How Cava’s CFO handles investor relations communication

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There’s no “I” in team, but there is an “I” in investor relations.

And considering the amount of teamwork needed to craft a coherent narrative about your company’s financial story, you’d be excused for modifying the classic adage. There’s an “I” in investor relations, and there’s a lot of teamwork.

The one mistake you can make when it comes to investor communication is focusing only on the first half of that modified adage: Sure, you play a role as CFO, but this is a team sport.

For a crash course on best IR practices, we talked with Cava CFO Tricia Tolivar, who joined the company in 2020. She walked CFO Brew through her team’s typical investor communication workflow ahead of earnings, which she calls “a pretty well-oiled process.”

Spoiler: Effective IR communication takes a lot of careful planning and coordination.

All in the timing. Several weeks ahead of earnings day, Tolivar, along with the company’s CEO, the VP of marketing communications, the investor relations team, and “many others on the strategy team” all get together to develop a standard “cadence of communication,” she explained.

“We align on messaging and how we want to communicate externally, and then we just set up a regular cadence of communication,” Tolivar said. “It’s not a one week prior [situation]. It’s a thoughtful process throughout the quarter, and making sure that how we’re thinking about the business is clearly articulated to the community within Cava as well as externally.”

The key is keeping all relevant parties in the loop. Team sport, remember. “Also, part of the process ahead of time is making sure our executive team is fully involved as well, so the messaging is communicated,” Tolivar added. “We get feedback from them around what’s driving the business and how that may inform our communication and the messaging that we want to deliver.”

She also stresses the “I” in investor relations in a literal sense, recommending that CFOs talk to “as many investors as possible.”

“Not only talking to them, but listening [to] understand what they’re hearing in the market,” she continued. “I think it’s sometimes better to even ask them questions instead of having all the questions being asked of us, and you’ll be surprised at what you can learn through that process.”

Consistency is key. Outside of building an open, ongoing dialogue ahead of earnings, Tolivar also recommends CFOs acknowledge the importance of keeping internal and external communication consistent. At Cava, that task is “a partnership with [the C-suite/finance team] and communications.”

One thing that’s been working: When earnings are posted, Cava CEO Brett Schulman “shares a communication not only on his LinkedIn page but also internally to our team members,” she noted.

“We then support that with cadence and communication throughout all of our departments, and then at least once a quarter, our messaging on our town halls often reflects on what it is that we’re focused on from a strategic standpoint in the business, which ties to how we’re communicating about the business externally as well, so there’s tons of connectivity.”