Investor. Any references to securities are not recommendations or solicitations to buy or sell anything. I may have positions in securities mentioned.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Milton Friedman - Greed - YouTube
In his book "Capitalism and Freedom" (1962) Milton Friedman (1912-2006) advocated minimizing the role of government in a free market as a means of creating political and social freedom.
An excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue in 1979.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
Milton Friedman - Greed - YouTube
Greed Quotes
The rich are different: they are more ruthless. -- economist Sam Khater
Fuck my victims. -- Bernie Madoff, Ponzi Swindler
A confession has to be part of your new life.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
(LOL says Bernie!)
Greed is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power.
As a secular psychological concept, greed is, similarly, an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs. It is typically used to criticize those who seek excessive material wealth, although it may apply to the need to feel more excessively moral, social, or otherwise better than someone else.
Link to source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed
America's Disease is Greed
The desire to wake people up to the cancerous effects of "GREED" have been around longer than the recent outcry... this article is used to educate and stir up some conversation.
Published on Friday, August 20, 2004 by the Chicago Sun Times
America's Disease is Greed
by Andrew Greeley
The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless and untrammeled greed. Greed caused the disgraceful corporate scandals that fill our newspapers. Greed is responsible for crooked cops and crooked politicians. Greed causes the constant efforts to destroy unions that protect basic worker rights.
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and in effect taken it away from the poor. Greed has led to the immigration policy in which hundreds of poor men and women die every year as they struggle across the desert for the jobs that el norte promises them. Greed accounts for the efforts to take profitability out of the pensions and health insurance of working men and women. Greed is responsible for the fact that so many Americans have no health insurance and the fact that the recent reform of Medicare was a fraud. Greed causes newspapers to overestimate their circulation.
Greed is responsible for the obscene salaries of CEOs. In the '90s the ratio of CEO compensation to average workers' compensation was 250 to 1, meaning that the boss earned on his first day of work during a year as much as the worker did in a whole year. In European countries the ratio is closer to 100 to 1. Recent estimates put the current ratio at 500 to 1 -- the boss makes as much before lunch as the worker does all year. Greed is the cause of the high wages paid to the bosses even if the company is failing.
Greed is responsible for the endless stress and ruthless competition of the workplace and the strains and tensions of professional class marriages. Greed (in this instance another name for relentless ambition) explains much of the cheating on college campuses. Greed is responsible for outsourcing, which is incapable of comprehending that the employees who lose their jobs are also the consumers who sustain the economy. Greed generates the reckless ventures that in part caused the bubble of the late '90s. Greed causes expensive wars that shatter the budget. Greed is the reason that only the wealthy are benefitting so far from the economic upturn that is allegedly happening. Greed drives loan sharks. Greed is responsible for the success of big box stores that tax the poor with low wages to provide bargains for affluent suburban shoppers. Greed is the reason poor white Appalachians, poor African Americans and poor Native Americans must fight the wars that the wealthy start. Jessica Lynch joined the Army so she could go to college. Her Native American roommate, killed in action, joined so, single mother that she was, she could support her children. Greed is the reason why the country is being run by those whom the president has described, however inelegantly, as the ''haves and the have mores.''
No one said during the bizarre deification of President Reagan that he taught us that greed is good and that we should feel good about our greedy country. Greed is the reason that the country is being run by the insurance, pharmaceutical, weapons and petroleum industries. Greed causes worldwide sex slavery of women and children.
Greed drives the murders of the narcotics world. Greed is responsible for the exploitations of teen sports stars by colleges and for the mess in the pro sports world. It is also the cause of the use of performance drugs by young athletes. Greed is responsible for the bad advice lawyers gave the Church years ago to beat victims of sexual abuse into the ground. It is behind the scam artists who steal from the elderly.
Greed may have been a more serious problem for Americans, say, in the era of the robber barons. But the Garys and the Morgans and the Carnegies were a small bunch of men. Now their greed has seeped down to a much larger segment of the population.
The Catholic Church speaks of four sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. Two are cheating workers out of wages and exploiting widows and children. Both happen every day in our greedy country.
Ambition is not evil within limits. The struggle for success is not bad within limits. Hard work and fair rewards are good within limits. It is not good to take from the poor and give to the rich, and that's exactly what this country is doing today.
