Competing for Capital: Investor Relations in a Dynamic World [Hardcover]

Bruce W. Marcus (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471448621 | ISBN-13: 978-0471448624 | Publication Date: March 4, 2005 | Edition: 1

Praise for Competing for Capital

"An indispensable guide for investor relations and communication counselors alike. With more individual investors in the market than ever before, this book makes navigating the new regulatory playing field much more possible--and makes clear the path to victory."
--Michael W. Robinson
Director, Levick Strategic Communications; Former Director of Public Affairs and Policy, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Director of Media Relations, NASD

"More than simply writing a textbook on IR, Bruce Marcus shares his wealth of experience and critical viewpoint with those seeking to understand a fast-changing profession."
--June Filingeri
President of Comm-Partners LLC, Investor Relations Consultant, and Educator

"Bruce Marcus puts some solid ground under the shifting landscape of being an investor relations professional. A must-read primer for public companies."
--Robert C. Roeper
Managing Director, VIMAC Ventures, LLC

"As the song lyrics go, 'everything old is new again,' but this time with a vengeance. Disclosure has always been the touchstone of securities laws, but now more disclosure is required on a real-time basis with heightened accountability. Competing for Capital is a must-read for those in the securities industry, providing insights into securities markets, the information age and technology, and their impact on the job of investor relations professionals. Investors come in all shapes and sizes from around the globe, and investor relations personnel have their work cut out for them to provide clear, comprehensible, and comprehensive information, accessible to the novice and sophisticate alike. Competing for Capital shows them the way."
--Donna L. Brooks, Esq.
Partner, Shipman & Goodwin, LLP

"Competing for Capital puts our recent turbulent financial marketplace in context, provides solid information for both new and experienced investor relations practitioners, and offers insights into the future of IR--all in Bruce Marcus's easy-reading style."
--Dixie Watterson
IR consultant, Communica Partners

"Competing for Capital aptly illustrates how investor relations has become a major corporate responsibility in generating trust, and how the profession must realize now more than ever that the needs of investors have changed because of technology, regulation, and globalization."
--Mark Kollar
Managing Director, Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

New laws and regulations, engendered by the scandals of the early part of the twenty-first century, are dramatically changing corporate governance, as well as the relationships between the corporate boards affected and their investors. Evolving and sophisticated technologies have opened innovative avenues of communications between investors and those who advise them. Financial institutions serving corporations and investors must now function with updated configurations and newly revised regulatory strictures that have helped to reorganize rules of the capital markets for the better. The demands that corporations and the financial community are faced with today call for a fresh look using the improved skills and transformed traditional investor relations techniques needed to better compete in today's volatile and competitive capital markets.

In Competing for Capital, using a marketing-driven approach to investor relations in the twenty-first century, author Bruce Marcus addresses this new environment by providing readers with the information and insights they need to:

• Competitively project, to both investors and their advisors, the significant advantages of investing in a company in today's economic environment
• Realistically function in the realm of this century's laws and changing regulatory controls
• Effectively use updated techniques and trends in continuing to communicate effectively with investors and the financial community
• Understand the complicated new dynamics of today's competitive capital markets

Since Competing for Capital was first published in 1975, there is virtually no area of investor relations that hasn't changed, and the competition for investment capital has become keener. Currently, competition for an investor's dollar has become so acute, and the regulations so different, that it requires an entirely fresh view of long-standing investor relations practice. This book addresses the updates in recently passed laws and regulations, including Sarbanes-Oxley, and delineates the significant changes that have occurred over the past years within both corporations and the financial community in respect to investors and contemporary investor relations practices.

