The Company
At a leading cloud software company specializing in business intelligence and data visualizations, the VP of Investor Relations has written hundreds of quarterly earnings reports and is a highly sought-after executive.
The Challenge
With his depth of experience including successful IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and other corporate transactions, the VP IR is prepared for every scenario related to investor relations. Part of that confidence (beyond his vast experience) comes from preparation, and one occasion that requires the most preparation is getting ready to speak with investors.
“Investors are interested in external factors, anything from supply chain issues, to the pandemic, to a competitor’s feedback,” the VP explains.
Going into these calls, it’s critical to maintain total awareness of all relevant information impacting one’s company. Getting an "outside in" view of one’s own company can minimize the chances of being blindsided by an investor about an external topic. And one of the richest sources of “outside in” information, according to the VP.
Expert transcripts, recorded interviews with experts such as competitors, channel partners, customers, etc. have long been used by financial services to get a unique perspective into what's happening at closely-guarded companies. The perspective portrayed in expert transcripts rounds out information sources such as company filings, news and earnings call transcripts.
The VP of IR says the biggest value of transcripts is the context they provide.
He poses a hypothetical example. “These expert transcripts get around, and often many investors will read them. Say that a transcript comes out that mentions your company’s pricing is going up. You get on the phone with an investor and he’ll say, "I'm hearing about premium pricing challenges". If you’ve read the transcript in advance, you’ve got context for the question and will already have an answer.”
He says, “With expert transcripts, my response to investor questions will be more specific, and better. Without the context provided by the expert transcript, my answers are more general.”
Results
Accessing expert transcripts in AlphaSense has a particular value given the range of other high-value content sets like broker research, government filings, and other revealing data sets that are enhanced by the power of AlphaSense search.
The IR leader finds value in expert transcripts during two phases of his process:
- During periods when he’s able to speak to investors, as soon as a relevant expert transcript is published, he reads them right away. "I’ll never ignore a relevant transcript," he says.
- While he can’t talk to investors during his quiet period, there is less urgency to read the transcripts the moment they are published. But he does have time to conduct research during this period, and so it’s a great time to catch up on expert transcripts.
Overall, he says, expert transcripts help IR professionals anticipate any potential question an investor might raise. “You don’t want to be unaware of people talking to your clients and your competitors. If something sensitive is being said, you need to be aware of it.”
