How unfortunate that most capital market stakeholders which include but not limited to the traders, analysts, investors, managers and regulators compared the business operations and financial performance of the public companies for the years ended 2019 and 2020 despite the unprecedented pandemic-driven economic crisis that wreaked havoc on business activities. How could someone with a rational investor mindset compare the pandemic-threatened 2019 with the pandemic-centric 2020? Although these years are poles apart and not comparable by any measurable metric or acceptable standard, most capital market stakeholders tolerated the sequential growth analysis without regard to the comparability of accounting information. Through the digital media platforms such as apps, blogs and websites and the traditional media platforms such as print, banner and broadcast, the financial press compared and reported the business operations and financial performance of the public companies for the years ended 2019 and 2020. Comparability refers to an accounting information quality that makes the financial statement comparable. An accounting information that is prepared using the same measurement procedures and reported using the same reportorial standards is considered comparable. Although the sequential growth analysis for the years ended 2019 and 2020 was prepared using the same measurement procedures and reported using the same reportorial standards, the results cannot be considered comparable. The pandemic-threatened 2019 should be considered as a normal period while the results should be considered as a normal growth but the pandemic-centric 2020 should be considered as an extraordinary period while the results should be considered as an extraordinary loss. The pandemic-centric 2020 was a period in which cost and expense mitigation and elimination were implemented to conserve cash position, manage debt obligations, renegotiate contract terms, reduce business operations, lower manpower headcount and suspend capital expenditures among others. Most public companies went on an unusual survival mode in which business operations were relegated to bare minimum rather than the usual competition mode in which business operations were geared to maximum capacity. Although the infectious disease and public health experts have been warning us for years that a pandemic involving an infectious respiratory disease virus is a plausible scenario, the low‐frequency and high‐impact characteristics of a pandemic makes it an extraordinary period that we should consider as an unpredictable event with adverse consequences. We believe that the pandemic-centric 2020 should not be considered in a sequential growth analysis to ensure an apples to apples rather than apples to oranges comparability of accounting information.
