Chile-headquartered retailer Falabella is rated as Latin America’s best-managed company in this year’s survey of analysts. The Chilean retailer has been expanding its operations throughout the region and is typical of the increasingly common phenomena of multi-Latina organizations. However, Alejandro González, Falabella’s CFO, says that the company has deliberately avoided taking a regional approach to its investor relations strategy. "The retail business is mainly a local business," he says. "One can plan globally but you must act locally in order to succeed. This implies that our business in Argentina, Colombia and Peru is similar to the one in Chile, yet there are differences – for example culture and weather – that must be considered when explaining the performance of our company to the market."
However, despite this philosophy the company has recently introduced a newly created position of head of investor relations to increase the quality of the interaction with an analyst community that is constantly evolving and demanding more information. "There are more and better-qualified analysts, which has translated into a higher demand for greater quality of information, says González, who also says that the company applies the same emphasis on service quality in regard to investor relations as it applies in its retail strategy.
