Competing For Capital

As corporations search for new production sites, governments compete furiously using location subsidies and tax incentives to lure them. Yet underwriting big business can have its costs: reduction in economic efficiency, shifting of tax burdens, worsening of economic inequalities, or environmental degradation. Competing for Capital is one of the first books to analyze competition for investment in order to suggest ways of controlling the effects of capital mobility. Comparing the European Union's strict regulation of state aid to business with the virtually unregulated investment competition in the United States and Canada, Kenneth P. Thomas documents Europe's relative success in controlling—and decreasing—subsidies to business, even while they rise in the United States. Thomas provides an extensive history of the powers granted to the EU's governing European Commission for controlling subsidies and draws on data to show that those efforts are paying off. In reviewing trends in North America, he offers the first comprehensive estimate of U.S. subsidies to business at all levels to show that the United States is a much higher subsidizer than it portrays itself as being. Thomas then suggests what we might learn from the European experience to control the effects of capital mobility—not only within or between states, but also globally, within NAFTA and the World Trade Organization as well. He concludes with policy recommendations to help promote international cooperation and cross-fertilization of ways to control competition for investment.

Praise for Competing for Capital "An indispensable guide for investor relations and communication counselors alike. With more individual investors in the market than ever before, this book makes navigating the new regulatory playing field much more possible--and makes clear the path to victory." --Michael W. Robinson Director, Levick Strategic Communications; Former Director of Public Affairs and Policy, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Director of Media Relations, NASD "More than simply writing a textbook on IR, Bruce Marcus shares his wealth of experience and critical viewpoint with those seeking to understand a fast-changing profession." --June Filingeri President of Comm-Partners LLC, Investor Relations Consultant, and Educator "Bruce Marcus puts some solid ground under the shifting landscape of being an investor relations professional. A must-read primer for public companies." --Robert C. Roeper Managing Director, VIMAC Ventures, LLC "As the song lyrics go, 'everything old is new again,' but this time with a vengeance. Disclosure has always been the touchstone of securities laws, but now more disclosure is required on a real-time basis with heightened accountability. Competing for Capital is a must-read for those in the securities industry, providing insights into securities markets, the information age and technology, and their impact on the job of investor relations professionals. Investors come in all shapes and sizes from around the globe, and investor relations personnel have their work cut out for them to provide clear, comprehensible, and comprehensive information, accessible to the novice and sophisticate alike. Competing for Capital shows them the way." --Donna L. Brooks, Esq. Partner, Shipman & Goodwin, LLP "Competing for Capital puts our recent turbulent financial marketplace in context, provides solid information for both new and experienced investor relations practitioners, and offers insights into the future of IR--all in Bruce Marcus's easy-reading style." --Dixie Watterson IR consultant, Communica Partners "Competing for Capital aptly illustrates how investor relations has become a major corporate responsibility in generating trust, and how the profession must realize now more than ever that the needs of investors have changed because of technology, regulation, and globalization." --Mark Kollar Managing Director, Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek

Executives say that people are their most important asset, but most don’t walk the talk. They don’t have systematic strategies for how to get the people they want to want them. They don’t have measures and metrics for how they are doing to be the employer of choice. They don’t hold leaders accountable regarding those ambitions. In many cases, this is because top leaders don’t have concrete tools to help them do what they know they should. This book fills that gap in three major sections. The first section supports with clear and compelling data what executives intuitively but somewhat superficially believe—that people are their most important asset. The second section provides a systematic process and set of tools to help leaders get the people they want to want them; it shows executives how to win the competition for human capital. The third section then helps leaders position people appropriately so that they can create a sustainable competitive advantage; its shows executives how to compete with human capital. When it comes to human capital, most books get it wrong. Strategy books place human capital to the side as an enabler of competitive advantage. HR books treat human capital as a support activity to business strategy. This book places human capital where it should be—not to the side and not as an enabler or a support activity, but at the center and as the source of competitive advantage.

The acknowledged bible on investor relations Investor relations is an essential facet of any publicly tradedcompany, inevitably affecting its stock price, investments, andliquidity. Maximizing Your Investor Relations provides practicalguidance needed to master this complex undertaking and advocatepersuasively on your company's behalf to achieve greaterrecognition and value. Comprehensive and thoughtful, it focuses oncontrolling the day-to-day mechanics of investor relations to moreeffectively compete for capital.

The battle of national, state, and local governments to attract investment has been a high priority for decades. For example, US state and local governments give almost $50 billion in location incentives and over $70 billion in total subsidies annually. Developing countries often pay even more for investments despite the fact they are less able to afford to do so. Using case studies from around the world, and at all levels of government, Thomas shows that investment incentives are rarely a good policy, especially for countries lacking education and an infrastructure. Finally, he analyzes the myriad methods of controlling incentives with an emphasis on the EU's comprehensive and largely successful state aid rules, illustrated by an extended case study of Ireland.