August 11, 2003

LJ Rittenhouse
President, andBEYOND Communications
New York, NY 10025
Telephone: (212) 580-9176
Fax: (212) 580-1906

The reporter, Tatiana Serafin, quoted Laura's commentary on AOL Time Warner's use of meaningless phrases such as "best in class" and "robust growth" instead of reporting specific numbers and financial commentary in their letter. AOL's response to this concern? A spokesperson responded with: "We view our annual shareholders letter as an important - but just one - element in our robust (emphasis added), continuing communications to our investors." Click here to read the full article. 

• Jennifer Caplan of CFO Magazine, a monthly journal for financial executives, picked up the Reuters piece and repeated Laura's quote: "I don't believe the climate for investors will get better until companies are encouraged to stop the hyperbole." The article ended on a positive note stating that the shareholder letter reveals corporate attitudes that offer investors important insights on the reliability of financial statements and footnotes.

• The highly-regarded National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed Laura in their New York studios for an upcoming piece on corporate governance. We expect a considerable distillation of the 45-minute interview which is due to run on NPR's Morning Edition. If you hear it before we do, please let us know. When correspondent Jack Speer suggested that looking at language was kind of "soft" and therefore suspect, Laura reminded him that the market often trades on soft data - like when Internet stocks traded on the basis of multiples to marketing expense. NPR serves a wide audience of 21 million Americans each week via more than 730 public radio stations, as well as through worldwide distribution.

• Wally Griffith, a producer for the financial news network, CNBC, conducted an on-site interview with Laura on the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley one year later. He seemed to agree with our premise that Sarbanes-Oxley is, at best, a band-aid for a major rupture. If this is the only response to our current crisis of confidence in trust and governance, then we will all be poorer in the end. The segment aired the week of August 5th.
   

• Known as the preferred magazine of retail investment professionals, Registered Rep. reported on andBEYOND's findings in the article, "Read Their Lips: How to Profit from Exec Speak." Laura was featured with Michael Macooby, the author of the Productive Narcissist and an expert on body language, attitude and psychology. The journalist, Ben Voyles, offered cutting-edge tips to brokers who have to rely on conventional and sometimes self-serving sell side research. Click here to read.

Upcoming Events

On August 13, Laura will join Lynn Brewer, author of House of Cards: Confessions of an Enron Executive, in a joint presentation to the Seattle Rotary Club entitled, "Breaking the Cycle of Corporate Corruption." Brewer, who blew whistles at Enron long before anyone cared to listen, learned about Tru$t from colleagues and wrote Laura about the chapter analyzing Enron's 2000 shareholder letter: Reading your analysis of Enron's shareholder letter was an eye-opener! I'm sad to say that it all made sense to us inside at the time, but after reading your analysis I had tears of laughter because I realized how brainwashed I had become. Yours is truly a voice of reason that seems to clarify the myopic view we develop once inside an organization. It speaks to the need for companies to have an outside perspective on how they really sound to the outside world.

• Also on the 13th, Laura will join Ms. Brewer and other national and local business and media personalities on the panel "Watergate, Enron and Coach Neuheisel: Is there a moral compass for public officials and business leaders?" The event, moderated by Seattle's former mayor Charles Royer, will be hosted by the Lynnwood Rotary Club and the Institute for Business Technology and Ethics.

 

Book Endorsements

National Investor Relations Institute

• In a previous update, we noted that Lou Thompson, President of the National Investor Institute (NIRI) recommended that Do Business with People You Can Tru$t be made available on NIRI's website bookstore. Click here for their endorsement.

• In June, Laura was invited to speak at the NIRI Annual Conference held in Kissimmee, Florida where she signed books and delivered a presentation entitled, "The Annual Report and Leadership Paradoxes." Laura shared the podium with moderator Margo Happer, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications of IDX Systems Corp., John Saia, Special Counsel for the SEC's Office of Financial Services, Kenneth Janke, Jr., AFLAC's Executive Vice President for Investor Relations (who brought ducks) and Alisa Zamir, Executive Director of Taylor & Ives, an annual report design firm. Slides from the presentation can be viewed here.

 

• Last year, Richard Kline, CEO of Mercury Energy in Canada called after reading Tru$t to tell us "This is the best business book I have read in a long time. It has changed the way I talk with my investors." True to his word, Mr. Kline began his 2002 letter to shareholders with this:

  Last October I read a book by Laura Rittenhouse entitled, “Do Business with People You Can Trust.” Her thesis is that you can learn a lot about a company through what its CEO conveys in his or her yearly report to shareholders. I strongly recommend you read this book and suggest you rate my quarterly update and annual report letters using Laura’s report card.

  Kline's 2002 letter was almost four times longer than his 2001 letter and candidly described the downs and ups of the oil and gas and distributed generation businesses in Alberta. People we know who read his letter ask how they can invest in Mercury Energy. Regrettably for them, it is privately held.

Rick invited Laura to speak at the Independent Power Producer's Association in Banff, Alberta, Canada last March. One of the attendees was so impressed with the message, he invited Laura to keynote the Ontario Power Association's annual meeting in Toronto in September.

We are truly honored to be acknowledged this way, and to Rick Kline, thank you for the glowing endorsement and your support in furthering our mission!