The 90-Day Delusion:
How Smart Leaders Escape the Earnings Treadmill
By Bryan J. Kaus
I planned to write about something else this week. Then I read an argument for scrapping quarterly earnings reports, and it stopped me cold.
Having lived through quarter-end madness inside a Fortune 500 company and invested through countless market cycles, I hold two conflicting truths: the reporting grind is brutal, but the transparency is invaluable. Anyone who's worked month-end or quarter-end knows the pressure—the late nights, the scramble to hit numbers, the temptation to manage for the next 90 days instead of the next decade.
The debate isn't really about whether we report every three months or every six. It's about something deeper: How do we give investors the clarity they need while building companies that last?
Why We Report (And Why It Still Matters)
Quarterly reporting wasn't designed to torture CEOs. When Congress passed the Securities Exchange Act in 1934, they required "periodic" disclosure because investors were flying blind. Companies shared information selectively, usually to favored insiders. By 1970, the SEC standardized the 10-Q form so everyone could compare apples to apples.
The goal wasn't bureaucracy—it was basic fairness. Before standardized reporting, market manipulation thrived in the shadows. Quarterly reports brought business performance into the light.
Sidebar: Former Players Who Built the Rules
Joseph P. Kennedy (first SEC chair): A 1920s market operator who knew every trick in the book - then spent the 1930s closing loopholes
William McChesney Martin (Fed chair, 1951-70): Former NYSE president who coined "take away the punch bowl" while imposing central bank discipline
Gary Gensler (current SEC chair): Ex-Goldman partner who pushed derivatives trading into the open after 2008
It's a pattern as old as business itself: the people who know where the cracks are often become the ones who seal them.
What Great Leaders Do (Regardless of Requirements)
Whether you report quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, excellent leadership looks the same. The best operators I've observed follow five principles:
1. Tell One Story, Not Two
Don't compartmentalize short-term results and long-term strategy. Every quarterly report should connect current performance to your 3-5 year plan. Yes, share the required numbers on schedule. But anchor everything to your bigger priorities: how you allocate capital, your return on invested capital trajectory, customer retention rates, innovation pipeline, and key operational metrics.
Use each reporting period to show progress against that blueprint, not as a standalone snapshot.
2. Focus on Drivers, Not Just Decimals
If you give guidance, emphasize ranges and the underlying business drivers—units sold, customer acquisition costs, retention rates, capacity utilization. Help investors understand what moves your business, not just what the final numbers look like.
De-emphasize precise forecasts that pull attention to the wrong timeline. Investors don't need you to predict earnings to the penny; they need to understand how your business works.
3. Align Pay with What You Preach
If you say you're building for the long term, prove it with compensation. Weight executive pay toward multi-year returns, free cash flow, and stock performance measured over 3-5 years. Include meaningful clawback provisions and require executives to hold stock after it vests.
Reserve part of compensation for operational resilience—safety records, cybersecurity posture, environmental performance, system uptime. Publish your capital allocation framework annually, then show how each quarter's decisions fit that policy.
4. Use Technology to Reduce Noise, Not Accountability
AI can help automate reconciliations, flag anomalies, and draft initial reports. This should free finance teams to analyze trends instead of just assembling data. But faster reporting should mean better insights, not looser controls.
Technology should make transparency easier, not less rigorous.
5. Teach Investors How to Read You
Consistency is a choice. Keep your key metrics stable, your time horizons explicit, and your tradeoffs honest. When you say, "We're investing heavily in R&D this quarter, which will pressure margins but expand capacity next year," stick to that narrative.
Over time, the market learns your playbook and attracts the right shareholders - those who share your timeline and risk tolerance.
The Real Problem Isn't Frequency
Short-term pressure is real. I've watched worthy long-term projects get shelved because they'd hurt the current quarter's numbers. But the solution isn't less reporting - rather, it's better context.
Investors don't need perfection; they need visibility. They want to understand your business model, see consistent progress against your strategy, and trust that you're building something durable. That trust comes from pairing timely, accurate data with a clear long-term roadmap.
The companies that master this balance don't just survive earnings seasons—they use them as opportunities to reinforce their strategic narrative and attract patient capital.
The Point Taken
Cadence is secondary. Clarity is primary. Whether you report quarterly or semi-annually, pair timely numbers with consistent long-term thinking.
Incentives drive attention. When compensation and communication reward multi-year value creation, near-term results become milestones, not the destination.
Leadership means holding both truths. Execute the 90-day cycle with discipline while keeping your company pointed toward the horizon with conviction.
Keep the light on. Use the lens wisely.