Don't let anyone tell you that lust is the most deadly of the deadly sins.
Copyright 2004, Digital Chicago Inc.
Link: http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views04/0820-09.htm
Published on Friday, August 20, 2004 by the Chicago Sun Times
America's Disease is Greed
by Andrew Greeley
The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless and untrammeled greed. Greed caused the disgraceful corporate scandals that fill our newspapers. Greed is responsible for crooked cops and crooked politicians. Greed causes the constant efforts to destroy unions that protect basic worker rights.
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and in effect taken it away from the poor. Greed has led to the immigration policy in which hundreds of poor men and women die every year as they struggle across the desert for the jobs that el norte promises them. Greed accounts for the efforts to take profitability out of the pensions and health insurance of working men and women. Greed is responsible for the fact that so many Americans have no health insurance and the fact that the recent reform of Medicare was a fraud. Greed causes newspapers to overestimate their circulation.
Greed is responsible for the obscene salaries of CEOs. In the '90s the ratio of CEO compensation to average workers' compensation was 250 to 1, meaning that the boss earned on his first day of work during a year as much as the worker did in a whole year. In European countries the ratio is closer to 100 to 1. Recent estimates put the current ratio at 500 to 1 -- the boss makes as much before lunch as the worker does all year. Greed is the cause of the high wages paid to the bosses even if the company is failing.
Greed is responsible for the endless stress and ruthless competition of the workplace and the strains and tensions of professional class marriages. Greed (in this instance another name for relentless ambition) explains much of the cheating on college campuses. Greed is responsible for outsourcing, which is incapable of comprehending that the employees who lose their jobs are also the consumers who sustain the economy. Greed generates the reckless ventures that in part caused the bubble of the late '90s. Greed causes expensive wars that shatter the budget. Greed is the reason that only the wealthy are benefitting so far from the economic upturn that is allegedly happening. Greed drives loan sharks. Greed is responsible for the success of big box stores that tax the poor with low wages to provide bargains for affluent suburban shoppers. Greed is the reason poor white Appalachians, poor African Americans and poor Native Americans must fight the wars that the wealthy start. Jessica Lynch joined the Army so she could go to college. Her Native American roommate, killed in action, joined so, single mother that she was, she could support her children. Greed is the reason why the country is being run by those whom the president has described, however inelegantly, as the ''haves and the have mores.''
No one said during the bizarre deification of President Reagan that he taught us that greed is good and that we should feel good about our greedy country. Greed is the reason that the country is being run by the insurance, pharmaceutical, weapons and petroleum industries. Greed causes worldwide sex slavery of women and children.
Greed drives the murders of the narcotics world. Greed is responsible for the exploitations of teen sports stars by colleges and for the mess in the pro sports world. It is also the cause of the use of performance drugs by young athletes. Greed is responsible for the bad advice lawyers gave the Church years ago to beat victims of sexual abuse into the ground. It is behind the scam artists who steal from the elderly.
Greed may have been a more serious problem for Americans, say, in the era of the robber barons. But the Garys and the Morgans and the Carnegies were a small bunch of men. Now their greed has seeped down to a much larger segment of the population.
The Catholic Church speaks of four sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. Two are cheating workers out of wages and exploiting widows and children. Both happen every day in our greedy country.
Ambition is not evil within limits. The struggle for success is not bad within limits. Hard work and fair rewards are good within limits. It is not good to take from the poor and give to the rich, and that's exactly what this country is doing today.
Don't let anyone tell you that lust is the most deadly of the deadly sins.
Copyright 2004, Digital Chicago Inc.
Link: http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views04/0820-09.htm
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Fee-Only Financial Advisors Home - NAPFA - The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
"The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) is the country’s leading professional association of Fee-Only financial advisors—highly trained professionals who are committed to working in the best interests of those they serve. Since 1983, Americans across the country have looked to NAPFA for access to financial professionals who meet the highest membership standards for professional competency, client-focused financial planning, and Fee-Only compensation."
