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Backfire wrote:

WayneTheGame wrote:

And the cavalry has arrived!

It's bad because reading between the lines it seems to hint that the report is going to be very bad and Kirby is spouting corporate propaganda to assuage the stockholders that it's nothing to panic over. It doesn't come across as a confident CEO talking about growth, it seems more like "That wasn't a UFO, it was just a weather balloon! Nothing to see here!" BS so you don't have people rioting.

That's what I said, didn't I?

The point is that pretty much every CEO in the world will attempt to spin negative performances with lingo like this. Kirby did exact same thing last year.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Idolator wrote:

What I took away from the Steve Jobs portion was "We're not going to pursue litigation anymore, unless it's an innovator in the field."

I've always thought that Kirby sees Jobs as some sort of paragon to be followed, and sure enough, there are many similarities between Apple's and GW's strategies.
Which is not necessarily a good thing.

Indeed. Basing your companies business model of CENTURIES OLD PRODUCT retailing and manufacturing business that innovates by a fraction of a percentage at a glacial pace on a business model where paradigm shifts occur daily is not the best way to go. You can buy a phone with more computing power than a computer from 10 years ago, they sell carved trinkets that do the same thing a child used them for in Ancient Rome.

sand.zzz wrote:
Has this been authenticated yet? I doubt its real, but in the off chance that it is, wow. If this guy is representative of GW's leadership as a whole, then this company is most certainly doomed. From the content to the attitude and delivery - it reeks of willful ignorance and downright terrible management. If your business starts losing money, or net declines - you figure out why. You don't decide why.

That being said, no way this is real. It would be a death rattle, the start of agonal breaths. Broadcast for anyone to see.

Read last years.

http://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/CHAIRMAN-statement-final.pdf

Sounds like the same style to me.

sand.zzz wrote:
Has this been authenticated yet? I doubt its real, but in the off chance that it is, wow. If this guy is representative of GW's leadership as a whole, then this company is most certainly doomed. From the content to the attitude and delivery - it reeks of willful ignorance and downright terrible management. If your business starts losing money, or net declines - you figure out why. You don't decide why.

That being said, no way this is real. It would be a death rattle, the start of agonal breaths. Broadcast for anyone to see.

No confirmation either way, but it IS hosted on their website, in a folder alongside a document for the annual general meeting and a proxy form (because they didn't disable showing the directory listing). So if it's fake, then it's deliberate and GW doesn't seem like they'd be smart enough to pull a stunt like that on the off chance that someone is going to go hunting through their investors website looking for the report a day early, and hope that they stumble upon it.

No, signs point to it being 100% real.

sand.zzz wrote:
Has this been authenticated yet? I doubt its real, but in the off chance that it is, wow. If this guy is representative of GW's leadership as a whole, then this company is most certainly doomed. From the content to the attitude and delivery - it reeks of willful ignorance and downright terrible management. If your business starts losing money, or net declines - you figure out why. You don't decide why.

That being said, no way this is real. It would be a death rattle, the start of agonal breaths. Broadcast for anyone to see.

Just look at the address bar. That's GW's investor webpage. Don't believe me go to GW site scroll to the bottom and click on Investor relations. They've scrubbed this from their page but you can still input the address and find it. As of now.

The delivery makes the content seem even worse. Which was likely the exact opposite of his intention. lol.

Run your boutique hobby business like a corporate chain restaurant, and watch it burn to the ground. All the while completely oblivious as to why.

**I never put much weight in the GW going under doom and gloomers, but its hard to have any faith in them if you look too close. I'm gonna stick to the hobby and try my best to ignore this kind of stuff. Its a lot less fun than painting, modeling, and rolling dice.

WayneTheGame wrote:
I have to admit though I'm surprised that it wasn't written in the form of an Imperial communique.

Still not 100% sure it's legit, but it sounds crazy enough to be true. Seems like he really does write this way in his preambles.

