Kevin Kessel is the Vice President of Investor Relations for Flex, a global ~$24 billion Sketch-to-ScaleTM solutions provider that designs, manufactures and distributes Intelligent Products for a Connected WorldTM. With approximately 200,000 professionals across 30 countries, Flex provides innovative design, engineering, manufacturing, real-time supply chain insight and logistics services to companies of all sizes in various industries and end-markets. Kevin is based in Silicon Valley and joined Flex in 2009 to lead its Investor Relations (IR) initiatives and bring expertise in sell-side engagement and buy-side investor targeting. Prior to Flex, Kevin covered the electronics and supply chain space as a sell-side analyst for Bear Stearns and JP Morgan for nearly a decade. Kevin is fortunate to have been Institutional Investor (II) ranked as both a sell-side analyst and IR professional.
1. What are your top priorities and biggest challenges?
My top priority is leading and executing a successful investor relations strategy which I break down into three areas of focus. The first is servicing our current investors. In my daily role at Flex, I strive to operate as a direct extension of our CEO, CFO, and other business presidents when interacting with the investment and analyst community. I value the responsibility of being the liaison with the goal of providing informative, timely and accurate answers to relevant questions about the company.
The second area of focus surrounds targeting and securing new investors. Drawing upon my broad experience, I actively pursue investors that I believe would be good fits for Flex. I think strategically about those investors who would hold our stock based on their investment philosophy and whether or not our financial metrics match up well relative to the other portfolio companies they own.
And my third area of focus is on being a strong and valued internal contributor that supports other projects and initiatives within Flex. Whether it is from the treasury side, where we run our stock buyback programs, or from an M&A perspective, where we discuss how different investments or acquisitions fit into our strategy and our messaging, it is important to me to have a well-rounded understanding of all financial areas of the business.
In terms of challenges that IR professionals face, I often think about how the velocity of change occurring today is unprecedented. Keeping up to speed with this change is critical to being a successful IRO. Whether it is the constant flow of information being generated by the financial media, sell-side analysts, or stock market blogs, impactful events unfolding across the globe in real-time across social media and elsewhere, it is so critical to stay updated and informed without being distracted.
2. How have you seen the role and expectations of the IRO evolve in the past few years?
I believe the Investor Relations role has become more strategic in nature. Investor Relations has moved from being more of an afterthought to becoming much more top of mind within the C-suite even well before a company goes public and files for an IPO. As the IRO, it is important to be involved in the strategic activities of the company with a finger on the pulse of what is happening and a goal of always being informed. For example, I am involved in our forecasting process, helping prepare my CFO for board meetings and applying our external financial messaging to internal communications. I am also involved in developing our financial narrative or story, especially as it relates to the financial community of investors and analysts and making sure our themes are clear and consistent when it comes to forums where we regularly communicate, such as our quarterly earnings calls, wall street conferences, investor meetings, or our annual Investor & Analyst Day.
With a sell-side analyst background and having spent a lot of time and effort learning the competitive landscape, it is very helpful from an IRO perspective to not only be the eyes and ears of the company, but be aware of what is happening in all aspects of your industry. Ultimately those topics come through as questions from the financial community. Not just to myself, but to my CEO and CFO and others that engage directly with investors and analysts. The more educated we are on those aspects, the better prepared we are to have those dialogues.
3. How can the IRO best engage the investment community?
Being responsive and direct is always the best way to engage. This does not always require face-to-face meetings, but it does require being accessible for phone calls—both impromptu and scheduled calls. In addition to regular meetings with investors, bringing in other executives from the company that have leadership in areas that are of particular interest to the given investors or analysts helps to increase engagement.
4. What is one important initiative that you’ve championed or experience that you’ve had as an IRO?
I’m proud to say I’ve helped to elevate Flex’s Annual Investor Day in terms of the content value and addressing the pressing questions of the financial community. Our annual investor day is an important meeting that addresses the Company’s strategy and where we are heading. Not only does it help tremendously from a financial perspective by addressing the financial community, but it's an annual meeting that helps to convey the company’s cohesive narrative. More importantly, we have been able to leverage this narrative across other stakeholder communications including internal which helps improvement alignment and execution.
At Flex, we recognize the importance of being able to tell our company's story to investors and analysts in a way that addresses the key investment pillars of our stock.
5. What resources do you rely on to stay up to date on the capital markets?
I rely on several different online sources such as Business Insider and Flipboard and subscription services for breaking news and different topics that intersect with investor relations. I also read the Wall Street Journal regularly. Additionally, Bloomberg Businessweek, Barron’s and The Economist are some of the sources I pay attention too. In addition, I’m a member of the Board of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Silicon Valley chapter. Being involved with NIRI is a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest best practices and topics impacting the IR professional.
6. What advice do you have for the next generation of IRO?
Be proactive. In IR it’s easy to operate reactively, but the more proactive you can be, the better. Stay informed and know your industry and competitors. I think that IROs who are able to have a view of their competitive landscape will have a better understanding of their industry and become much more valuable to their employers, investors, and analysts.
Also, know your investors and try to get to know them down to their fund level. The more you know, the better off you will be. Look to understand their investment philosophies and objectives and how your company could fit in. Have a view on the size of the positions that they are normally taking so that you can have a better sense of what impact they may or may not have on your ownership profile if they are to become an investor. If they're a current investor, you should have a view on whether or not they're fully invested in your company or still have a long way to go and what catalysts they are focused on.
And regarding staying informed, there are a lot of tools out designed to capture the vast amount of information. It's like information overload every day in IR, so you have to choose where you go to get that information summarized and organized. Being able to summarize and share important and actionable information on your industry is helpful and can help provide useful context to your stakeholders.
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