Q4 Blog

I have spoken to many IROs about their use of social media. Some are exploring their options (and even have their own personal Facebook or Twitter account) to help them decipher what will fit in best with their company’s communications and overall business strategy.  If they decide to move forward with some kind of social network, they are taking it slowly to see what evolves and how much of their time it will actually take up (see my recent blog about two companies who have gradually integrated Twitter and Facebook into their corporate strategy). 

Others are sitting on the sidelines waiting for a RegFD violation from those who are using it or direction from the SEC on specific guidelines for its use (I wouldn’t hold my breath).   

Read more…

We’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks we haven’t been able to announce a new addition to Q4.

Sheryl Joyce, joined us on April 14, as Director of Marketing Communications and is responsible for all marketing and communications initiatives such as blogging, webinars, events and best practices. Sheryl has twelve years experience in the capital markets industry, nine of those specializing in investor relations.  Sheryl brings years of experience in investor relations and corporate communications and maintains well-established relationships with sell-side analysts, institutional investors, investment bankers and transfer agents.

Sheryl has hit the ground running with a number of blog posts (see below) and managed our popular webinar on IR website best practices.  Sheryl is also behind our new corporate twitter profile @q4websystems and is active in LinkedIn and our Q4 fan page on Facebook.  Be sure to say hi next time you see her online!

Here are some of Sheryl’s recent posts:

• IR Website Best Practices Webinar Wrap-Up
• An IR perspective “Equity Research in the Age of the Web”
• Successful Integration of Social Media Tools in IR Websites

Ok, it’s been almost a year but nonetheless, this is officially the 2nd year into implementing the Rockefeller Habits at Q4.  We kicked off our annual and Q1 2009 priorities yesterday with the whole company and now that we’ve gone through the process a few times we seem to be much more efficient at it.

I think what I enjoy most about the process for implementing the Rockefeller Habits is that it’s actually very similar to using Agile processes for developing software:

1. Focus on the highest value items first
2. Make progress on those items
3. Have a retrospective
4. Find new (and usually more difficult) problems
5. Repeat 1 – 4 often

Read more…

Last year was a great year for all of us here at Q4.  We officially launched Q4 PRESS and also launched a major version of Q4 WEB that included RSS feeds, Google Maps, photo galleries and a host of other improvements.

Anyone who has worked for company experiencing explosive growth can appreciate the difficulties that come with it and the the importance of maintaining focus with respect to corporate objectives.  Chris Jones posted back in July with respect to our adoption of the Rockefeller Habits as well as our re-adoption of Scrum as a way to maintain alignment across the company.

Since Q2 2008, we have been living our values. The single most important value we realize at Q4 is a dedication to constant improvement.  Read more…

I was reading an interesting blog post the other day about how to live in the present when you feel overwhelmed and how that can affect your personal and professional life.

The article talks about the 3 states a person generally lives in at any given time; past, future and present.  I’m sure just about everyone uses their cell phone while driving, or has the news on TV while eating dinner and while checking email on their blackberry.  All of this multi-tasking leads to a drop in focus, drop in productivity as well as an increase in stress.

What I admire about my friends here at Q4 is that we have always taken the approach of living “in the now”.  There is always temptation to immediately react to any problem and I have personally been guilty of leaping before looking, but here are a few ways we handle “living in the now”

1. On our white board in our work area we have a motto for all to see.  Stop.  Think.  React.
2. In our group chat when anyone feels we are going down a rabbit hole, someone posts  “Stop.  Think.  React”
3. We reiterate this message in meetings

I have personally found this approach very useful, even in my personal life, but the greatest benefit is the gain in productivity and enjoyment at work since we are all on-board with ‘looking before leaping’

Something so simple makes a big difference in both our productivity and how we interact with each other at work.  Stop.  Think.  React.