Introduction
Have you ever wondered what would really make your company’s equity story land with global investors?
BNY’s new global investor study — a project led by today’s guest, Karen Bodner — offers one of the clearest answers we’ve seen in years.
Karen and her team interviewed 40 investors overseeing more than $2 trillion in assets. What stood out to me wasn’t just the scale of the research. It was how consistently these investors described what they’re actually looking for.
They want clarity.
They want credibility.
They want a story that holds up under pressure — across regions, across segments, and across market cycles.
Karen has spent nearly two decades helping companies navigate the equity markets, communicate strategic shifts, and earn trust across borders. She brings a rare blend of data, experience, and plain-language honesty to this conversation.
And what she shares here reframes how global investors evaluate your narrative — the signals that build confidence, the red flags that turn them off, and how to avoid becoming “yet another company.”
Let’s get into it.
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Introduction and overview
[00:00:00] Mark Fasken: Karen, I'm very excited to have you today, and I wanted to start with an overarching question. BNY recently released a global investor study on what makes a compelling equity narrative. When it comes to attracting international investment, what are the must-have elements investors expect to see in a company's equity story?
[00:00:21] Karen Bodner: Mark, thank you so much for having me. It's really a pleasure to be here. We had a very fun time creating this survey. We talked to 40 investors covering $2 trillion in assets under management from around the world. We really wanted to understand how investors gauge the credibility of issuers’ claims. We wanted to look at whether or not they used macro considerations. We wanted to see what was really compelling and what wasn't, and we asked them what was going to be innovative or different that they wanted to see in the future.
[00:00:54] Karen Bodner: We got some really interesting answers. Lots of which we didn't expect. So, this was a really fun survey.
Key elements of a compelling equity narrative
[00:01:01] Karen Bodner: Number one: investors told us they wanted simplicity. They wanted to see the strategy. They wanted to see the vision, the competitive landscape. And that came up over and over again.
[00:01:13] Karen Bodner: Investors really wanted to understand the landscape that the company lives in, how they're meeting it, and what their durable advantage might be. And they wanted to do that with a segment-by-segment look: geography, segment, division, asset. However it is you break down your story, that's how investors want to see it.
[00:01:33] Karen Bodner: They don't want just the overarching picture. They want to understand, piece by piece, what it means and how each of those pieces creates and builds a durable advantage in their work.
Investor preferences and credibility
[00:01:46] Karen Bodner: And then, they finally told us what's important to them is substance. Any assertions you make need to be evidence-backed. They just don't want you to say, I'm going to do X and not be able to demonstrate that you've done A, B, and C to meet X. They want to know what the data is behind it.
[00:02:01] Karen Bodner: Actually, one investor gave us a quote that I really loved. He said, “I don't want to see any YACs — yet another company.” So, what's your market? How is your market differentiated? How are you addressing it? I don't want to see any company; I want to see different companies.
[00:02:16] Karen Bodner: One thing that was really interesting to us, when we asked them this question: “What makes it compelling versus a generic equity story?” Only 35% of them cited valuation. Much more important was management credibility and the company's competitive landscape.
[00:02:31] Mark Fasken: When you talk about clarity and simplicity as key differentiators, it's interesting. As I reflect on many of the episodes that we've done on Winning IR, clear communication comes up over and over again. IROs talk about the key skills that you have to be successful. They talk about how you need to be able to take what can be a very complicated strategy with all these macro elements and competitors, and really distill that down into something that is consumable by an investor. Not just a specialist investor, but maybe a generalist investor, somebody who doesn't understand your industry as well.
[00:03:06] Mark Fasken: Can you share examples of what makes a narrative feel compelling versus generic or YAC-ish?
[00:03:15] Karen Bodner: Sure. One of those things was definitely the segmentation. They wanted to see macro landscape. They wanted to understand and differentiate the opportunities that way. Competitive positioning. They actually mentioned the balance sheet in this context. They wanted to understand does the balance sheet give management the flexibility they have to react to the changes and challenges in their market?
