Whisper it quietly – let’s not inflate their egos further – but a new report claims that investors attribute a portion of a FTSE 100 company’s market capitalisation to the reputation of its executive leadership.

In fact, around one in six attribute 30 per cent of market cap to the combined reputation of the ExCo, while one in ten say 35 per cent and one in seven say 25 per cent.

In homage to the inimitable Kenny Everett, You say potato, I say potato. When asked the same question, one per cent of respondents – there were 300, so call it three – assign no value to executive leadership, while eight per cent estimate their collective reputation contributes more than half of a company’s market cap.

Blimey. Not sure why anybody else bothers turning up…

The report, Executive Reputation: Priced, Prized, and Easily Lost, by global business advisory firm FTI Consulting, claims that leadership reputation is now viewed as a measurable, trackable component of a company’s value ‘and one substantial enough to warrant active management’.

Well, yes and no. I asked the authors: how did the investors come up with the numbers? Were they asked for their workings? It seems not. And they certainly weren’t asked how much they expected the market cap of a company to fall if its entire board resigned tomorrow. Unlikely, admittedly, but then so is anybody being able to answer the question.

We have an obsession with numbers, and putting a value on intangibles, which I’m not sure is always helpful. I may be a lone voice. What ExCo is ever going to challenge a finding that they are worth 30 per cent of market cap? They’re more likely to schedule a meeting with RemCo.

But, that aside, the report does serve to emphasise the importance of leadership communications. Today, 89 per cent of institutional investors claim they scrutinise what executives say and what companies do more closely than they did five years ago, although admittedly who would admit to being less exacting.

Three quarters said they were likely to assign an outright valuation premium to a company led by an executive team they consider to be trustworthy and credible.

How do they inform such judgements? Oftentimes it is from what they read, rather than what they hear. The report suggests the market ‘rewards purposeful visibility, not visibility for its own sake’.

Financial media interviews were cited by a whopping 64 per cent of investors as essential in shaping their views, partly, the authors suggest, because quality financial journalism is what the AI models are reading. (Sadly, for their broadcast counterparts, only 28 per cent of investors view them as important but trade media fare rather better at 37 per cent.)

The next most important sources cited were investor conferences and capital markets days at 46 per cent while industry conferences and LinkedIn both stood at 42 per cent. In contrast, earnings calls were important to 36 per cent while in-person, closed-door meetings mattered to just 21 per cent.

As the report reiterates, social media and financial journalism now play a critical role in shaping the views of investors. That might be just the push needed to get your CEO or finance director posting on LinkedIn more regularly!

In memoriam

On this day 25 years ago, as a national broadsheet journalist, I was tasked with ringing around my friends and contacts in the City for a news piece on the reaction of financial institutions to the attack. Some were in tears, having already learned a colleague had died. Most were in shock and disbelief.

Cantor Fitzgerald, I was told, occupied the top floors of the World Trade Center. Its trapped brokers were apparently calling emergency services and colleagues to ask when helicopters would arrive to rescue them. Some were making their way to the roof in anticipation.

In the event, 658 Cantor Fitzgerald colleagues perished, including the brother of chief executive Howard Lutnick, currently US Secretary of Commerce. Howard only survived because he accompanied his son on his first day at kindergarten.

If anybody truly wants to understand crisis comms, they should put themselves in the shoes of Cara Kiewel, then VP of PR Europe and Asia, at Cantor in London. With US mobile networks down, she initially had no information. Yet, she returned every single media call – even if it was to just say that.

Her expertise was in financial markets, but for weeks she led a round-the-clock crisis comms operation, handling an influx of calls from media outlets around the world while coming to terms with the fact that her friends and colleagues had been killed. Five of the 10-person US PR team perished. To this day, I don’t know how she did it with such grace.

Tabloid reporters harassed her for the mobile phone numbers of the missing… on the off chance that they might answer and give an interview from under the rubble! UK journalists asked how many British were among the dead. How many Brits had survived? For Kiewel, every survivor was a blessing.

She updated journalists with information, as and when it became available. I can’t remember if, like other Wall Street institutions, Cantor sent surviving colleagues to visit the homes of those unaccounted for, to verify their status. But imagine piecing together a workforce when all personnel records have been destroyed.

Kiewel is now back in North America. I made contact on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, to send warm wishes. She declined the offer of a profile interview. The anniversary was a day of reflection for her, not a case study for crisis in the most extreme. I totally understood.

Book for this year’s Corporate Affairs Summit

If anyone needed a reminder of how polarised workforces have become, this week's anniversary has provided one. For many in-house communications directors, acknowledging the day became a delicate exercise in navigating competing expectations, cultural sensitivities and strongly held views.

The implications of populism and polarisation for the modern corporate affairs function is just one of the issues we’ll be exploring at the upcoming Corporate Affairs Summit. Led by Lord Andrew Cooper, partner at FGS Global, the session will present new research with actionable insights for in-house professionals.

But, as past attendees will attest, every session will provide views you can use. From a lively discussion about future proofing the corporate affairs function, to an apposite presentation on how AI will impact the shape, skills and value of the function, hosted by Sodali & Co, the programme is designed to help communicators navigate an increasingly complex environment.

Reputation will be a recurring theme, not least in a discussion about AI’s role in accelerating misinformation and disinformation, led by Alex Northcott, CEO of Roxhill Media, as well as a discussion on stress testing your corporate narrative.

And if further evidence of the truth behind Warren Buffett’s oft-quoted adage that reputation takes a lifetime to build and minutes to destroy was needed, we’ll hear first hand from Gerald Ratner on how a single ill-judged speech became so infamous that ‘doing a Ratner’ entered the business lexicon.

Booking deets are here. If you can’t commit to a full day, share the ticket with a colleague – as long as you agree beforehand who gets lunch! 😉 

Alas, before anybody else asks, it is only open to senior in-house professionals.