Fee-Only Financial Advisors Home - NAPFA - The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
Link: http://www.napfa.org/
Fee-Only Financial Advisors Home - NAPFA - The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
Link: http://www.napfa.org/
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
World's Richest Woman Suggests Workers Should Make $2 Per Day | ThinkProgress
The world’s richest woman has equated Australia’s minimum wage to “class warfare,” following her controversial article last week where she called poor workers coddled, lazy drunks. Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited her $30 billion fortune and mining empire, pointed to workers who make less than $2 as a model for economic competitiveness in mining:
We must be realistic, not just promote class warfare. Indeed, if we competed at the Olympic games as sluggishly as we compete economically, there would be an outcry.Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard responded harshly to Rinehart. “It’s not the Australian way to toss people $2, to toss them a gold coin, and then ask them to work for a day,” Gillard said. “We support proper Australian wages and decent working conditions.”
The evidence is unarguable that Australia is indeed becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export- orientated business. Africans want to work. Its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day. Such statistics make me worry for this country’s future.
Rinehart’s flawed logic draws on a popular myth among U.S. conservatives, that increasing the minimum wage would impact job and economic growth. But a significant body of research shows that higher minimum wages have no effect on employment levels.
Source:
World's Richest Woman Suggests Workers Should Make $2 Per Day | ThinkProgress
First Solar review
First Solar Share Price Drops
First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) halted deliveries for the Agua Caliente project because it was ahead of schedule.
The shutdown caused shares to drop. The 19% drop in First Solar shares last was overdone, and gives investors an entry point in accumulating a long-term bullish position.
Macroeconomic condition
The oversupply condition in solar energy will continue to be a challenge for all solar energy players for many quarters.
First Solar said during its most recent quarterly conference call that the industry saw an increase in bankruptcies and consolidations, but that existing players were increasing supply.
Adding to the sector's troubles was a decline in subsidy in Europe, a condition that is hurting the weaker players.
Similar to companies like Trina Solar Limited (TSL), First Solar is undergoing a restructuring to adapt to the highly competitive environment.
Why First Solar is a Preferred Play
The weak sector could mean further losses for investors exposed to the solar energy sector, but First Solar is a long-term play.
Diversifying:
The company plans to ride out the weak market by creating a nascent market in emerging markets.
First Solar aims to gain 20% of the India market, develop a combined 159 megawatts in Australia, and build an additional 139 megawatts in Imperial County, California.
Second Quarter Results:
- Net sales of $957 million, up from $497 million
- 369 megawatts produced
- Gross margins of 25.5%
- Expenses dropped to $104 million $1.27 earnings per share
- Cash and marketable securities balance of $744 million
- Accounts receivable declined by $172 million
- Net debt declined by $345 million to $519 million
- Operating cash flow was $428 million
- Average conversion efficiency was 12.6%
Second Quarter Weaknesses:
- Cost per watt was $0.72, up $0.02 from the previous quarter
- Higher costs due to underutilization of plants
- Full utilization would have reduced costs to $0.64 per watt
- Utilization rate was 63% of capacity, down 27% from previous quarter
Forecast:
- Net sales of $3.6-$3.8 billion in 2012
- 1.8-1.9 gigawatts demand for 2012 increase due to rising demand in India and Europe
- Earnings per diluted share of $4.20 to $4.70 , up from $4.20 to $4.70
- Cost of $1.15 to $1.20 per watt by 2016, and a return on invested capital ("ROIC") of 13% to 17% in 2016.
- $510 million in restructuring charges ($425 million to-date) anticipated
- Revenue for Topaz project will be recognized in Q4
- Operating cost reduction by $100-$120 million, with manufacturing costs to be from $0.70 to $0.72 per watt
- 90% capacity utilization in second half
Competitive Analysis
Trina Solar adapted its operations by completing a restructuring that regrouped its sales groups by region: the Americas, Europe, China and Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. In its last quarter, Trina reported gross margins of 8.4% and a loss of $1.30 per fully diluted share. Like First Solar, Trina increased its cash balance, and now has $841 million.
Trina's inventory rose to $463 million, up $112 million.
SunPower Corporation (SPWR), another competitor, managed to reduce inventory by $65 million. More recently, the company cut its shipment forecast to 1.8 to 2 gigawatts, much to the industry's benefit.
Conclusion:
Growing weaknesses in Europe in the final quarter of the year will continue to weigh on all stocks, but will be most pronounced for solar energy companies.
Earnings for First Solar will rise independent from the macroeconomic situation.
