Investor Relations

An important part of an corporations business plan is their investor relations and these relationships should be taken very seriously. Companies want to keep the media, public, clients, and customers up to date on current financial information within the company. American Express does a great job of keeping all these publics in the know and try to make the process as simple as possible. They issue an annual report which can be easily accessed on their web site. American Express starts off by explaining basic facts and figures such as total revenues, losses from operations, net income, and total assets. These is general information for people to know to quickly see how well the company has been doing. The report then briefly becomes a marketing piece as it explains how the corporation is changing with the times.

American Express wants people to understand that they realize times are changing so they need to change as well. They explain how they are offering new products and services to better adapt to current events. This is a great way for the company to attract new business and tell how they can help the public. They are given an opportunity to tell their story and AmEx takes full advantage of that. The company also makes their 10-k filling and proxy statement available on their web site for the public to view.

Letter's to shareholders from CEO's are extremely important because it is one of the few times shareholders hear directly from the person in charge. Companies should take full advantage of this opportunity and AmEx is a great example of doing just that. The letter starts off with a big thank you to shareholders for their continued business and trust. The note also explains what the company has been doing for the last year and how they plan to move forward in the future. This is important because it keeps people in the know and makes them feel like they know exactly what is going on. After reading the letter I think investors will feel like they better understand the company, its mission, and its management. The tone of the letter really is down to earth and lets people connect with the CEO. Overall you feel a sense of gratitude from the company and understand they are working hard for their customers. This letter is really a great example of how major corporations can connect with the general public.

American Express publishes all of their earning reports on the company web site for anyone to view. The offer viewers press releases, financial tables, earning supplements, and earning slides. Looking at the press releases the information is written so the general public can understand the material and the language is not too technical. Readers are able to see how the company is making money and how stable they are throughout the different quarters. The quotes offered by the CEO and other executives are well-written and believable. They are written so the public can hear from high level executives and the executives do a good job of summarizing the quarter and earnings. The company does not have to offer to much bad news but when they do they talk about how they are handling and how they plan to move forward in the future. They talk more about progress and development rather than focusing on the negative. Overall, AmEx wants the public to understand their company and have faith for the future.
American Express uses their annual reports, letters to shareholders, and news releases to keep the public informed about the company and their financial standing. This is important because it shows the public that they are not trying to hid things and want to keep their relationships moving forward into the future. Investor relations appear to be very important to American Express and the company does a great job of managing these relationships by keeping the public informed.

Community Relations

Community relations are extremely important for major corporations such as American Express. By being actively involved in the community a corporation shows the public they care about people and realize as a major organization it is there duty to give back to others. The public appreciates when corporations do their part to give back but giving back goes a lot further than writing a check. For example Disney has recently started a campaign that gives everyone the opportunity to help others and in return Disney will admit them to one of their parks at no cost. Check out this great example of a corporation doing something more than simply writing a check here.

When it comes to American Express they take their role in the community very seriously and do a great job of getting involved. Specifically they focus on preserving and enriching diverse cultural heritage, developing new leaders for tomorrow, and encouraging community service where their employees and customers live and work. By focusing on three specif areas they are able to participate in special events and help different communities in different ways. Because American Express is such a large corporation they invite others to help them help others. They ask for organizations (that fit into the criteria of their focus) to contact them and tell them why American express should help them out. For example, AmEx is a supporter of JA Worldwide which is an organization dedicated to educating students about entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial literacy. This is a great organization for AmEx to be involved with because they are a financial institution and one of the organizations goals is to help students better understand how to deal with finances.

American Express strives to serve its customers with the best customer service, best products, and accesses to the best events. Their mission to be the best goes along with their goal of helping others in the community. They realize in order to be the best they must help as many people as possible even if they are not card members. By sponsoring programs and events in the community they are showing the public that they want to give back and make the world a better place. This is in turn great PR for the company. It lets the public know they are doing their part to help others which makes us think highly as the corporation. They are showing the world that they are focused on more than making money.

One of AmEx's larger community relations campaigns involves Feeding America. Feeding America is an organzation that is committed to helping the hungry. They are constantly in need of support through financial donations and volunteers and American Express was willing to help them. American Express is focusing on the organization's Store Donation Program which recoveres perishable products that do not meet retailers standards but can still be consumed safely. AmEx is helping to fund the building of new stores so the organization can reach its goal of adding 2,00 new stores to the list of national partner sorts. With the help of AmEx Feeding America hopes to collect 148 million additional pounds of food each year. This is a great campaign for American Express to be associated with because it helps people all around the country just as AmEx serves customers all over America.

Overall I think American Express is doing a great job of fulfilling their community relations duties. They do not help every organization but rather focus on organizations they can relate to and believe in. This is important because they are able to focus their efforts on one area to make a large impact rather than helping random organizations all over the place. The only other thing I feel AmEx could do would be to start a foundation. The foundation could have one specific goal and that way employees at the company and the public would know exactly what the company was doing to help the community.