I appreciate a spirited debate. I believe that engaging in conversations with others is a fantastic way to both learn new things, and to clarify one’s own ideas. For example, I have noticed that I use the phrase “de facto” in my verbal conversations as well, a trait that I will change because I don’t believe it adds anything to what I say and may actually be weakening the points I try to make with others. (I also say “At the end of the day…” far too often, but that is proving a hard habit to break.)

I am sorry that you feel I have put words in your mouth. I apologize sincerely for that. I know I hate it when people do it to me.

So, I will just say, thank you for your comments. I do appreciate them, and I am glad to have a reader who cares so passionately for this issue.

All I am saying is that your post said things that were not true or substantiated.

Please stop putting words in my mouth and making this about anything more than getting facts straightened out.

You’re written more in your comments than in the post itself.

At this time, I’m not sure what it is that you are trying to say. It sounds like you agree that Investor Relations pages should whenever possible be linked from the front page of a corporate website instead of hidden behind other links.

If what you are saying is that I’m not allowed to encourage companies and their employees to keep their front page links or to move such links to the front page, then I must respectfully disagree. Good ideas are good ideas whether you have a PhD or not, or whether you have done a 500+ company survey or not. I drew on my own personal experience that finding Investor Relations information can be frustrating at times, and that more often than not, such information was in one of two places if not on the front page.

Either way, thanks for reading, and I look forward to your comments in the future.

(By the way, it looks like there is some sort of time error on the comments. Did you post the same comment twice at different times, or did the system here confuse the times?)

Bank of America’s IR site is not accessed via “Contact Us.” It is accessed via “About Bank of America” in the top navigation bar.

Our surveys of 535 IR websites finds that 90% of companies have a visible link to “Investor Relations” on their homepages. That means 10% do not, and you have listed a few of them. Almost all of those that do not have a direct link to IR will place IR under “About Us.” We have never seen primary access provided via “Contact Us,” which you said was “common.”

The premise of your post was that companies were generally not making access to IR information prominent on their IR homepages. But that isn’t true. While I (and 90% companies) agree that it is not good practice to make access to IR difficult, many of the 10% of companies not providing access to IR on their homepages will provide you with good reasons for their practices.

Your post was not based on sound research and made claims that are not supported by the facts. That’s why I corrected the post.

I am dismayed that my turn of phrase caused you to draw a different meaning from what I hoped would be a gentle wake up call to those who are responsible for investor relations to both defend their position on the homepage if they currently have one, and to fight for such a spot if they do not.

The remainder of the post is meant to address some of the common objections that might arise to such a premise. The ComEd example is meant to show that a homepage can have a prominent Investor Relations link without adding clutter or interfering with the important “business” of the page.

The hypothetical investors described toward the end are meant to answer the objection that it doesn’t matter where the Investor Relations section is because everyone already knows where to look.

And finally, an acknowledgment of the realities of the business world in which a highly visible item like a company’s homepage cannot be changed on a whim, so that if one agrees that a move to the homepage is the right thing to do, then the time to lay the groundwork for such a move is now.

Hopefully that helps clear things up.