Head of ING Investor Relations Mark Milders wants to provide markets with sufficient information. The target group of investors is broad and not always well informed, making explanation more important than ever. Data is widely available, but figures in themselves do not live: ‘The most difficult thing about this dynamic profession is translating quantitative information into a complete story.’

What is the state of play in the Netherlands with regard to investor relations (IR)? Are they in safe hands with the Investor Relations Officer (IRO)? What about the mandate of the IRO? Does he or she meet today’s expectations? In a series of articles for Management Scope, Jesse Thiel of the IR communication platform Q4 Inc. goes in search of answers to those questions. In this article, IR Officers themselves have their say. ‘Various stakeholders will start to invest with specific objectives in mind. That in turn will alter our role as someone who participates in discussions with that investor.’

What is the situation regarding investor relations (IR) in the Netherlands? Are they in safe hands with the Investor Relations Officer (IRO)? What about their mandate, and do they meet today's expectations? Jesse Thiel from IR platform Q4 Inc. goes in search of answers on Management Scope’s behalf. This time, Mr. Thiel speaks to ‘the supervisor’, in this instance, non-executive director and Nyenrode Professor of Strategy and Transformation Annemieke Roobeek. Ms. Roobeek is outspoken: ‘In my experience, IROs are incredibly conservative, disdainful and extremely risk-averse.’

What are the shareholder's information requirements? And what role can the Investor Relations Officer (IRO) play? In a series of articles, Jesse Thiel from investor relations communications platform Q4 searches for answers to these questions. This time, he addresses “the investor side”: He talks to Rients Abma, Director of Eumedion, and Gerben Everts, Director of European Investors-VEB, the association of securities holders in the Netherlands. ‘The IRO can and should be the director.’

As the economy has cooled, companies must work harder to attract and retain new investors. The advice to Investor Relations Officers is: embrace the imminent data revolution. The IRO still barely uses data, while it gives the professional valuable insights about the target market. Not only that: with data analysis, the IRO can find activist shareholders at an early stage, according to Amit Sanghvi, Global Vice President of IR-communications platform Q4.