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So you’ve made it — you have taken your business public. It’s been a rollercoaster ride and you have put in the hard work. Now at last your ticker symbol is running across the screen. You and your team can be proud.

Once in the public spotlight, companies must change their focus from going public to being public. Management accountability shifts from a handful of investors to perhaps thousands of new owners, and scrutiny from securities regulators, governments, public stock exchanges, activist groups and shareholders becomes part of daily life. New management concerns include:

• pricing stabilization
• active trading support
• equity research analyst and media coverage
• increased exposure to risk
• implementing policies for inadvertent disclosure, insider trading and whistleblowing
• communications strategy
• shift in responsibilities of CEO and other senior management.

Newly-listed businesses must be aware of the risks they now face. These can include:

• presenting unexpected results to the market
• uncertainties associated with new initiatives, such as global expansion
• infrastructure and systems that cannot provide times and appropriate information to stakeholders
• non-compliance with the rules followed by public companies.

Exceptional enterprises proactively identify and manage these risks, resulting in a stronger, better managed business with more robust decision-making. This, in turn, exerts a stabilizing influence on operations, making a business more attractive to investors and accelerating its growth.

Download the "Essential guide to risk post IPO" (pdf, 348kb).