From new configurations of financial institutions and companies to the changing attitudes of, and toward, investors, Competing for Capital offers readers a contemporary view of the dynamic and vital world of investor relations, essential to better informing investors and to help corporations to better compete in the capital markets.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Competing for Capital

"An indispensable guide for investor relations and communication counselors alike. With more individual investors in the market than ever before, this book makes navigating the new regulatory playing field much more possible—and makes clear the path to victory."
—Michael W. Robinson
Director, Levick Strategic Communications; Former Director of Public Affairs and Policy, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Director of Media Relations, NASD

"More than simply writing a textbook on IR, Bruce Marcus shares his wealth of experience and critical viewpoint with those seeking to understand a fast-changing profession."
—June Filingeri
President of Comm-Partners LLC, Investor Relations Consultant, and Educator

"Bruce Marcus puts some solid ground under the shifting landscape of being an investor relations professional. A must-read primer for public companies."
—Robert C. Roeper
Managing Director, VIMAC Ventures, LLC

"As the song lyrics go, 'everything old is new again,' but this time with a vengeance. Disclosure has always been the touchstone of securities laws, but now more disclosure is required on a real-time basis with heightened accountability. Competing for Capital is a must-read for those in the securities industry, providing insights into securities markets, the information age and technology, and their impact on the job of investor relations professionals. Investors come in all shapes and sizes from around the globe, and investor relations personnel have their work cut out for them to provide clear, comprehensible, and comprehensive information, accessible to the novice and sophisticate alike. Competing for Capital shows them the way."
—Donna L. Brooks, Esq.
Partner, Shipman & Goodwin, LLP

"Competing for Capital puts our recent turbulent financial marketplace in context, provides solid information for both new and experienced investor relations practitioners, and offers insights into the future of IR—all in Bruce Marcus's easy-reading style."
—Dixie Watterson
IR consultant, Communica Partners

"Competing for Capital aptly illustrates how investor relations has become a major corporate responsibility in generating trust, and how the profession must realize now more than ever that the needs of investors have changed because of technology, regulation, and globalization."
—Mark Kollar
Managing Director, Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471448621
• ISBN-13: 978-0471448624
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #478,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a GREAT book . . ., March 10, 2005

By 

Patrick J. McKenna "co-author, First Among Eq... (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Competing for Capital: Investor Relations in a Dynamic World (Hardcover)

. . . and I was particularly impressed with Chapter 4, "A funny thing happened on the way to unbridled wealth," Chapter 6 covering what analysts really want and much of the insight on investor trust, corporate responsibility and compliance found throughout the text.

Now, okay, I admit it . . . I'm biased. I happen to like Marcus's writing and I think that he has clearly outdone himself with Competing For Capital. If you're an IR officer, an analyst, a banker, or a corporate executive like me, I believe you will find a wealth of information in this book.

Alternatively, you might see Redhawk's review of this book and then note that all of his other reviews have been about sports books. Now what does that tell you?

5.0 out of 5 stars All About Our Post-Sarbanes-Oxley World, March 10, 2006

By 

Bruce Mac Ewen "Lawyer and author of 'AdamSmi... (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Competing for Capital: Investor Relations in a Dynamic World (Hardcover)

As a securities lawyer and businessman, I was delighted to find this lucid, "plain English" roadmap for effective investor relations (which means effective disclosure, which means effective marketing) in our post-Sarbanes-Oxley world.

Marcus rightly recognizes that Sarbanes-Oxley is easily the most significant change to US securities law since the original acts were passed in 1933 and 1934, and that dealing with the brave new "SOX" world has been a monumental challenge to CEO's, financial professionals and, yes, lawyers. I thus find it odd, if not positively inexplicable, to criticize the book on the ground that its emphasis on SOX is "relentless"--to my mind, that is its great virtue!

Marcus writes as an experienced, level-headed practitioner whose sound judgment and clear-eyed perspective on the dynamics of our evolving rules of disclosure put welcome context around what investor relations professionals need to--and should--do.

Our capital markets are the stronger for resting on the bedrock principle of full disclosure, and Marcus' roadmap to compliance belongs on the desk of everyone participating in that invaluable process.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as Good as Expected, September 10, 2005

By 

K. Davis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Competing for Capital: Investor Relations in a Dynamic World (Hardcover)

This book has lots of good information, especially for people like me who are new to investor relations; however, the relentless repeated emphasis on the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley act and the surprisingly poor editing of the book make it only mediocre. There are many mispellings and I found one paragraph to be duplicated word-for-word on the immediate subsequent page. Take this book back to the editors and then send it back out to the public...