Services

Social media technology and SRI should be a match made in heaven. Both value:

  • Democracy & transparency
  • Giving voices to the voiceless (all stakeholders, the environment)
  • Empowering bottom-up movements

However, social media is not widely or effectively used by the SRI industry. A number of reasons for this do exist; but none are insurmountable.

Mike Tyrrell brings unparalleled expertise in the practice of SRI & social media

  • SRI-CONNECT is the first and largest ‘social media’ community within the SRI industry. The site has over 1,900 members and almost all marketing has been undertaken via social media.
  • Having worked on both the buy-side and the sell-side, Mike has a broad appreciation of the compliance and commercial constraints under which analysts and portfolio managers operate.
  • Sustainable Investor is, so far as we know, the only consultancy in the world offering specialist social media advice to the SRI community.

Services offered

We offer:

  • Strategy development advice
  • Project work
  • Employee training

What’s next?

  • Does your organisation have a social media strategy for its SRI communications? Probably not
  • Will it need one soon? Of course
  • What are you going to do about this? Contact us today to discuss your needs

The ‘conventional wisdom’ of SRI is too conventional and rarely wise.

It is neither useful to asset managers that are taking their first steps in to SRI nor to advanced practitioners who aspire to market leadership.  Even for those, who just want to position themselves in the middle of the pack, the conventional wisdom tends to encourage huge inefficiencies.

Sustainable Investor offers…

For those new to SRI,

  • Jargon-free guided tours of SRI markets and practice
  • Assessment of existing capabilities and guidance on how to leverage these effectively in the development of any SRI effort
  • Options appraisal and strategy development
  • Tips on whom to meet, how to spend, what to avoid etc.

For advanced practitioners,

  • Facilitated sessions to challenge senior management thinking on the business dynamics of SRI
  • Advice on how to integrate SRI capabilities within mainstream investment management processes
  • Practical steps to maximise the efficiency of business relationships with companies and research partners

Sell-side brokers bring to the SRI research process a large number of skills and capabilities that are not available elsewhere.  However, they also operate under different constraints (esp. regulatory, reputational) and different cost pressures to other SRI research providers.

As a result, the ‘sell-side’ needs to position its SRI engagement very carefully and to ensure that it leverages, to the maximum, its existing capabilities.

Sustainable Investor offers…

…to investment research teams, corporate broking teams and corporate access teams:

  • Introductory briefings on SRI & the sell-side
  • Clients needs analysis to identify the requirements of both corporate and investment clients
  • Client advisory work to help corporate clients through the process of understanding SRI, developing strategies and preparing messages
  • Capabilities review to identify existing capabilities that can be deployed to effect in the SRI market
  • Scenario-based strategies to identify a menu of options for the development of SRI research capacity

 

 

As the SRI investor base expands and diversifies, companies face an ever more complex challenge in communicating efficiently and effectively to these investors.

Objectives

Sustainable Investor sets the following objectives for its work with quoted companies:

  • Short-term: to improve the company’s understanding of SRI investors; to improve the efficiency & reach of its communications with these investors
  • Medium-term: to improve the depth, breadth and quality of the company’s dialogue with investors on sustainability issues. Less box-ticking; more strategic; deeper investor engagement
  • Long-term: to improve the company’s standing with SRI investors and mainstream investors interested in sustainability issues thereby reducing the cost of capital

Sustainable Investor offers…

Sustainable Investor's services for companies are based on the 10 steps strategy for SRI Communications developed for SRI-CONNECT.  (Presentation | Report | YouTube clip).  These steps help companies improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their communications with SRI analysts and investors:

 

We also do bespoke work to help companies to develop SRI communications strategies, to hone investor messages, to integrate investor feedback into their strategic planning on sustainability or to deliver on any other aspect of their SRI investor communications.

Companies are increasingly using SRI roadshows to communicate directly, efficiently and in-depth with buy-side analysts and portfolio managers. They typically use the services of sell-side brokers with SRI capabilities to organise these meetings.

Companies, however, still rely on questionnaires, printed reports and ad hoc conversations to communicate with highly-influential, 'sell-side' and 'SRI agency' analysts. This is inefficient and potentially-damages the company’s standing within the SRI community.

To influence SRI opinion leaders and expand their SRI shareholder base, we recommend that companies spend:

  • 2/3 of their roadshow time with buy-side analysts and portfolio managers and,
  • 1/3 with the sell-side & agency analysts

Sustainable Investor's SRI roadshow support

With this service, Sustainable Investor will:

  • Identify for you a prioritised target list for SRI communications
  • Draw up a schedule for SRI roadshows that maximises your company's reach and efficiency
  • Help you to select an appropriate 'sell-side' partner for meetings with buy-side analysts & portfolio managers
  • Organise tele-, video- or face-to-face meetings (as appropriate) with the most influential sell-side and agency analysts

Costs

The roadshow manager service is charged for on an hourly basis (£125 per hour) with estimated time spend as follows:

  • Planning (2 hrs)
  • Selecting sell-side partners (1 hr)
  • Arranging sell-side meeting (2 hrs)
  • Arranging SRI agency meeting (2 hrs)
  • Recording the meetings (3 hrs)
  • Feedback from meetings (2 hrs)
  • EST. TOTAL COST = £1,500

Payback

It is our aim to create an immediate payback on any time spent by your company by reducing the time you have to spend completing questionnaires and responding to ad-hoc data requests.

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