Coca Cola is following Warren Buffett’s lead and putting an end to issuing quarterly earnings forecasts. The Motley Fool’s take is that this makes sense as a measure to take the focus off of the constant pressure of focusing on the current quarter and actually returning to building for the long term. One of my great complaints for years has been the focus among businesses on quarterly results to the exclusion of everything else. Hopefully this will enable Coca Cola to build a better business and provide an example to companies in other industries (particularly the high tech industry) to drop their earnings forecasts as well. Unfortunately, Microsoft, the leading company in high tech, is absolutely masterful at manipulating the market by lowballing its forecasts and doctoring its revenue results to consistantly beat estimates every single quarter. I imagine that’s a habit that would be hard to kick.