Former Unilever CEO Paul Polman tweeted a link recently to research from McKinsey that was published over a decade ago. The paper, “The Misguided Practice of Earnings Guidance,” had an important conceit many business leaders have now come around to:
“Companies that currently provide quarterly earnings guidance should shift their focus away from short-term performance and toward the drivers of long-term company health as well as their expectations of future business conditions and their long-range goal.”
Next week is the official start of earnings season. And despite last year’s calls from Warren Buffet, Jamie Dimon, and the Business Roundtable that short-termism is hurting the economy – and ongoing research showing that when companies are more focused on long-term goals, they make better decisions for workers, customers, and profitability – we haven’t seen any changes or shifts in focus to that centerpiece of the financial markets, the quarterly earnings call.
That’s why we’re excited to unveil the first ever “Quarterly JUST Call”. Starting in November, on the heels of the release of our latest analysis and Rankings (and continuing every quarter thereafter) we’ll be hosting calls and TV appearances with JUST 100 CEOs to unpack their performance regarding how they are serving their workers, customers, communities, the environment, as well as their shareholders. We think it will become a pillar of the stakeholder economy. More details to come soon.
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