Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[aleajactaest]

i agree. listening isn't the only thing. solms also brought knowledge to the party. but the key change was to start from the demand side.

from my viewpoint, ss had an imaginative but undisciplined approach to development. he seemed to enjoy starting projects but appeared to find finishing them and monetising them a challenge. either that or he simply didn't see or have the experience to understand why it was that wave's products failed.

it became something of a pattern. initial excitement. claims about the pipeline. long silence. out-of-our-control excuses for the delay. new product introduction with uncanny similarities in terms of its progress.

i started assuming the pattern maybe seven years ago. the carrot method was particularly egregious. you could reliably bet against each dangled example. the harbour was obviously unsafe.

the only thing missing in the analysis - as the pattern was clear - was which of several plausible explanations was the real one. was it that wave's pricing was off? was it the incompetence of the sales team? was it demand? was it that somehow wave kept on running into asteroid strikes?

in the end, as an investor, it wasn't my duty to understand the reason. it was to acknowledge that there was an issue of some sort and to be frank about how this translated into the financials. wave's assets produced insufficient revenues. they did so for long enough that it was clear wave needed a change of leadership. solms has shined a bit of light into the dark recesses of the past. but if the issue was banana or goat rather than scaleability, the previous management needed to go.