Eliminating Quarterly Earnings Guidance
Posted on May 25, 2007 Comments (1)
It is good to see more people understand the bad practice of excessive short term focus on quarterly profits. It is also a bit amusing to see the Chamber of Commerce pushing an idea Deming was called unrealistic for pushing.
The right way to handle a surprise:
Roughly a quarter of the companies in the S&P 500 have stopped giving guidance (or never started), including Berkshire Hathaway, Coca-Cola and Google. Check the investor-relations area of a company’s web site to see whether it plays what David Hirschmann of the Chamber of Commerce calls the “fool’s game” of earnings guidance.
Related: Management: Geeks and Deming – Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases of Western Management – Goodbye Quarterly Targets? – Distort the System
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February 17th, 2010 @ 10:28 am
[...] increased focus on short-term results, fueled by real- time media and quarterly analyst calls, can be a distraction for a railroad executive who needs to buy locomotives that run for 20 years [...]