Carnival CCO Chris Chiames: Why comms must learn about financial disclosure rules
Chiames speaks on the importance of understanding RegFD and other financial disclosure rules in the latest episode of Ragan Training’s “Signature Voices” series.
Communications leaders know that learning everything they can about their business makes them a better partner across the enterprise. While it’s tough to advocate for the communications function when you aren’t framing your outcomes in the wider context of the business, it’s just as tricky to show your value as a leader when you don’t know enough about the landscape you’re operating in to give reputationally-sound advice
According to Carnival Cruise Line Chief Communications Officer Chris Chiames, this starts to change when communicators stop treating financial regulations as a compliance checkbox
In the second episode of Ragan’s “Signature Voices” series, Chiames challenges communicators to get past the “I don’t do math” mentality and understand the various regulations that inform financial governance. He places an outsized emphasis on learning the Regulation Fair Disclosure rule (RegFD) for those in publicly-traded organizations, but urges those in the nonprofit and government sectors to learn the rules, too, should they one day work in a new industry.
“It’s an important data point to start with [because] it governs how you disclose information, when you can disclose it,” Chiames began. “Communicators need to be aware of… the elements of RegFD, because it really impacts how you communicate, when you can communicate.”‘
“There are periods before a quarterly earnings release when you’re in a quiet period,” he continued. “There might be a stock offering… all kinds of things happening in the organization that you cannot disclose publicly. Or if you do disclose information, you have a duty to update your shareholders and the public if the facts change.”
Chiames also shares examples of when he’s seen this lack of regulatory knowledge create additional risk for talkative execs in the full episode below.
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