CEOs share plans, dreams at shareholder meetings

Another season of annual shareholder meetings have come and gone for the notable companies headquartered in Columbus, including Aflac, Synovus and TSYS.

Carmike Cinemas, which has yet to hold its annual meeting, will also be required at some point to schedule a “special” gathering of shareholders in its bid to be purchased by AMC Entertainment Holdings, which operates AMC Theatres. Shareholders must approve the $1.1 billion sale, as do federal agencies.

While the regulatory-required meetings do handle some official business — such as electing people to boards of directors, votes on executive compensation and approval of auditing firms — they typically are overviews of the past year and expectations for the current 12-month period. Comments from those in attendance are solicited, but rarely made unless the company is experiencing difficulties.

That said, here are a few points — not all of them serious — made by the chairmen and chief executive officers of the locally headquartered firms:

Synovus

It was obvious at the April 21 Synovus annual meeting that Chairman and CEO Kessel Stelling is enjoying his job more as the regional bank and parent company Columbus Bank and Trust has become more profitable following the severe U.S. recession.

Asked after the gathering about the new Atlanta office tower that his bank will inhabit by the summer or fall of 2017, Stelling said it will provide staffing continuity and offer visibility the company doesn’t have now because it is spread out across the Georgia capital. He said customers will also benefit.

Pressed on the proximity of the office building to the new Atlanta Braves stadium being constructed in Cobb County at the intersection of Interstates 75 and 285, the CEO acknowledged the location will come with unique brand presence — even taking a slight poke at banking rival SunTrust.

“Every time the blimp flies over SunTrust Park, I want it to see the Synovus letters right in the background” atop the office complex, joked Stelling before confiding he loves Synovus and what he is doing and isn’t planning on leaving the company anytime soon, job offer or otherwise.

TSYS

At the April 28 TSYS shareholder meeting, Chairman and CEO Troy Woods, as he often does, talked much about the fact that the world in which the credit-card and payments processor does business is constantly changing. And like the planet Earth itself, that won’t stop.

Woods, who has watched TSYS make major strides in recent years with the acquisitions of prepaid card firm NetSpend and merchant servicing firm TransFirst, also sounded like a man who wants even more for the 33-year-old company that does business around the globe. And he won’t take “no” or “it can’t be done” for an answer.

Specifically, the CEO pointed to his firm’s core business of handling credit-card transactions for issuers of plastic and the wave of mobile business now coming. He said to “exploit” the “immense growth potential” of selling value-added products and services to existing processing clients, there needs to be a focused momentum.

“Today, just under 18 percent of our issuer processing revenue comes from these value-added products and services,” Woods said. “We must improve this percentage and move it up by being proactive and delivering value in the form of next-generation products and services. To capitalize on this potential, we must transform how we deliver products and services. And we must improve the speed with which we deliver them to our clients and, ultimately, to the customers that they serve. And I can assure you we are well on the way to doing this.”

Aflac

As for Aflac, it’s not much of a surprise that Chairman and CEO Dan Amos literally adores the Aflac duck, which has propelled the supplemental health and life insurer to the upper reaches of brand awareness, comparing favorably with longtime campaigns by corporate heavyweights such as Coca-Cola.

At the company’s May 2 annual meeting, Amos pointed out that nine out of 10 people in the U.S. know the Aflac brand. Of course, much of that popularity is because of the long-running Aflac duck ad campaign.

That branding success translates as well to the Japanese market, where the insurer earns about three-quarters of its sales and more than 90 percent of the population know the company’s brand. Just as in the U.S., Aflac TV commercials and other advertising are common in Japan, where the firm insures one out of four households.

“Keep in mind that it costs a fortune to build a brand or find another duck — I hope there’s not another one out there,” said Amos, explaining that his company spends about $100 million a year on media advertising, compared to roughly $1.1 billion for property and casualty insurer Geico. Yet they both have a similar brand ad industry “buzz score,” he said.

Consulting firm Interbrand also values the Aflac brand at about $9.4 billion, the CEO said, making it among the top 50 global brands despite the Columbus company only doing business in the U.S. and Japan.

“God bless that duck,” Amos said during the annual meeting, drawing laughs from shareholders. “This is a powerful tool for our company. That’s just one of the reasons that I believe that it is my responsibility to protect that brand at all costs.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "CEOs share plans, dreams at shareholder meetings."