Not anymore.
Over the last year, public company executives have been increasingly using a variety of platforms to disseminate their own earnings call key messages.
That’s what Alcoa (AA) CEO Klaus Kleinfeld does – with Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Mad Money.
Salesforce (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff does too.
ONLINE
Unfortunately, most companies don’t have that sort of access.
Instead, they look online.
As discussed in a previous post, Zillow (Z) uses its earnings call to transition its offline earnings results Q&A to a post-call online discussion. This gives management another chance to provide more color and communicate key messages.
Also, as previously discussed, the CFO of Ford (F) often takes post-call earnings related questions from the StockTwits online investor community. This provides an added level of transparency.
Taking a more traditional path, Twitter (TWTR) CEO Dick Costolo typically talks to the media about earnings results after the conclusion of his call. This past quarter he did so with online site Business Insider.
And in an interesting new twist, micro-cap Flux Power (FLUX) chose to communicate its key earnings messages by hosting a week–long, open, online Q&A in place of its quarterly call to discuss results directly with investors.
This is remarkably similar to what CatalystIR CEO David Collins and I did with great success with one of his clients many years back.
NON-EARNINGS RELATED ONLINE APPEARANCES
Companies are now making their CEOs more available on a variety of online platforms throughout each quarter to discuss their businesses.
TheStreet.com is enjoying the fruits of this phenomenon with a host of recent CEO interviews (here and here).
Online social community site Reddit is another beneficiary of CEO availability having recently landed a crowd-sourced AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
There’s also Facebook (FB).
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly used his own Facebook platform to host public Q&As to discuss his business (here and here).
And finally, there’s an excellent example for small-cap companies looking to spread both their earnings and non-earnings messages.
A Canadian company recently used a press release to highlight a Q&A between its IR director and other senior management. This is a simple and effective way to communicate key messages.
CONCLUSION
Public companies are making a more concerted effort to discuss earnings results and their businesses outside of traditional quarterly calls. They’re using a variety of online platforms to communicate key earnings and non-earnings messages.
It’s conceivable public companies will one day discard earnings calls altogether and simply conduct crowd-sourced quarterly results Q&A discussions online.
Thanks to greater demand for online opportunities to share key messages we might be moving in that direction faster than we think.
Over the last year, public company executives have been increasingly using a variety of platforms to disseminate their own earnings call key messages.
In a noisy world, especially during earnings season, this makes perfect sense.
Oftentimes, analysts and investors walk away from earnings calls with different conclusions than what management hoped to convey.
Post-call appearances allow executives another opportunity to impart their own key takeaways and potentially correct any misperceptions.
TV
Oftentimes, analysts and investors walk away from earnings calls with different conclusions than what management hoped to convey.
Post-call appearances allow executives another opportunity to impart their own key takeaways and potentially correct any misperceptions.
TV
Some public company executives go on television.
That’s what Alcoa (AA) CEO Klaus Kleinfeld does – with Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Mad Money.
Salesforce (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff does too.
ONLINE
Unfortunately, most companies don’t have that sort of access.
Instead, they look online.
As discussed in a previous post, Zillow (Z) uses its earnings call to transition its offline earnings results Q&A to a post-call online discussion. This gives management another chance to provide more color and communicate key messages.
Also, as previously discussed, the CFO of Ford (F) often takes post-call earnings related questions from the StockTwits online investor community. This provides an added level of transparency.
Taking a more traditional path, Twitter (TWTR) CEO Dick Costolo typically talks to the media about earnings results after the conclusion of his call. This past quarter he did so with online site Business Insider.
And in an interesting new twist, micro-cap Flux Power (FLUX) chose to communicate its key earnings messages by hosting a week–long, open, online Q&A in place of its quarterly call to discuss results directly with investors.
This is remarkably similar to what CatalystIR CEO David Collins and I did with great success with one of his clients many years back.
NON-EARNINGS RELATED ONLINE APPEARANCES
This apparent move toward increased CEO appearances post-quarterly results to communicate key messages to investors stretches beyond earnings.
Companies are now making their CEOs more available on a variety of online platforms throughout each quarter to discuss their businesses.
TheStreet.com is enjoying the fruits of this phenomenon with a host of recent CEO interviews (here and here).
Online social community site Reddit is another beneficiary of CEO availability having recently landed a crowd-sourced AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
There’s also Facebook (FB).
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly used his own Facebook platform to host public Q&As to discuss his business (here and here).
And finally, there’s an excellent example for small-cap companies looking to spread both their earnings and non-earnings messages.
A Canadian company recently used a press release to highlight a Q&A between its IR director and other senior management. This is a simple and effective way to communicate key messages.
CONCLUSION
Public companies are making a more concerted effort to discuss earnings results and their businesses outside of traditional quarterly calls. They’re using a variety of online platforms to communicate key earnings and non-earnings messages.
It’s conceivable public companies will one day discard earnings calls altogether and simply conduct crowd-sourced quarterly results Q&A discussions online.
Thanks to greater demand for online opportunities to share key messages we might be moving in that direction faster than we think.
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