[00:03:39] Karen Bodner: What are the changes and challenges in their market that they're seeing? They really wanted to understand. When I'm talking about competitive landscape, they wanted to talk about their growth opportunities and how they were going to meet them. But what was interesting about that was, it wasn't just understanding what the company thinks their growth market is or how they're going to grow. They took that information and said, company A thinks that my market's going to grow by 5%. Their direct peer is looking at that same market, and it says it's going to grow by 10%. And the research analyst that I trust says it's going to grow by 2%. Who's right?
[00:04:18] Karen Bodner: They're comparing it across all of those things. Not just the results, but actually the growth projections, or the view of the market, or how things are going to progress in terms of the macro context. They were comparing on a segment-by-segment basis across all of their information sources.
[00:04:36] Karen Bodner: What made the story compelling was companies who have good data to support it, and management teams that they felt could credibly reach that. What makes a management team credible? Evidence that they've done things in the past, but also meetings. That in-person, face-to-face conversation clarity that you have. This really block-and-tackling of IR, was super important for them. They wanted to understand that management was going to make those things happen and that this company had the right view of what the market was going to be.
Regional differences in investor priorities
[00:05:08] Mark Fasken: This episode and this season is really about storytelling. It seems to always be about storytelling, but even more, it's about international investor relations. It's been a big focus of ours this season. I find that there at times is a perception that investors in different regions have vastly different perspectives on companies, or vastly different needs in terms of how they engage with companies.
[00:05:35] Mark Fasken: So, I'm curious, from the study that you've done, did you find that investor priorities differed across regions very much? Were there factors that a US investor really cared about but maybe an investor in London didn't care so much about? Or were they somewhat the same?
[00:05:50] Karen Bodner: They were somewhat the same.
[00:05:51] Karen Bodner: I would say 63% of the investors we surveyed said that macro factors mattered. Now, how much they mattered and how they were incorporating that varies. But that varies investor by investor, not region by region. One investor told us that macro factors varied between 30 and as much as 60% of their investment drivers, and it depended on the circumstances. But that's if you're in a very difficult economic environment versus a very good economic environment, or a war-torn environment versus a non-war-torn environment, obviously, those things are going to be vastly different.
[00:06:22] Karen Bodner: One thing that I thought was actually quite different is North American investors told us several times that assuming that they, the investors, know the market and have a really good understanding of the competitive landscape of a non-US company was a miss. They said they wanted to have companies give them more detail, more background.
[00:06:43] Karen Bodner: They said companies sometimes give them too streamlined a presentation and don't go over those basics of the industry. They want that. They want that at least available for them to review. It doesn't necessarily need to be in every single meeting, but they talked about having it on the website, having it available, and that was really helpful to them.
[00:07:01] Karen Bodner: Even investors who told us they knew the company and knew the industry said, “We like to go back every so often and review those basics of the market and the competitive landscape to make sure we still have the right view of what's going on in that region because we don't live there. We want to go back and recheck.”
[00:07:20] Karen Bodner: In a survey of 40 different investors from all over the world, we actually had two different investors, completely on their own, bring up the same example of a company doing something like that. And it was the same company.
[00:07:33] Karen Bodner: And I thought that was an interesting example. I wouldn't expect two different investors to come up with the exact same example, but they did. This is an industrial company in Europe that on their website, outlines the entire history of their industry and all of the segments that they participate in, and talks about the growth and development of each segment, and gives the whole background and history of the segment where they've come from, and then where they're going. Two separate investors said to us, “This is really super helpful. It's super helpful for us to be able to go back and look at that, to be able to go back and review it.”
[00:08:14] Mark Fasken: And I imagine a lot of investors also don't necessarily want to spend every meeting getting a refresh on the whole company and the whole industry. Perhaps having something like that on your IR website or having it as something that you can send as a pre-read would also be extremely helpful.
[00:08:28] Mark Fasken: It's helpful to note that the priorities are not necessarily the same, but they differ investor by investor, not region by region. I think that's a helpful way to think about it. And one that I always think of is ESG. Even just a few weeks ago, we were doing a recording for this season, and I was speaking to an IRO who's in London, and he had said that ESG is not as big of a focus as it was, even in Europe.