You mean in the name of the Emperor or for Emperor's sake?

 mattyrm wrote:
I am truly stunned at the 4 million mark for the website, how is that even possible?

I suspect it's what happens when you hire an IT guy based on his affable nature instead of looking at his resume...

They removed the blank link, but the documents are still there.

Reading this brings 2 questions to mind.
1 Does he do drugs ?
2 Does he realize writing whilst high as a kite, is not good.?

Does this mean that Kirby can walk away scot free from this? Surely there must be some investors out there who are starting to smell a rat? It would be interesting to get the opinion of a professional on this. Would a blind test have them spitting out their tea/coffee or would they say it's the norm?

 insaniak wrote:

 mattyrm wrote:
I am truly stunned at the 4 million mark for the website, how is that even possible?

I suspect it's what happens when you hire an IT guy based on his affable nature instead of looking at his resume...

Heh!

But yes, overall...WTF?!?

The document is hosted on the GW investor relations website. It has the byline of the CEO. The annual report is due in the next three days. If this is a joke or fake the timing is very bad.

That said, if GW read the reactions of people here I wonder if they may quickly rewrite it before official release.

 Wolfstan wrote:
Does this mean that Kirby can walk away scot free from this? Surely there must be some investors out there who are starting to smell a rat? It would be interesting to get the opinion of a professional on this. Would a blind test have them spitting out their tea/coffee or would they say it's the norm?

What do you mean by "walk away scot free"? He's resigning. No more job. What more penalties do you want - criminal ones? He's done nothing illegal.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The document is hosted on the GW investor relations website. It has the byline of the CEO. The annual report is due in the next three days. If this is a joke or fake the timing is very bad.

That said, if GW read the reactions of people here I wonder if they may quickly rewrite it before official release.

I guess that will be the test Although even if they did I could see "Kirby and his cronies" being arrogant enough to dismiss what we say.

Does anyone else picture this being written on shaky hands after downing a bottle of Bourbon and all the while contemplating eating the business end of a revolver?


Sounds like a guy who's unable to grasp just how hard he fethed up and instead is drunkenly grasping at straws placing blame anywhere but with himself. CHS hog stealing? kind of like the pot and kettle, GW built their entire company on swiping the hogs from others to breed their own frankenhog, yet are surprised when others do the same to them. Can't build your castles and moats on sand and expect them to stay around long.

Faster more affordable printers being a fad? They may not be there now, but they will be and most importantly they are a threat to your dinosaur business model now because they allow start up companies to produce models that rival the quality of GW's at an affordable price. It doesn't require the average consumer to have a printer to do it themselves, they will buy resin/metal/printed copies from producers because their quality will be just as good or better then GW's and without GW being able to provide "the best miniatures in the world" they won't be able to dominate the market and command the high prices like they have been doing. Technology just like evolution is a bitch, you get old and slow and you get left behind.

The internet and printing technology has given power to anyone that can learn how to use it and it's closed that gap that used to exist between the big companies and start ups, not completely but enough that it poses a major threat to any company that isn't on top of their game, which GW hasn't been for a quite a while. Despite the fierce bolster and bravado there is indeed a chink in Smaug's armor.

rigeld2 wrote:
He's resigning. No more job.

He's resigning from one of the two jobs he currently holds, that he wasn't supposed to hold concurrently for any extended period of time.

rigeld2 wrote:

 Wolfstan wrote:
Does this mean that Kirby can walk away scot free from this? Surely there must be some investors out there who are starting to smell a rat? It would be interesting to get the opinion of a professional on this. Would a blind test have them spitting out their tea/coffee or would they say it's the norm?

What do you mean by "walk away scot free"? He's resigning. No more job. What more penalties do you want - criminal ones? He's done nothing illegal.

Well he's still going to be Chairman, just not CEO, assuming the board votes for him, which IIRC he was before the previous CEO (Wells?) resigned. In fact, he wasn't supposed to be both, he was "interim CEO".

