How to successfully communicate good and bad financial results

Paavo Siimann, Karita Sall and Janno Toots agree that press releases are still a good way to talk about company progress.photo: Mike Crumey

Press releases must be silent and it is not worth hiding bad data, as this often damages the company, communications experts say in the latest “Focus Financial News” program, in which you will hear success stories and lessons learned sharing good and bad news with the public and employees.

Karita Sall, PR manager at startup Veriff, believes that numbers alone are not enough when communicating results to the public. “Beyond the number, there has to be an explanation of what it means in your field, and you have to give an estimate. Numbers alone don’t tell the story, and telling the story is actually the purpose of publishing financial results.”

“You shouldn’t bury your head in the sand if the results aren’t what you expected,” says Saar. “Trying to hide bad numbers behind a positive narrative can actually lead to worse results.”

Janno Toots, head of communications agency Corpore, mentioned Bolt as a good example of a company that has taken the initiative to share and comment on its results in the media. “They have been talking about going public for years and this is the first step to being ready for the stock market,” he said, referring to the regular release of financial results.

If the company needs to save money and lay off employees during difficult times, this communication must also be carefully considered. In this case, it is better to accept some media interviews, manage the news yourself and avoid speculation. But you must start with employees: if they first learn about the company’s fate from the media, then something is wrong.

Tune in to hear about the difference between delivering news with a positive and negative tone. As the annual reporting deadline approaches, we also share advice for using this communication channel effectively.

It’s about whether and how to arrange media communications, what techniques to use for internal communications, and who would make a good spokesperson.

The host is Paavo Seeman.