Unravelling financial communication: Win the trust of your investors In a webinar organized by Public Relations Society-Delhi on financial communication, senior Journalist KA Badarinath and Market Analyst Arun Kejriwal unraveled the fine balance of being at the intersection of finance and communication

NEW DELHI: Financial Communicators have a role to play as whistleblowers in companies if something goes wrong as stakeholders have a right to know about what is happening inside the company, said KA Badarinath, a renowned journalist who has been reporting on financial issues for over 3 decades. He was speaking at a webinar titled “Towards effective financial communication”, organized by Public Relations Society, Delhi (PRSD) on October 24.

“Staying true to the investor of the company is the ultimate interest that one has to serve as the financial communicator”, the veteran journalist said.

‘Think of being a whistleblower‘ “As financial communicators, we should play the role of whistleblowers in the interest of our company, our stakeholders, etc. If there had been no whistleblowers in the Fertilizer industry, the infamous urea scam would not have seen the light of the day! If there had been no whistleblower in Power Grid Corporation, I would not have been able to expose some of the irregularities.” he added.

“Financial communication is a serious business. It is not like ‘he said this and he said that’. Many a time, we tend to put a big veil of secrecy on a company’s actual financial picture which brings in some amount of dilemma: ‘am I doing it right thing or am I doing it wrong?’ So a delicate balance between what needs to be said and what need not to be said has to be done by the financial communicators,” said Badrinath.

Giving advice to budding reporters, he said: “A reporter should not take accept everything at the face value. The first question we learn in journalism is toquestion everything, dissect everything, analyze everything, read between the lines, try to understand what is left unsaid”.

“If a Finance Minister is hiding anything in budget, just going through the budget documents reveals how much he is hiding. Similarly, going through the balance sheet of a company reveals what the company is hiding from the public. While the financial communicators have an obligation to their company, at the same time they do have an obligation to their investors and other stakeholders. In the very same way, a finance minister has an obligation towards the taxpayers,” he said.

‘Win the trust of your investors‘ Speaking in the same webinar, Arun Kejriwal, a renowned Market Analyst and Founder of KRIS said, “Problem always seems big but the solution is always simple, provided we think about it correctly. Especially, in today’s digital era when financial communication is put out very quickly, we don’t a get second chance to reverse our stand. So, take time to decide your stand, remain firm on that
and communicate that to your stakeholders.”

About Public Relations Society-Delhi

The Public Relations Society Delhi is an association of PR Professionals with a vision to promote the recognition of public relations as a profession and its key role in the management of the business of organizations. The society has, onboard, professionals from disciplines such as Media, Corporate Communication, Corporate Affairs and professionals associated with CPSUs, Government, Public and Private Sector, Multinationals, Media Educators as well as Veterans of PR Profession.