Any financial professional knows the value of keeping investors happy – whether it’s the institutions with opinions on your cashflow, or internal sources of funding mulling a next project. But in tough times media events can turn NPV and IRR from hockey sticks into sine waves. What drives your decisions during a storm?

Answer: information. Even a bad media story can be neutralised if anticipated and communicated properly. Because today, maximising share price and NPV depend as much on winning over opinion as on sound financial management. So gathering that information is i.d’s first job with you. Measuring strength of opinion, working out its drivers, and finding ways to influence it.

Gathering the right information can drive valuable tools. Valuation modelling: would what happen if public opinion on a topic could be turned? Reputational drivers: what’s the risk of not having a policy on one topic? And of course finding opportunities. It all starts with the information.