[00:08:49] Mark Fasken: I do think there is a shift, and it's helpful to know that you're not going to see a huge difference as maybe a US company who's going over to London, or somewhere else. As we think about consistency, then, what kinds of data or evidence do investors consistently want to see in some of those marketing materials?
[00:09:09] Karen Bodner: So, touching on your ESG question for a second. We asked about this in the survey, and we got such varying responses that we actually didn't include it in our publication because we didn't get a statistically significant answer. It was too varied.
[00:09:24] Karen Bodner: The things that investors told us across the board that they cared about was materiality. So, in terms of ESG, what's really material, but what's material in terms of company's financial performance and in terms of their goals.
[00:09:40] Karen Bodner: They said ESG wasn't just a compliant box; it was part of their investment thesis as long as it was specific, measurable, and material. Does it enhance your resiliency? Does it enhance your efficiency? Does it enhance your brand equity? Does it enhance your results? And then, how do you demonstrate longevity in that growth story you're telling?
[00:09:58] Karen Bodner: We saw it that way in terms of what investors were telling us, and I think that really ties into the other things that investors told us was so key about the kind of information that they wanted.
[00:10:10] Karen Bodner: What did they want? Honesty and clarity. Consistency and detailed information. And they wanted to actively engage and see things that are forward looking.
[00:10:20] Karen Bodner: One of the questions we asked was: What have you seen that is innovative in telling the investor story? And nobody told us anything innovative. Nothing. They told us they wanted honest, clear, and transparent financials. And they wanted it presented simply, the same way, quarter after quarter, so they could compare it easily.
[00:10:40] Karen Bodner: Sometimes the things that people don't tell you are more interesting than the things that people do tell you. Because what that told me was maybe that's a trick that IROs are missing.
[00:10:49] Mark Fasken: It's funny, I was just having a conversation with somebody last week, and they were asking me something along these lines. We're hosting a panel on AI and IR and innovation, and I had just had a conversation with an IRO, and this is what they kept bringing up. This is an IRO of a massive US public company, and their main advice for every IRO they speak to is clarity and consistency. Clarity and consistency. It doesn't need to be some crazy video that you've recorded or presentations via drone, right? It just needs to be something people can understand.
[00:11:19] Mark Fasken: This is a great segue into my next question. Sometimes it does get complicated, right? Like you've got macro factors, economic policy, global risk. You talked about war-torn countries. There's a lot going on in the world that can complicate your story, and there are things that are going to come up that you can't expect.
[00:11:34] Mark Fasken: As you're going internationally, I think there's probably a lot of questions that people have about what's going on with the political situation in your country, or how are your logistical supply chains going to work when you've got all these tariff issues. Based on your findings, how much do some of these macro factors really influence investor decisions? And how can IROs effectively explain those impacts in a clear and concise manner?
[00:11:58] Karen Bodner: The answer is they do. They do absolutely impact the investor decisions. We said 63% of the investors surveyed said that they consider macro factors. It's context that's key, but it's really about how companies react to the context.
[00:12:13] Karen Bodner: It's not just, this is my market and this is what's happening. It's, this is my strategy and how I plan to meet those challenges. If A happens, we'll do B. Giving the context as this is how we're laying out the plans. And also using that data of this is what we've done in the past that proves that this is what we're going to do in the future to talk about meeting that context.
[00:12:34] Karen Bodner: I think it's management credibility. Going back to what I said earlier, they're cross-checking that context. They're looking at what other peers are saying about it. What's the government saying? What are research analysts saying? What are your competitors saying? What are their peers in the industry saying? And they're looking at all of that and saying okay, so judging this is the context that I'm applying your situation to, now you tell me how your management is meeting that need.
[00:13:07] Mark Fasken: I think a lot of companies struggle with this type of communication, right? I think that some IROs, some companies, feel like more information, more data, and let's just throw everything that we have at the investors and then they'll find whatever is important to them, right? I think that's maybe at times a good strategy. But I'm curious, what are the most common mistakes you see when companies market their story to an international audience or any audience, really? And how can IR teams avoid some of these common mistakes?
Common mistakes in equity storytelling
[00:13:41] Karen Bodner: The things that investors told us that they don't like to see is when segment or product reporting changes. They think you might be hiding something. If you're constantly readjusting how you're doing the segments or how you're doing the reporting, they can't compare it across quarters and across years, and they find that difficult.
