Nice presentation, Al. I thought you ended with an interesting quote, "sunlight is the best disinfectant." I think that nicely sums up the ideas put forth in the readings.
This week I also interviewed my resident expert on financial statements (my husband) and I asked why these reports seem overly complicated. "I guess that's just the way it has always been" was his reply. But like you said in your presentation, perhaps we can still improve the way financials are reported so that they are more tangible to the average investor. Did you ask your interviewee about your ideas for better financial communication? Did she have any ideas?
On a technical side note, your voice is a bit soft on the Voice Thread presentations. I could hear you once I used headphones and upped my volume to the top, but maybe next time check your microphone?
As always, Mr. Arizmendez, I'm so impressed with you and your efforts. I thought this was very interesting and informative. Personally, I am not a numbers person but feel more informed after your presentation. It was interesting to learn that benchmarks are calculated not only by current reportings but by historical reportings, as well. However, that does make a lot of sense.
I, too, found Seeking Alpha to be quite helpful, as it appears to be a useful tool to look inside a company's financial reporting. Or is it? As you said Ms. Homan expressed that investors look/listen for cues as to what is really being reported. Would the lay person be able to identify such cues, and for that reason, is Seeking Alpha or any of the other resources making the company be completely transparent? If they could, would companies try to hide assets or skew performance reporting, either in hopes of the company performing better or for corporate greed?
Again, this was a great presentation. Thank you for sharing, and like Courtney, I, too, thought "Sunlight is the best disinfectant" to be a very interesting quote. Perhaps an organization could use that slogan as part of a CSR campaign. What better way to give back to the community than by being completely honest/transparent?
Thanks for the words. I must have gotten pretty excited about our group project and that got me very voicethread-ed.
That's a very interesting point you bring up about S.A. I wonder if there has been research as to the language and cues. I just pulled a recent google scholar article on use of language and Alan Greenspan (Abe, 2011), so maybe there is a research paper waiting to get out!
Yep, that Brandeis quote was so far ahead of its time. Maybe we suggest it in our final group paper project?
References
Abe, J.A.,(2011). Changes in Alan Greenspan’s Language Use Across the Economic Cycle: A Text Analysis of His Testimonies and Speeches. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 30(2) 212-223
Thanks, I've always liked that Brandeis quote and wanted to use it somewhere! Initially, I was a bit hesitant about its appropriateness, perhaps being too glib or flippant, but as I was reading the copy , it did seem to fit together.
I did ask my interviewee about other ways to improve understanding financials, and she said that most of the inroads to clarity if information seemed to be regarding mandated portions of consumer info (like credit card statement information). She didn't offer any suggestions, but seemed to agree with the general concept I laid out: I could see someone like Erin Burnett or Ashleigh Banfield in a 3-D CNBC studio working the numbers/graphs on transparent windows that cross dissolve into video of an actual worker operation (relevant to that industry). Would be cool-looking and attention grabbing.
To your husband's point, I'd be willing to bet that the average investor might be more educated and therefore more interested in equities, perhaps investing more or increasing their dollar cost average for themselves and their family.
Technically, yes, I was speaking so low. My daughter was asleep in the next room and I tend to have really loud voice (a result of a "slight" loss of hearing from DJing). I was crashing on this before deadline, and I only had one take to record this with my USC headphones, so I must have really overcompensated.
Now,if just had David Tinsley's radio voice (or his VO services) I might have nailed it!
Al! You are embarrassing me!!!! But I do appreciate the compliment. My "vocal presentation" is one of the skills in my "bag of tricks" that I do not get to utilize much anymore, which is a bit sad for me. So I just talk to myself in my best "radio voice" in the shower everyday! (TMI!) LOL!!!! All joking aside, your presentation really was superb!
Nice presentation, Al. I thought you ended with an interesting quote, "sunlight is the best disinfectant." I think that nicely sums up the ideas put forth in the readings.
ReplyDeleteThis week I also interviewed my resident expert on financial statements (my husband) and I asked why these reports seem overly complicated. "I guess that's just the way it has always been" was his reply. But like you said in your presentation, perhaps we can still improve the way financials are reported so that they are more tangible to the average investor. Did you ask your interviewee about your ideas for better financial communication? Did she have any ideas?
On a technical side note, your voice is a bit soft on the Voice Thread presentations. I could hear you once I used headphones and upped my volume to the top, but maybe next time check your microphone?
As always, Mr. Arizmendez, I'm so impressed with you and your efforts. I thought this was very interesting and informative. Personally, I am not a numbers person but feel more informed after your presentation. It was interesting to learn that benchmarks are calculated not only by current reportings but by historical reportings, as well. However, that does make a lot of sense.
DeleteI, too, found Seeking Alpha to be quite helpful, as it appears to be a useful tool to look inside a company's financial reporting. Or is it? As you said Ms. Homan expressed that investors look/listen for cues as to what is really being reported. Would the lay person be able to identify such cues, and for that reason, is Seeking Alpha or any of the other resources making the company be completely transparent? If they could, would companies try to hide assets or skew performance reporting, either in hopes of the company performing better or for corporate greed?
Again, this was a great presentation. Thank you for sharing, and like Courtney, I, too, thought "Sunlight is the best disinfectant" to be a very interesting quote. Perhaps an organization could use that slogan as part of a CSR campaign. What better way to give back to the community than by being completely honest/transparent?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMs.Dulyea,
DeleteThanks for the words. I must have gotten pretty excited about our group project and that got me very voicethread-ed.
That's a very interesting point you bring up about S.A. I wonder if there has been research as to the language and cues. I just pulled a recent google scholar article on use of language and Alan Greenspan (Abe, 2011), so maybe there is a research paper waiting to get out!
Yep, that Brandeis quote was so far ahead of its time. Maybe we suggest it in our final group paper project?
References
Abe, J.A.,(2011). Changes in Alan Greenspan’s Language Use Across the Economic Cycle: A Text Analysis of His Testimonies and Speeches. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 30(2) 212-223
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteThanks, I've always liked that Brandeis quote and wanted to use it somewhere! Initially, I was a bit hesitant about its appropriateness, perhaps being too glib or flippant, but as I was reading the copy , it did seem to fit together.
I did ask my interviewee about other ways to improve understanding financials, and she said that most of the inroads to clarity if information seemed to be regarding mandated portions of consumer info (like credit card statement information). She didn't offer any suggestions, but seemed to agree with the general concept I laid out: I could see someone like Erin Burnett or Ashleigh Banfield in a 3-D CNBC studio working the numbers/graphs on transparent windows that cross dissolve into video of an actual worker operation (relevant to that industry). Would be cool-looking and attention grabbing.
To your husband's point, I'd be willing to bet that the average investor might be more educated and therefore more interested in equities, perhaps investing more or increasing their dollar cost average for themselves and their family.
Technically, yes, I was speaking so low. My daughter was asleep in the next room and I tend to have really loud voice (a result of a "slight" loss of hearing from DJing). I was crashing on this before deadline, and I only had one take to record this with my USC headphones, so I must have really overcompensated.
Now,if just had David Tinsley's radio voice (or his VO services) I might have nailed it!
Al! You are embarrassing me!!!! But I do appreciate the compliment. My "vocal presentation" is one of the skills in my "bag of tricks" that I do not get to utilize much anymore, which is a bit sad for me. So I just talk to myself in my best "radio voice" in the shower everyday! (TMI!) LOL!!!! All joking aside, your presentation really was superb!
ReplyDelete