May « 2010 « Nesmith's Notes

Just Say No to Earnings Guidance

Joseph Fuller and Michael C. Jensen are suggesting that managers begin discussing their business’ strategy and get out of the earnings guidance game. In their recent paper, Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game, they tell managers to stay away from earnings guidance and provide information about strategic goals, main value drivers, the risks associated with these drivers and how management intends to address these risks.

They see earnings guidance often results in a no-win game, with expectations met only by abandoning long-term strategy and destroying value in search of short term EPS goals set by folks outside the corporate halls.

management transparency

17May

Global Reporting Initiative Certification

I just received my GRI G3 reporting certification from the course I took last week. The course was delivered in Colorado for the first time due to the efforts of CORE with support from Deloitte. Lead, out of Canada, provided the training based on materials from the Global Reporting Initiative.

The instructor was well informed, as were the 26 attendees. Lively discussion, along with some good and some not so good exercises provided us all with a great understanding of the G3 framework and the processes companies should put in place to engage stakeholders, prioritize initiatives, disclose results, share goals and increase sustainability through management processes and transparency.

Global Reporting Initiative
The Sustainability Reporting Framework – of which the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines are the cornerstone – provides guidance for organizations to disclose their sustainability performance. It is applicable to organizations of any size or type, and from any sector or geographic region, and has been used by thousands of organizations worldwide as the basis for their sustainability reporting.

Efficiency, Energy, Environment, GHG, governance, GRI