The use of conference calls by corporations

Conference calls are used by almost all United States public corporations to report their quarterly results, usually also allowing questions from stock analysts. The format of the call begins with a disclaimer stating that anything said on the call may be a forward looking statement, and results may vary significantly. The CEO or CFO, or the Investor Relations officer then will read a report on how the company did that quarter. Finally the call will be usually opened up for questions from analysts. Calls frequently reference the concept called an accounting charge, where actual and predicted expenses from a certain event will be announced as one sum total, and subtracted from the bottom line, instead of continuously announcing future expenses from that same issue in later reports and calls. CEOs frequently use this as an excuse for alleged poor performance during a quarter, with a phrase like "Excluding the charge for Enron, we would have made $2.00 a share".

As anyone who's ever held an office job before knows, communication is of the utmost importance. Today's jobs revolve around the art of delegation, to which the sharing and distribution of information is key. This is true of large and small businesses alike, and those whose employees span any significant distance may benefit greatly from a regular conference call.

Allow me to demonstrate with an example: some years ago, I worked for a webhosting firm. We were an Internet company through and through; most of the employees knew each other through the Internet alone, and I myself never even met my boss, or co-workers! The Internet, however, just didn't provide the kind of clarity and organization that the company needed. The decision was made to organize a recurring company conference call.

The call took place once a week, and throughout it each employee would be called upon and asked about various projects they'd been working on. These status reports were useful for a number of reasons. First, they were useful because everyone in the company now knew what everyone else was doing. This was highly beneficial in many ways. For example: if one of the programmers was nearing the completion of a new feature, the promotional team could prepare an announcement to send to our clients. Or the support team could relay to the programmers which features and changes had been most often requested or suggested. The call always made sure that the right hand knew what the left hand was doing.

Second, the calls were useful because they increased accountability. While I cannot speak for the other employees, I know that my work definitely improved simply because I knew I would have to present it to everyone else on a weekly basis.

Third, the calls allowed those in charge to make their wishes absolutely clear. If there was a misunderstanding about a project or undertaking, it did not generally last very long.

Other potential uses include keeping in touch with clients who are located too far away to travel to, but still need ample amounts of personal attention. Or, more common, holding regular staff meetings when one or more of the employees is out of the office.