Every three months, listed companies in India share their results. Each company also holds a call with analysts, the people at brokerages who study companies and advise investors. By the next morning, newspapers and TV channels have boiled all of it down to one headline.

The big question is simple. Who writes that headline: the company, or someone else?

Last week, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT company, gave us a good lesson in writing it yourself.

What happened???

TCS announced its results for July to September on 8 October. Profit was up 15% from a year ago. That is good news, but profit numbers come out every quarter and don’t really excite anyone.

So TCS gave the media something new. It said its business from artificial intelligence (AI) had grown to about $3.1 billion a year, up from $2.6 billion just three months earlier. That it is now more than a tenth of its total business.

That one number became the headline in paper after paper and on news site after news site.

TCS did not over push the narrative oversell. On the call, its CEO said demand from clients was still “selective and uneven”. In plain words: business is good in some areas and slow in others.

The same week, a second story broke. The US government said it was stopping several big IT companies, TCS among them, from using one of its green-card programmes for foreign workers. That could easily have become a worrying headline.

TCS answered within a day through a short note to the stock exchanges. It said it would follow the rules. It added one simple fact: it had filed fewer than ten such applications in the last two years. With that fact in hand, most reporters had their answer, and the story did not grow.

The lesson

I started my career as a reporter. When a company’s results land on a reporter’s desk, the first thing they look for is one fact they can put in the first line. If the company gives them one, they will usually use it. If not, they will find their own, and it may not be the one the company wanted.

For two years, almost every IT company has said AI is a “big opportunity”. Those are just words. A reporter cannot put “big opportunity” in a headline. TCS gave them a clear number and a clear change from the last quarter. That made it a story.

Being honest about the weak spots helped too. Journalists and analysts talk to many people. If a company paints too rosy a picture, they stop trusting it.

Four simple tips for any company
1. Pick your one number before results day. Decide which single figure tells your story best and put it in the first line of your press release.
2. Say the hard part plainly. If something is slow, say so in simple words. It makes the good news easier to believe.
3. Answer bad news fast, with a fact. A short, clear statement with one hard fact works better than a long, vague one. If you are a listed company, put it on the stock exchange too, so it is on record.
4. Think beyond English papers. Many of your shareholders and customers read Hindi and regional papers or watch business channels. Make sure those journalists get the same clear number, in their language.

A last thought

You do not have to be as big as TCS to do this. A small or mid-sized company can do exactly the same: one clear number, honest words, and a quick reply when trouble comes. It needs a little planning, not a big budget.

If you would like help preparing for your next results day or media interaction, the team at Finese PR will be happy to help. You can reach us at https://finesepr.com