I’m all for improving corporate earnings announcements. But the push by Yahoo, Netflix and other companies to broadcast their earnings from a television studio, complete with a borrowed cable-tv newscaster, is a triumph of style over substance.
It’s not a great message to investors to say you’re plowing time and money into a made-for-tv earnings announcement while your company’s turnaround is still a work in progress. But that’s exactly what Yahoo is doing.
Most companies have plenty to do just to make the content of their earnings announcement understandable and informative. Often they are either jammed with impenetrable accounting language or larded with puffery.
A good earnings announcement should include things investors really care about, like:
- A concise statement of the company’s strategy and distinctive strengths
- The main factors that drove the quarter’s financial results
- The tangible progress made toward the company’s strategic and financial goals
- Significant risks, both in the near- and medium-term
- Major investments and their rationale
If you can do all that then, please, broadcast away.
Netflix, which is planning to post a video chat with CEO Reed Hastings discussing earnings with a panel, says it is taking inspiration from Warren Buffett, whose annual shareholder meetings are famously popular and include a panel Q&A. Of course, Buffett also publishes one of the most candid and readable letters in his annual report to shareholders. He has delivered on the substance, so he has earned the right to adopt whatever communication format he likes. He’s also Warren Buffet and wears a much bigger halo than just about any other CEO.
But until the CEO is in Buffett’s orbit, keep working on a clear and informative earnings announcement and steer clear of the television cameras.