Ann: EOS to Undertake Strategic Review, page-15

There is only one paragraph in this announcement that provides any clues about why a strategic review is being conducted. This one:


My interpretation of the language is this:

• discussions underway relating to funding options for SpaceLink – we are having trouble finding the money
• assessing opportunities to accelerate growth in the Defence and Space divisions – tempus fugit and we are worried about losing our bandwidth allocation
• scale of the SpaceLink funding commitment, conflicting demands on capital and the linkages with EOS shareholder value – we are completely out of ideas

A timely strategic review is a good thing. This one is recklessly late. It should have been started early in 2021 to test and validate the Spacelink plan and decide how it would best fit with the rest of EOS. Professional senior management recognise when a strategic review is necessary. Amateur senior managers who have built their businesses from the ground up and risen to the top along with it often resist external strategic input. They feel like they must have all the answers, that having to ask directions brings their competence into question, and their egos are stung by views that differ from their own.

I suspect that Neil Carter moving on is related to this development. Either he got sick of butting heads with the old guard and left, or he hasn't been able to deliver on strategy and the old guard chucked him.

Time is terribly short. The consultants are going to have to work around the clock on this one!