| [00:01.592] |
Well, I now know to take all this talk about the importance of communication skills seriously. |
| [00:07.280] |
I used to think it was all rather woolly, |
| [00:10.105] |
but when you've seen the damage misunderstandings can do. |
| [00:13.672] |
I suppose the board was a grouping of people with such strong backgrounds individually |
| [00:18.512] |
that each of them expected to be top dog, |
| [00:21.216] |
and that it was perhaps inevitable |
| [00:23.088] |
that they'd clash over what direction the company should go in. |
| [00:26.817] |
Anyhow, |
| [00:27.465] |
it looked very grim for a while but, |
| [00:29.601] |
in the end, |
| [00:31.056] |
two of them took the pretty sizeable payoffs they were offered and moved on. |
| [00:35.264] |
From our point of view, |
| [00:36.656] |
at least it saved us from the prospect of the group being split up |
| [00:39.616] |
and the shares sold off. |
| [00:41.232] |
We were all extremely glad to see the back of that particular episode in the company's history. |
| [00:47.521] |
I know there's quite a trend to constantly reviewing your sourcing in the search for cost savings, |
| [00:53.776] |
but it was crazy to move over to such an untried firm. |
| [00:57.056] |
The trouble was we were getting nearly all our parts from them, |
| [01:01.353] |
so everything was leaving the factory here with faulty components, |
| [01:04.873] |
with appalling results. |
| [01:07.112] |
We should have listened to the consultants, |
| [01:09.184] |
but on this one we thought we knew better. |
| [01:11.416] |
It got so bad that predatory offers were being made for the division, |
| [01:16.320] |
and we had to think hard about how to save the brand's reputation. |
| [01:20.313] |
Raising fresh capital through new shares was the right way to go |
| [01:24.185] |
and enabled us to cover the losses we made in sales. |
| [01:27.704] |
|
