It’sinteresting just how subjective, views on management of a...

It’sinteresting just how subjective, views on management of a company can be –especially those companies that are at an infancy stage of their existence orbusiness model. The Bard AI results (mentioned in an earlier post) seemed to suggest that Redwood had astronger management team than NMT based on its CEO being an ex-Tesla executive (actuallya co-founder). Quite bizarre to assess the strength of a management team basedon what a single individual in the management team used to work for. Bard AIignored the fact that quite a few of Redwood’s execs are ex-Tesla. Is that agood thing? Who knows at this point in time! I’m sure that there would be aschool of thought (certainly amongst academics) that suggests diversity ofbackground is important in a management team. Some may argue that competitionwithin the Automotive industry is that strong that certain auto groups wouldhave a prejudice towards ex-Tesla execs. My personal view is that making anassessment of the strength of a management team of a company in the infancystage of development of a new industry (which is essentially where both Redwoodand NMT are) is meaningless. This is a new frontier industry. The strength ofmanagement teams will be determined by short-medium term results and howhiccups along the way are addressed (and yes mistakes are often made when itcomes to developing a new industry from scratch – Bard AI’s commentary onRedwood/NMT comparisons is testament to that).

Similarly,ridradny’s (“FLOG”) comments about management salaries is, in my view,just as perplexing. I recall literally skimming through the remunerationsection of NMT’s Annual Report late last year as nothing seemed controversial(the voyeuristic side of me usually has me drilling down on compensationdetails but NMT’s seemed reasonable). Putting exec remuneration (in particularsalaries) in perspective I think you’ll find quite a few small-mid cap ASXcompanies with similar salary packages (albeit with not as many executives).NMT CEO’s salary is approximately 20% of the median salary of CEOs of ASX300companies ($2.7m). Would love to know how the conclusion of “fat salaries” wasreached.

I’dalso be curious as to why FLOG views executive mining experience so negatively.I like the idea of such broader experience and having listened to countlesspodcasts and interviews regarding the sector I believe that the CEO’s miningexperience has enabled him to take a much broader and detailed view of thebattery recycling industry and where it is heading. Quite frankly I considerthe NMT executive team to be an authority on the sector and I’m not the onlyone that shares that opinion (Just ask Joe Lowry). Also, lets not forget thatthe battery recycling “division” consists of a JV (Primobius) which has its ownmanagement team.

FLOG - if you've ever developed a business from scratch you'll realise that there are no hard and fast rules as to what management mix is require to make it successful. More so if you're in a "new industry". Give me an innovative management team that has a track record mitigating risk and recognises the benefits of partnering any day of the week.