The company anticipates that revenue from larger projects will be accounted for largely in the final quarter.
Investors should expect its next reported quarter to be weak, which may lead to a further decline in its share price. This will be due mostly from revenues not being recognized.
The fourth quarter will be stronger, so investors recognizing the short-term weakness will benefit from a strong final quarter.
First Solar Is A Buy As Share Price Drops - Seeking Alpha
LINK:
Politics Right and Left
Will michelle take Hilary's example and run for the Presidency herself? And will Goldman contribute to her campaign?
"Its not about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives"
-- Michelle Obama
SRI Survey: 2013 To Be Year Of "Impact Investing," Wider Institutional Investor Acceptance Of ESG Approach - PR Newswire - The Sacramento Bee
SRI Survey: 2013 To Be Year Of "Impact Investing," Wider Institutional Investor Acceptance Of ESG Approach
By First Affirmative Financial Network, Colorado Springs, CO
Published: Wednesday, Sep. 5, 2012 - 8:44 am
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- If you think that SRI is only about investing in socially screened mutual funds, you haven't been paying enough attention.
The rapid rise of "impact investing" is going to have a big impact on the world of sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investing in the coming year, according to The 2012 SRI Conference Survey of more than 200 SRI professionals.
The first annual survey conducted by First Affirmative Financial Network is being released today, one month ahead of The 2012 SRI Conference (formerly known as SRI in the Rockies), the largest annual gathering of responsible investors and investment professionals in North America. Set for October 2-4, 2012 in Connecticut, the 23rd annual SRI Conference is on the East Coast for the first time, in close proximity to New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C. For registration and other information, go to http://www.SRIconference.com.
The term "impact investing" encompasses a range of approaches—including microfinance and private equity in developing markets—that allow institutions and individual investors to get involved in solving specific social and environmental problems while also generating a return. In some cases, impact investing is designed to achieve market returns; in other cases, a portion of the returns is devoted to achieving a greater social impact.
About the SRI Conference The SRI Conference (http://www.SRIconference.com) is the leading forum for the sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investment industry in North America. For more information about the agenda, speaking, or sponsorship, please contact Krystala Kalil, at 888-774-2663 or Krystala@SRIconference.com. Register at http://www.sriconference.com/register.jsp.
About First Affirmative Financial Network First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC (http://www.firstaffirmative.com) is an independent fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (SEC File #801-56587) offering investment consulting and asset management services through a nationwide network of investment professionals who specialize in serving socially conscious investors. First Affirmative produces The SRI Conference, the premier gathering of responsible investors and investment professionals in North America.
SOURCE First Affirmative Financial Network, Colorado Springs, CO
SRI Survey: 2013 To Be Year Of "Impact Investing," Wider Institutional Investor Acceptance Of ESG Approach - PR Newswire - The Sacramento Bee
Link:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/05/4789327/sri-survey-2013-to-be-year-of.html#mi_rss=PR%20Newswire
Impact Investment
An invitation appeared in my email inviting me to a conference about Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing . Perhaps because I visit "Sasha Dichter's Blog:
"Reflections on generosity, philanthropy and social change".
Mr. Dichter is Chief Innovation Officer; blogger and speaker on philanthropy, generosity and social change; dad.
Sasha Dichter works for Acumen Fund - "mission is to create a world beyond poverty by investing in social enterprises, emerging leaders, and breakthrough ideas."
"The entrepreneurs Acumen Fund supports are focused on offering:
critical services – water, health, housing, and energy – at affordable prices to people earning less than four dollars a day."
"The key is patient capital. We use philanthropic capital to make disciplined investments – loans or equity, not grants – that yield both financial and social returns. Any financial returns we receive are recycled into new investments. Over time, we have refined the Acumen Fund investment model, built a world-class global team with offices in four countries, and learned what does and does not work in growing businesses that serve low-income people."
Acumen Fund is a member of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs(ANDE)
Link: http://www.acumenfund.org/about-us.html
................................................................................
INVITATION from:
SRI Conference on Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing (formerly SRI in the Rockies) is the premier annual gathering of investors and investment professionals working to make money and enhance the common good. The invitation was sent by:
First Affirmative Financial Network- a nationwide network of investment professionals who specialize in serving socially conscious investors.
Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing defined:
The term “impact investing” encompasses a range of approaches—including micro-finance and private equity in developing markets—that allow institutions and individual investors to get involved in solving specific social and environmental problems while also generating a return. In some cases, impact investing is designed to achieve market returns; in other cases, a portion of the returns is devoted to achieving a greater social impact.
..................................
SRI Investing Survey:
2013 to be Year of Impact Investing, Wider Institutional Investor Acceptance of ESG Approach
The August 2012 online survey of 218 SRI/ESG professionals includes the following key findings:
a. The #1 growth area for SRI in the next 12 months identified by the largest number of respondents is “impact investing” (35 percent), while another 29 percent see the biggest growth taking place in “screened investing/ESG integration.”
b. More than three out of five respondents (62 percent) expect “institutional investor acceptance of SRI/ESG to improve in the next 12 months.”
c. What will it take to get wider institutional acceptance of SRI? The top three responses are: “increased emphasis on impact investing for institutions that have ‘making a difference’ as part of their mission” (47 percent); improved performance (43 percent); and “increased emphasis on community investing” (35 percent).
d. More than three out of four respondents (78 percent) say “SRI is growing and will continue to do so.” Only 8 percent say SRI is “headed for a leveling off or a slowdown.”
First Affirmative President, Steve Schueth, producer of The SRI Conference, said:
“After the recent financial crisis, more and more investors have hungered for a way to have a more direct connection between their money and the impact it is having in the world. This survey shows that the sustainable, responsible, impact investment industry is innovative and vibrant—as vital for institutions and individual investors today as it was decades ago during the fight against Apartheid. Impact investing is the latest way that investment professionals who work with socially conscious investors are helping to deliver positive returns as well as positive change—for the common good.”
Other key 2012 SRI Conference Survey findings include the following:
e. SRI investment performance is expected to “do about as well as the overall market” (46 percent) and nearly a quarter of respondents (23 percent) expect it will do “slightly better than the overall market.”
f. What are the three biggest roadblocks to wider individual acceptance of SRI?
The top three responses are:
1. “perceptions about performance” (74 percent);
2. “investor confusion over the growing number of terms used to describe SRI (e.g. ‘impact investing,’ ‘sustainable investing,’ ‘socially conscious investing,’ ‘green investing’) (39 percent); and
3. “the slow economy” (34 percent).
g. The most prevalent areas of SRI career focus are: screened investing/ESG integration (69 percent); shareowner advocacy (36 percent); community investing (44 percent); and impact investing (26 percent).
h. Nearly half (46 percent) of the respondents have been in the SRI/ESG field for a decade or longer, with 36 percent logging 10-25 years of service, and another 10 percent active more than 25 years. Another 31 percent have been in the field for three-10 years. Nearly three-quarters of those responding (71 percent) would “advise a new financial professional to enter the (SRI) field,” and almost exactly the same portion of respondents would “make the same career decision if they could do it all over again.”
About First Affirmative Financial Network
First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC (http://www.firstaffirmative.com) is an independent fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (SEC File #801-56587) offering investment consulting and asset management services through a nationwide network of investment professionals who specialize in serving socially conscious investors.
First Affirmative produces The SRI Conference, the premier gathering of responsible investors and investment professionals in North America.
About First Affirmative Financial Network
First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC (http://www.firstaffirmative.com) is an independent fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (SEC File #801-56587) offering investment consulting and asset management services through a nationwide network of investment professionals who specialize in serving socially conscious investors.
First Affirmative produces The SRI Conference, the premier gathering of responsible investors and investment professionals in North America.
Media Contact
Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Wal-Mart, Sysco, SodaStream Among First With Mobile Investor Relations Apps WMT SODA SYY - Investors.com
By TONY KONTZER, FOR INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Here's a screen shot of Wal-Mart's investor relations app, which lets its mobile-device-toting shareholders, and anyone else, get some handy and...
Forget about Angry Birds, Pandora and Instagram. The next hot new app category for mobile devices could be investor relations.
Over the past several months, a growing number of companies have been rolling out IR apps that deliver critical shareholder information directly into the hands of smartphone and tablet owners.
One recent addition to their ranks is food distributor Sysco (SYY). Its IR app debuted in
August, in conjunction with its fourth-quarter earnings announcement.