[00:14:00] Karen Bodner: Obviously, if you have a strategic shift, and things are changing, and you're realigning the business, they definitely want to understand that. But what they told us is super important, is doing something like an investor day. You can't communicate a strategic shift in the quarterly results. You have to spend the time, bring the people together, and actually communicate it using the business line managers, or your geographic managers, or whatever it is that you're doing, however you're reorganizing, to have that discussion.
[00:14:32] Karen Bodner: I would say not allocating enough time to strategic shifts and just incorporating it into a quarterly earnings is the big mistake that investors were telling us.
[00:14:42] Karen Bodner: They really wanted to take the time to do the deep dive if there was something that they needed to deep dive on, if you're changing your reporting. Otherwise, it was all about consistency and clarity. And then, they needed to understand that management is aligned with shareholder interest. They want to understand the shareholder structure. They want to understand the board composition. They want to understand that capital allocation meets the needs of the company.
[00:15:06] Karen Bodner: Those sorts of things were what they told us were important, which means that's not always being communicated as effectively as it could be.
Future trends in investor relations
[00:15:12] Mark Fasken: We're getting into our final question, and I just want to call out, I don't know if AI has really been mentioned at all in this episode, which is a phenomenal outcome.
[00:15:20] Mark Fasken: You spent a lot of time studying what makes an equity story land globally. And I think this research is super, super helpful, and I'm hoping that many of our listeners are going to go and read the report.
[00:15:31] Mark Fasken: As you think about 2026, are there any trends you're seeing that IR teams should really be keeping their eye on? Things that you might think are big changes that are afoot, or just things that teams should be focused on.
[00:15:45] Karen Bodner: So, when we talked about this ahead of this podcast, I thought that this was actually a good question to ask AI what AI thought.
[00:15:53] Karen Bodner: I went and I asked AI, what are the trends for 2026 in investor relations? And AI told me, unsurprisingly, companies will use AI tools to help personalize and distinguish their stories in 2026. They said we should tailor it to different investor personas: Growth or value, ESG-focused, or thematic. And I think that's totally wrong.
[00:16:14] Karen Bodner: I think that just doesn't match what investors told us in this survey, which was that they were focused on management quality and the durable advantage when it comes to the equity narrative. And I also think that if you're creating different kinds of equity presentations for different kinds of investors, you are risking selective or unequal disclosure.
[00:16:33] Karen Bodner: Investors told us they wanted simple, clear, and consistent disclosure. Like I said, when we asked investors about what was innovative that they wanted to see, no one told us anything innovative. So, I think that's the key for 2026 — prioritizing clarity and honesty.
[00:16:48] Karen Bodner: Maybe we use AI to simplify complex narratives, use data visualizations to make the story more digestible.
[00:16:56] Karen Bodner: We know companies are using AI for earnings prep and coming up with expected analyst questions, analyzing tone in the press releases. But I think that it's important to think about the simple things for 2026 and to focus on the basics. That would be my takeaway from this survey.
[00:17:13] Mark Fasken: That's awesome.
[00:17:14] Mark Fasken: As you were just going through that, I love that you said, think about the basics. If there's something that I take away from this episode, it's 2026 should be the year of getting back to basics. You think about the last couple years. You had COVID, and we were all talking about hybrid, and then, are you doing virtual roadshows? And now we're all talking about AI. And the information you're getting from the investors is, yes, all those things are important, but we really just want a clear and concise narrative. IR teams should be sitting down and asking themselves, do we have that? And that should be the focus.
[00:17:46] Karen Bodner: What is the story? Remember I said the story and management and credibility was more important even than valuation at the top. What's the story? Tell the story.
Conclusion and final words
[00:17:55] Mark Fasken: Karen, I really appreciate this. You've nailed it in terms of getting the results of this survey very clear and concise.
[00:18:01] Mark Fasken: Thank you for taking the time to walk us through it. And again, I hope that all of our readers take the time to review it once they've had a listen to this episode.
[00:18:08] Karen Bodner: Mark, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
