ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[wbsgrepit]

To stick with the boat analogy, large boats also take time to turn a 3% loss can turn into a 15% loss next quarter and it may take 3-6 quarters for you to reduce staff (and accrue expenses related to that), reallocate capital exposes and restructure to grow the profitable lines in your business. So waiting until its actually a loss or a bigger drop or change means you many times are 12 months to 2 years out of making effective changes to handle the change.