Neil Russell, vice president of investor relations for Sysco, says research about mobile phone usage and the realization that much IR content is tough to access on a mobile device convinced him the time was right for such an app.
"It was a bit of an aha moment for us," Russell said. "It just makes sense. We need to make that information available to the investor on the go."
Russell says many workers nowadays are rarely at their desks, and yet their smartphones, in particular, were not well-suited to displaying PowerPoint slides, PDF files, and audiocasts of earnings calls. Then he read a year-old white paper from consumer research firm Compete that said 20% of investment account owners were using mobile devices to research companies. That number's no doubt risen.
So, Russell turned to consulting firm KCSA Strategic Communications, which earlier this year spun off TheIRapp, a rentable IR application template.
Rather than build an app internally, Russell decided Sysco should instead subscribe to the KCSA spinoff, which requires little more than a high-resolution corporate logo to get a company's IR app up and running.
"I'm not in the business of designing an app," Russell said. "I'm in the business of getting information in the hands of investors."
In the first three days the app was available in the Apple (AAPL) iTunes store and the Google (GOOG) Play apps market, it was downloaded 175 times. That's not a huge number by app standards, but it's a healthy response in a narrow niche.
Not Yet Prevalent
It's hard to determine how many mobile IR apps are available. An iTunes search returns only a few dozen examples, some of which are simply electronic versions of an annual report.
Besides Sysco, in recent months companies such as Wal-Mart (WMT) and SodaStream (SODA) have introduced IR apps, hoping to forge tighter bonds with shareholders.
Jeff Corbin, CEO of KCSA and founder of TheIRapp, expects IR apps to become commonplace as companies search for more effective channels to communicate with shareholders.
Wal-Mart, Sysco, SodaStream Among First With Mobile Investor Relations Apps WMT SODA SYY - Investors.com
Here's a screen shot of Wal-Mart's investor relations app, which lets its mobile-device-toting shareholders, and anyone else, get some handy and...
Wal-Mart, Others Offer Mobile Investor Relations Apps
Forget about Angry Birds, Pandora and Instagram. The next hot new app category for mobile devices could be investor relations.
Over the past several months, a growing number of companies have been rolling out IR apps that deliver critical shareholder information directly into the hands of smartphone and tablet owners.
One recent addition to their ranks is food distributor Sysco (SYY). Its IR app debuted in
August, in conjunction with its fourth-quarter earnings announcement.
Neil Russell, vice president of investor relations for Sysco, says research about mobile phone usage and the realization that much IR content is tough to access on a mobile device convinced him the time was right for such an app.
"It was a bit of an aha moment for us," Russell said. "It just makes sense. We need to make that information available to the investor on the go."
Russell says many workers nowadays are rarely at their desks, and yet their smartphones, in particular, were not well-suited to displaying PowerPoint slides, PDF files, and audiocasts of earnings calls. Then he read a year-old white paper from consumer research firm Compete that said 20% of investment account owners were using mobile devices to research companies. That number's no doubt risen.
So, Russell turned to consulting firm KCSA Strategic Communications, which earlier this year spun off TheIRapp, a rentable IR application template.
Rather than build an app internally, Russell decided Sysco should instead subscribe to the KCSA spinoff, which requires little more than a high-resolution corporate logo to get a company's IR app up and running.
"I'm not in the business of designing an app," Russell said. "I'm in the business of getting information in the hands of investors."
In the first three days the app was available in the Apple (AAPL) iTunes store and the Google (GOOG) Play apps market, it was downloaded 175 times. That's not a huge number by app standards, but it's a healthy response in a narrow niche.
Not Yet Prevalent
It's hard to determine how many mobile IR apps are available. An iTunes search returns only a few dozen examples, some of which are simply electronic versions of an annual report.
Besides Sysco, in recent months companies such as Wal-Mart (WMT) and SodaStream (SODA) have introduced IR apps, hoping to forge tighter bonds with shareholders.
Jeff Corbin, CEO of KCSA and founder of TheIRapp, expects IR apps to become commonplace as companies search for more effective channels to communicate with shareholders.
Wal-Mart, Sysco, SodaStream Among First With Mobile Investor Relations Apps WMT SODA SYY - Investors.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)