The CEO skips the quarterly earnings call. Does it make a
difference?
There was only one thing missing from Procter & Gamble's
(PG) first-quarter fiscal 2014 earnings call on Friday morning: The CEO and
chairman of the company, A.G. Lafley. That was no surprise, as P&G had announced,
earlier in the week, that Lafley would no longer be participating in quarterly
earnings calls as the company tries to get off the hamster wheel of meeting or
missing quarterly expectations. Still, it was unusual to hear only the CFO, Jon
Moeller, during the Q&A: Analysts and journalists alike typically use this
period as a way in which to evaluate -- fairly or not -- the energy and morale
of the company through the proxy of its leader's voice.
It was hard to do that with Moeller, although, as a longtime
pro and steady hand, he did his job of providing the numbers quite well.
P&G -- which also has stopped providing quarterly guidance, following the
lead of competitor Unilever (UL), which stopped years ago -- reaffirmed its
full-year plans and posted organic sales up 4% and net sales up 2%, to $21.2
billion, roughly in line with expectations. Read more.
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