credits determined?
Credits for a program are determined by the program duration and total learning hours.
Where do I find information on the credit value for a program?
You will find this information on each program page. Credits range from 0.5 credits – 26 credits per program.
How do I get enrolled in the CIBE?
Your certificate journey will start with your first program, and you have 4 years to complete your CIBE. You may register for any of our executive education programs on each program page. You may enroll using the “Enroll Now” button, and the application process should take 5-10 minutes.
How do I receive credits?
You are required to fully attend a program and complete all necessary coursework in order to receive CIBE credits. Credits are only awarded after you complete a program.
How do I check the status of my Certificate completion?
Kindly reach out to a Learning Solutions representative for any questions on the status of your CIBE credit count.
Do CIBE credits expire?
Credits are only valid for four years (Please note: While we are not able to offer in-person programming due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the duration to complete the programming has been extended to five years.). If you have not completed your CIBE within four years, we will only count non-expired credits towards your CIBE credit total.
Does the Certificate in Business Excellence expire?
Your Certificate in Business Excellence does not expire. Once you become a certificate recipient, you will join the greater alumni community at Columbia Business School.
I’ve reached 18 CIBE credits, what’s next?
Congratulations! You should receive a digital copy of your certificate at the end of your program. If you do not receive a copy from your program manager, kindly contact your Learning Solutions representative or your program manager for next steps.
Will I receive a physical certificate?
Upon completion, you will receive a secure, digital certificate through Accredible. Within the platform you will have the option to print your credential, post it to your LinkedIn feed, or display it on your profile as a certification. Please contact your program manager for the status of your digital certificate.
How do I get access to my alumni benefits?
Once you complete your CIBE, we kindly ask for your patience as we process your alumni credentials. The processing time can take anywhere from 8 to 10 weeks long.
Can I add the Certificate in Business Excellence to LinkedIn?
Yes! We will provide you with instructions on how to add your certificate to your LinkedIn profile after you become a Certificate recipient.
Assignments
Will there be any homework or assignments?
For select programs, there will be some assignments to complete after the end of select program sessions. Assignments will typically consist of readings, self-reflections, and brief assessments. This approach is designed to help you practice your learnings.
How long will assignments take?
We do not expect that homework assignments will take up a large amount of time to complete.
Will there be any examinations or grades?
There will be no examinations or grades for our live online programs.
Preferred Pricing and Tuition Benefits for Alumni
Are there preferred pricing options available?
Yes, preferred pricing is available for groups of two or more. To inquire, email execed@gsb.columbia.edu.
As a Columbia Business School alumni am I eligible for tuition benefit?
When you earn a Certificate in Business Excellence you will receive a 25 percent tuition benefit for full-price Executive Education in-person programs lasting three and four days and all full-price online programs. Exclusions apply**
Which programs do not qualify for a 25 percent tuition benefit?
All certificate images are for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change at the discretion of Columbia Business School Executive Education.
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