Make virtual and in-person options work effectively for you
In the post-Covid business landscape businesses find themselves operating within, many companies are retaining the virtual aspect of business activity that was imposed upon them during the pandemic. For Aston Martin, this rings true for its earning calls activity.
‘During the pandemic, we moved from holding physical analysts’ meetings in an auditorium on results day to hosting virtual meetings only, and this seems to be here to stay,’ explains Holly Grainger, deputy head of IR.
To offset the loss of the informal advantages that face-to-face engagement previously offered its physical meeting attendees, Aston Martin has implemented a new tactic, as Grainger outlines: ‘While virtual meetings have resulted in significant time savings for management teams and allow analysts to attend more than one event per day, they do deprive both buy-side and sell-side attendees of some of the informal access they used to get with management on the sidelines of the meeting. To try to compensate for this, we now create prerecorded video of our management team discussing results and ensure the IR team is readily available for follow-up questions.’
FedEx is also striving to ensure it brings something new to the earnings calls table by improving some methods and introducing new measures to others. ‘We are always innovating and trying new ideas,’ says the firm's Mickey Foster. ‘We are now meeting with our operating companies earlier in the process to better understand the why behind the numbers sooner. We have started using slides as part of the earnings call so that investors and analysts can better understand the numbers. We have also begun prerecording the earnings call remarks a few days before the call. This means the speakers can concentrate more on potential questions and answers.’
We now create prerecorded video of our management team discussing results and ensure the IR team is readily available for follow-up questions
But it’s not just new physical tools that can boost the effectiveness of earnings calls – it can be strategic approaches and thought processes, too. ‘For me, the earnings process is always ongoing,’ says Ford’s Lynn Antipas Tyson. ‘By attending internal strategy meetings and operating and financial reviews, as well as board meetings, I am constantly immersed in the business and competitive environment, thinking about how to position our progress in the quarter and beyond. I use a matrix of balancing tactical versus strategic and short versus long-term themes to determine the optimal balance of commentary, given our results.’
