The primary objective of this handbook is to create a comprehensive knowledge base on the broad and sometimes misunderstood topic of investor relations, the center of most corporate communications programs. The approach taken was to first develop a thorough understanding of Wall Street itself. Having been a Fortune 25 Investor Relations Director as well as a Sr. Equity Analyst and Equity Research Director, the perception of what is needed by the financial community is quite different than what many investor relations officers believe. Driving a "hyperactive" Investor Relations program is the ultimate aim of this text. The author believes that the insight provided herein will enable new IROs to best understand their new profession and enable existing practitioners to add additional elements to their marketing programs that will enhance shareholder understanding and value. The author's website can be viewed at www.tomlauria.com.

This text gives academics, practitioners and students a solid review of the status of academic literature in public relations, stressing the role that public relations can play in building relationships between organizations, markets, audiences, and publics.

A bold addition to existing literature, this book provides an excellent overview of corporate communication. Taking a refreshing interdisciplinary approach, it is an essential reference, offering in-depth analysis and contemporary case studies.

In today's aggressive marketplace, listed companies can no longer rely on their numbers to do the talking. If companies can't communicate their achievements and strategy, mounting research evidence suggests, they will be overlooked, their cost of capital will increase and stock price will suffer. In Strategic Financial and Investor Communication: the stock price story Ian Westbrook, principal of Australia's leading independent financial communications firm, argues just this: stock price is more a story than a number. Moreover, the book will teach you how to tell your own story by guiding you through the fast-paced world of financial corporate communication with a professional's pragmatism as well as academic rigour. Whether you're a student or a professional of PR, investor relations or corporate communications, this much-needed guide will teach you how to tell a compelling story about your company that the stockbroker, fund manager and corporate media cannot ignore.

Whereas many organizational communication texts address internal communication processes, few consider the efforts that companies expend to communicate with external stakeholders. Likewise, many texts that concentrate on public relations or advertising consider external communication, but fail to give attention to internal communication. Combining both points of view, this text explains how an entire organization operates through enactments of personnel and external stakeholders. Central to this book is a concern for meaning and its influence on the performance of jobs in response to expectations of co-workers and external publics. The concept of narrative is used to explain how individual and organization performance is the expression of personae that are best when enacted jointly -- in varying degrees of coordination -- to satisfy mutual performance expectations. Narrative explains the power of organizational meaning, interpersonal contacts, group performance, stakeholder negotiation, and internal and external organizational zones of meaning -- assumptions that are shared by people who enact an organization through coordinated efforts.

Martial art business-related aspects are found at the base level in individual schools and mushroom to a global level in international organizations. This anthology includes writings by professionals who offer information and insights into the financial side of the martial arts. Chapters focus on related practical matters as profit, politics and investment. In the first chapter, Dr. Richard Friman asks: If the martial arts are supposed to offer paths to personal growth and enlightenment, why are they, in practice, plagued with displays of rampant egos, politics, and battles over turf by their practitioners? The experience of instruction in the United States suggests that the pursuit of the arts is becoming lost in the pursuit of profit. The next chapter by Dr. Yong Jae Ko presents the evolution of the martial arts industry into a global consumer products industry and examines the application of modern business techniques on this industry, with a particular focus on marketing strategy. It also discusses future opportunities and challenges facing the martial arts industry, and offers helpful suggestions. In the following chapter, Dr. Ko and coauthor Dr. Jin Bin Yang discuss the global expansion and integration of Asian martial arts. Such factors as sportification and standardization are closely examined as significant driving forces for the growth of the martial arts industry. This chapter also examines important issues influencing the development and the martial arts’ industry future growth. “The next chapter by Dr. Yong Jae Ko presents the evolution of the martial arts industry into a global consumer products industry and examines the application of modern business techniques on this industry, with a particular focus on marketing strategy. It also discusses future opportunities and challenges facing the martial arts industry, and offers helpful suggestions. In the following chapter, Dr. Ko and coauthor Dr. Jin Bin Yang discuss the global expansion and integration of Asian martial arts. Such factors as sportification and standardization are closely examined as significant driving forces for the growth of the martial arts industry. This chapter also examines important issues influencing the development and the martial arts’ industry future growth. The final chapter by Andrew Tharp presents the history that influenced the value of Japanese swords as works of art. The Japanese have created a legal system that has preserved their historical weapons in a way no other society has done. Historical sources and current statutes will show how the Japanese created a monopoly that successfully conserved their culture for future generations. Although this Japanese phenomenon is extraordinary, it also serves to show possibilities for those interested in investing in weaponry from other cultures and augments our appreciation of militaria for their aesthetics. Reading this anthology will help martial art students better understand differences between traditional schools and those that focus solely on profit. Owners can deepen their business acumen and utilize information provided in these chapters to shape their schools’ program. Of course many are influenced by martial art organizations that may be established on a local level, national or international. As an addition to your regular studies of martial art techniques and traditions, the information you’ll find here can certainly broaden one’s view of the martial arts as a business arena.