There's life after listing... believe it and you'll have a client for life

To some, such an injunction might seem self-evident. Yet often the intense effort that goes into the build-up to the listing tends to eclipse all thoughts of an effective post-listing image strategy.

Be that as it may, from a sustainable long run perspective, the latter is more critical than the former.

Yes, the more impressive the display of the company's credentials ahead of a JSE debut, the more likelihood there is of a strong share-price showing on day one. But successful companies strive to stay in business well beyond day one.

Obliged to undress

In particular, a prime listing imperative is the need to service a far greater number of shareholders than formerly. It's often been said that a presence on the stock market demands of a company that it takes great care of its health; that it is lean, fit and trim, since it is obliged to undress in front of its shareholders at least twice a year.

All the more reason, then, for it to rely heavily on the organisation it retains to help nurture its public image among not only its narrow shareholder population but also among its wider stakeholder audience.

Drawing on our extensive experience in this particular sphere of our varied activities, we have discovered several formulae for achieving what is a task a whole lot more complicated than the basic listing procedure, given that the listing phenomenon, manifestly hard news, is generally the most noteworthy event in a company's history.

True, the interim and full-year earnings statements are almost invariably newsworthy items, as are any noteworthy acquisitions. And it cannot be denied that once it is listed, a company is more easily able to buy other businesses because a listing facilitates the issue of marketable securities as payment for such transactions.

Voracious appetite

Even then, a presence in the media numbering four or five times annually will hardly satisfy the voracious appetite of a corporation whose shareholders draw succour from ongoing favourable treatment in the nation's most prominent business media delivery channels.

The solution, as is so often the case, is to be creative. Some ideas:

• Profile the CEO - not by writing a release on the age at which his child started teething, but on issues of broad significance to the industry in which his company operates. It's a subtle approach (it has to be), informing stakeholders that here is someone who's a leader not only of his organisation but in his industry.
  
• Arrange networking opportunities. For example, invite the CEO of company A to lunch with the CEO of a client company involved in a similar type of business activity. It's a double-whammy that benefits both clients, who invariably appreciate the gesture, as well as the additional doors to new business it may have opened.
  
• Sit your CEO down with journalists (over lunch, on the golf course) whose beat it is to cover the relevant industry. Even if no direct coverage eventuates, the long-term relationships thereby created are bound to pay handsome dividends.
  
• Stay in touch. The technique for so doing could vary from a simple telephone call asking how he is doing to force-feeding him with press cuttings that you believe should interest him (you'd be amazed to find how keenly this is appreciated). Above all, don't let a fortnight elapse without instigating some form of contact.

What is principally involved here is a demonstration that you are an integral part of your client's team. Make you client feel wanted and he'll want you to remain involved with you for the long term.

In short, there's much life after listing; observe this maxim and you'll be in a position to report positively on your client's state of bliss at every weekly exco meeting - time and again and again.