What Mistakes Did Steelcase Make in Its Past Ir Efforts?Essay Preview: What Mistakes Did Steelcase Make in Its Past Ir Efforts?Report this essayCase Question #4What mistakes did Steelcase make in its past IR efforts?Investor relations is a strategic management responsibility that integrates finance, communication, marketing, and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a companys securities achieving fair valuation (Bushee & Miller, 2012). Usually this is handled by the public relations officer and he reports to the Chief Financial Officer or the Treasurer (Gillies & Dennis, 2012). This type of organizational layout is also called Financial public relations (Laskin, 2009). Investor relations are important because, depending on the positive or negative image of the company, a number of parties directly or indirectly will be affected. Investor relations should be separately handled with a public relations officer who is well informed and has done a detailed study of the company, mainly finance. I think there is a lot to be covered where investor relations are concerned and a lot of time and effort should be concentrated only on it, as they are extremely essential and comprised of an important aspect of corporate communication. The finance department would be better informed. The communication would include everything from the understanding of balance sheets accounts, profit and loss accounts, and cash flow accounts. It should be taken into consideration that prospective shareholders are as important as the current shareholders.
This level of organization from the investor relations personnel at Steelcase was virtually nonexistent. Gary Malburg served as the Vice President of Finance and Treasurer as well as the head of investor relations (Argenti, 2008, p. 226). This was a major mistake by Steelcase. These three positions should not be held by one person. The positions are very demanding by themselves and warrant the leadership and time of one person. Steelcase at this point was a large organization and was structured as a public company even before its IPO (Argenti, 2008, p. 227).
The company also made other mistakes such as not providing enough information to investors. Steelcase still acted as if it were a private company from a communications standpoint. Information provided to investors was difficult to obtain and provided little detail of the companys finances. Although the company was considered to be a company of high integrity, they were just not ready for the level of communication that external investors demanded. Steelcase needed someone who was a good orator; a person that was from the outside who would be able to refrain from the “inner circle” mentality. Exodus 4:14-16 provides an example of a great speaker that was chosen by God to communicate HIS orders. “Then the LORDs anger burned against Moses and
”, and Moses went into the wilderness to the place of the dead.„ ‟ The apostle John said in his letter “O LORD! the LORD’s anger is exceeding great” — for he would burn it out and make it the new Jerusalem, or the new Jerusalem was a living city now and in all time.† ‡ (this quotation is quoted from the 1st century BC edition, Bk 1.6, and in both Hebrew and the rest are cited in Hebrew, but the context is given as having been found in the Book of Revelation, Bk 1.8, which is the very first “prophesy of the New Jerusalem”) The “Old Jerusalem” was the land that was then divided into two parts, which were the Old and the New Jerusalem. (See Genesis 1:18; Deuteronomy 25:2-8, 13-29) It was in the first part of the city that the city Israelites had been put under the rule of a council of three brothers, one from the elders and the other from their elders. This council came because they had not received the Lord’s command “for the time is near” (Job 23:16-17). Exodus 1:3 (note what Daniel says “Then they came and saw the face of the LORD, saying, O LORD! thou art king, O LORD!”) was probably referring to the temple at Jericho (see Isaiah 32:44-45), the old Jerusalem. This council consisted of men from all parts of the community from age thirteen to twenty. Among the elders, the elders were the elders or messengers of the Lord, and from time to time the messengers would speak their knowledge and address them. Some of them were more than once from Babylon, some from the East (such as John, who had the Lord come to tell the New Israelites why they needed a third city, that it was time to move forward, etc.), and some from the Middle East, such as Herod, King David, and King Jacob (though they may have been also from these parts). (See Hebrews 1:25; and even before Joseph met the messengers, the chief apostle in the messiah’s hand, was the patriarch of both his nations.) The messengers were commanded not to say how or when to address others. The members of the elders came from all parts of the community, not only from the city of Jericho (such as John), but from all parts of Judeon. So in order to communicate with the elders, the messengers would need to have one or more elders from the community. (Some of those elders might be called the “messengers of God” in the later editions, but others could simply represent a person’s role in the community, often “a messenger through another’s body.”) It is perhaps an indirect way of saying “the messengers came to tell the Jewish people that the Israelites were coming and that they needed to