Pour la version française cliquez ici.

Reputation Management

Rarely has the issue of Reputation Management been so top-of-mind. The subject regained prominence last fall with Tiger Woods and has stayed front and centre with Toyota. Mr. Woods escalated his problems by abysmally mishandling the situation. He did not maximize last month’s attempt to restore his image-80 days after the fact. Toyota continues to be the brunt of almost daily criticism from the media and fodder for talk show hosts.

Reputation and brand equity are a company’s greatest assets. They must be preserved at all cost. This begins with consistently being a good corporate citizen and making quality products. Of course, things happen and people can accept that. What consumers and the media have trouble with is perceived deceit, denial, escaping the blame frame and a botched response.

Difficult decisions need to be made quickly in times of crisis and strong leadership is required to ensure the interruption is short-lived and the damage minimal. Trying to skirt issues will only prolong and amplify the agony.

Rick Leckner

Tick, Tick, Tick to IFRS

History will eventually determine which of the passing of Y2K or the pending changeover to International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) had the most impact on an issuer’s financial accounting systems and procedures. IFRS are upon us, as early as January 1, 2011 for companies with a calendar year-end. While the degree of preparedness may vary from one issuer to another, here are a few guidelines about what to disclose over the next reporting periods.

Annual MD&A Two Years before Changeover to IFRS
(Fiscal year ending December 31, 2009 for issuers changing over to IFRS on January 1, 2011)

In their annual MD&A, issuers should further elaborate on their preparations for changeover to IFRS. In addition to what has been disclosed in previous annual and interim periods, issuers should describe the major differences identified between current accounting policies and those they will be required or expected to apply in preparing IFRS financial statements. Such differences include any difference due to an expected change in accounting policy, even though the issuer’s existing policy under Canadian GAAP is permissible under IFRS.

While such information may be narrative only, it should enable an investor to understand the key elements of financial statements that will be affected by the changeover to IFRS. In identifying accounting policies, issuers should consider IFRS as they exist at the date their MD&A is prepared.

Annual and Interim MD&A for the Year before Changeover to IFRS
(interim periods of the fiscal year ending December 31, 2010 for issuers change over IFRS on January 1, 2011)

Issuers should provide an updated discussion of their preparations for changeover to IFRS in interim MD&As, including relevant updated details of aforementioned items. By this time, issuers will generally be able to discuss in more detail the key decisions and changes made, or that will have to be made, relating to the changeover to IFRS. The discussion of changes relating to accounting policies should include decisions about accounting policy choices available under IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards and other individual IFRS standards that are relevant to the issuer.

IFRS 1 requires disclosure of comparative and reconciliation information in the interim and annual financial statements of the year beginning on an issuer’s changeover date. To comply with this requirement, issuers will need to prepare quantified information about the impact of IFRS on each line item presented in the financial statements for the interim and annual periods of the year preceding changeover. Such information should be included in the interim and annual MD&A as soon as it becomes available.

Risk Management in the Digital Era

Companies operating in a B2C environment are increasingly turning to social media as communication-marketing and sales tools. In the B2B world, the influence of social media in marketing is often less perceptible, but that is beginning to change. Conventional media such as direct mail, newspapers and other print advertising are receding in importance as the paradigm gradually shifts to the new channels represented by the Internet and social media.

Social Media
Whether you like it or not, your competitors and your customers are talking about you in social media. They turn to the Internet every day to research your products or brands. Social media are omnipresent, and are much more than simple hangouts for teenagers.

According to Forrester Research:

• 42% of U.S. adults with access to the Internet have a profile on a social networking site – up 20% from 2007.
• The use of social media by people aged 35 to 54 has increased 60% over the last year.
• The number of active Facebook users has surpassed 250 million.
• 40 million Tweeters tweet every day.
• YouTube users search company names over 1.5 million times daily, making it the second most-visited website for company-name searches.

Companies using social media often do so to promote or position their brand. Yet, many companies have still not engaged in social media seeing this as risky business. The main obstacles are issues of employee productivity.

Managing the Risk
Instead of focusing on potential productivity loss, companies should seize the opportunity. Few businesses have a formal policy or train their people in the use of social media. Company executives don’t use them because they don’t know how to or are afraid of them. Yet this new communication tool, when properly used, can bring many no-risk benefits to the business. For instance, in crisis management, companies need to be ready to respond immediately to media and employees. Social media are tools that can provide a rapid and effective response.

Where to Begin?
Simple monitoring of conversations on a blog may be all your company needs to do on the short- term. Yet social media are not a panacea! Begin by taking a look at your communication objectives and identify the social media best suited to your objectives. For example, if you are trying to position a company executive as an expert on a particular subject, why not go beyond interviews with conventional media and produce a podcast or video featuring the executive? Make it available on the Internet on YouTube, publicize it via Twitter, and you may have a winning strategy.

The basic rule is to start by finding out where your target public is, on which sites or blogs, and join the conversation. Seek out journalists who blog or tweet most actively and follow their conversations. You can also poll employees on how many engage with social media in their personal life and who among them would be interested in engaging for the company. Even more important, take the time to find and listen to the stakeholders before you engage.

Companies need to take advantage of social media and the new communication channel they provide. Ultimately, a company should focus on what it can gain from incorporating social media in its communications strategy. If well used, social media will facilitate engagement with stakeholders and will improve reputation management.

New trend in annual reports

A new trend is emerging in the world of annual reports, it is the online annual report or HTML version of the annual report, and MaisonBrison is a leader in this area. This new approach gets much better results than a PDF document because of its much greater flexibility. It is by far the most effective format for providing information to Internet users. An HTML version differs from a conventional PDF in the following ways:

• Browsing by section is much easier because of the availability of Web browser functions such as “Back” and “Home” and e-paper functions such as “Zoom”.
• Since an HTML site is more easily indexed by search engines, the annual report will have a higher profile on the Web.
• Greater flexibility of the Web means video and multimedia are easy to incorporate.

See for yourself. Try out one of our latest productions:
Online annual report.

A New Partner at MaisonBrison

Atrium Innovations retained MaisonBrison Communications as strategic investor relations partner to focus on supporting, developing and expanding Atrium's communications with the investment community through a comprehensive investor relations (IR) program.

"Given the development stage of Atrium, the timing is right for us to appoint MaisonBrison to enhance and support all of our IR initiatives. They will provide turnkey services to enhance our communication with financial stakeholders. With their in-house financial markets experienced resources, MaisonBrison's solid reputation in delivering quality IR counsel and excellent corporate communications support they are the appropriate choice for Atrium," said Pierre Fitzgibbon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atrium Innovations.

New Graphic Artist at MaisonBrison

MaisonBrison Communications is pleased to welcome Steeve Ha, an experienced graphic designer, as part of its ongoing initiative to provide a full suite of highest quality investor relations, communications and marketing services. Steeve’s career spans over fourteen years in various areas of design expertise such as branding, direct marketing, multimedia, web and illustration in industries such as retail, pharmaceutical, financial, as well as humanitarian organizations.

Steeve is an important acquisition for MaisonBrison and our clients. With Steeve on board, we further broaden our marketing and communication service offering. His solid expertise, innovative artwork and design ensure that creativity and innovation are present in all of our clients’ projects.

Prior to joining MaisonBrison Communications, Steeve managed a creative department including six professionals in one of Canada’s largest direct marketing service companies. Steeve graduated from Ahuntsic College in 1996 and has a diploma in fine arts and graphic design.