End May Update, page-12

From my perspective, NEA are now so far ahead of the game in North America, that it can with advantage focus more on making money than expanding for the next X years. The mood of the market may have since Covid-19 changed in favour of profits now, rather than having a much longer focus.

I am happy to concede that NEA may not be the sort of company that suits me, and in the next twelve months I'll think about that, and perhaps switch the funds to something else. I mention twelve months because I am hearttened by noises we have recently heard to the effect that expenses are being reduced, and the target date of profit break-through has been brought foreward. The Covid-19 matter may well have helped to convince management to switch from cash-burn to cash-earn, and that suits me.

Whether Rob Newman has the personality to shift from being theatrical to being more prosaic is another matter. Some executives are superb at getting firms up, but not necessarily good at the prosaic matters required to run a profitable business, and some can switch from one style to another as circumstances change. Manages should ensure that they populate the management team with people who are dissimilar. I am not close enough to the company to know what the management team is like. When I think of NEA, I think of Rob Newman tothe exclusion of anubody else. What do we know about NEA's management team?

Notwithstanding some negativity about NEA that I have, I think has the hallmarks of being a great company.