report card, page-12

Aj,

That is absolutely right. If it really has been 12 hours a day and has been sustained, well there is precious little to show for it!

Of course, working hard is not necessarily of any value if it is not directed atthe right things.

I would much prefer someone in the position who works 12 minutes a day and generates results than someone who works 24 hours a day and produces nothing.

It's a matter of working smart as well as hard.

You only have to look at the Oraline 8 matter to realise something is wrong with the way that 12 hours is deployed.

This is what the 30 Apr 2008 update said:

"Oraline 8 prototypes have been developed for lab testing – based on surveys of distributors – to be launched in Sept 2008"

That was 11 months ago! They already had prototypes developed - and had for some time before that. They had already talked to distributors and gained feedback.

Given that they were also billing it as 'the most advanced saliva testing product on the market today' - and given its much higher anticipated margins than O4 - you would think they would be throwing all resources at it.

Surely '12 hours a day' would have got it up within a few months - certainly in time for a proper launch at Medica - which would have been en eminently sensible thing to do.

But no - we have procrastination and pussyfooting around. And woeful attempts to 'spin' excuses in the Investor Updates (c'mon we are not that stupid) about how it was only intended to 'showcase' at Medica. An 11th hour 'spin job' if ever I saw one!

And if that's not enough what about the lame excuse for the most recent delay. This is what the Update said:

"There has been a delay in the delivery date because SBL has made a number of late changes to the product design as well as the plastic manufacturer advising that the production process for mould and housing manufacture will be 4 months rather than the expected 2 months"

Really!!

I suppose we'll then have to stuff around for another 6 months working out whether we should 'launch' it - or perhaps have another 'showcasing' - just to make sure its right. After all, JK has to fill in his 12 hours a day somehow.

As for the 'expected' 2 months becoming 4 months. Who had this 'expectation' and why did it change? Did someone just assume it would be 2 months and get it wrong? Or was SBL misinformed by the fabricator.

I suspect that the Update was just spin to cover up just another example of very poor IMPLEMENTATION. As I said before, this is where all our problems appear to lie - inability to efficiently operationalise.