Deduct shares? Breach of contract for being stupid, incompetent? I don't know!?! Something for crying out loud! :-) The guy has managed to BS the company in to a bad place.

They could of been in a position that was good for both sides. Steady income for the investor's and a good scene for the gamers. Nothing is perfect but regular releases, a strong ruleset and a good tourney scene would of helped big time.

Who would want to be GW CEO to begin with? It's a company that has less and less sales, is forced to cut costs on all ends, has a terrible reputation and has been driven by a man with his very own "vision". And it's a niche market. I would never want to be CEO of such a company.

insaniak wrote:

rigeld2 wrote:
He's resigning. No more job.

He's resigning from one of the two jobs he currently holds, that he wasn't supposed to hold concurrently for any extended period of time.

"if the board will have me" indicates it's from more than just the CEO.

WayneTheGame wrote:

rigeld2 wrote:

 Wolfstan wrote:
Does this mean that Kirby can walk away scot free from this? Surely there must be some investors out there who are starting to smell a rat? It would be interesting to get the opinion of a professional on this. Would a blind test have them spitting out their tea/coffee or would they say it's the norm?

What do you mean by "walk away scot free"? He's resigning. No more job. What more penalties do you want - criminal ones? He's done nothing illegal.

Well he's still going to be Chairman, just not CEO, assuming the board votes for him, which IIRC he was before the previous CEO (Wells?) resigned. In fact, he wasn't supposed to be both, he was "interim CEO".

In theory, but there's no guarantee the board will vote to keep him.

Regardless, what more do people want? Seriously - while I don't think the man deserves the job he currently holds, he's done nothing illegal.

Given that Kirby holds about 8% of the shares, and is the longest running board member with 20 years experience of the business, it would be difficult to justify not keeping him on in some capacity.

Wolfstan wrote:Deduct shares? Breach of contract for being stupid, incompetent? I don't know!?! Something for crying out loud! :-) The guy has managed to BS the company in to a bad place.

They could of been in a position that was good for both sides. Steady income for the investor's and a good scene for the gamers. Nothing is perfect but regular releases, a strong ruleset and a good tourney scene would of helped big time.

The board supported all of his decisions. So it wasn't just "the guy".
They can't take his shares away. There's likely nothing in his contract about not being stupid or incompetent...

Sigvatr wrote:Who would want to be GW CEO to begin with? It's a company that has less and less sales, is forced to cut costs on all ends, has a terrible reputation and has been driven by a man with his very own "vision". And it's a niche market. I would never want to be CEO of such a company.

I would. I think it could be brought back, but it'll have some dark years and sacrifices made. I'd love to take that challenge.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Given that Kirby holds about 8% of the shares, and is the longest running board member with 20 years experience of the business, it would be difficult to justify not keeping him on in some capacity.

Depending on the outcome of this report, sure.
But that's the point, isn't it? We all assumed Kirby would be sticking around till the end. If this isn't the end, is he being politely asked to step down?

Sounds like he needs someone to carry the can. When it all goes tits up.

So the question becomes if a new CEO:

A) Would be savvy enough to realize the problems (i.e. is not one of Kirby's cronies elevated to the position)
B) Decides it's worth fixing instead of doing what Kirby did and just coast along until the end

I think it could either be really good or really bad. If it's more of the same then it will be the demise of GW, if they learn what went wrong and try to fix it (assuming they can fix things like pissing off the independents), then things could turn around.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Who would want to be GW CEO to begin with? It's a company that has less and less sales, is forced to cut costs on all ends, has a terrible reputation and has been driven by a man with his very own "vision". And it's a niche market. I would never want to be CEO of such a company.

£600,000 per year.

I'd do it.

I hope the new CEO understands that the internet exists for more that direct sales.

rigeld2 wrote:
But that's the point, isn't it? We all assumed Kirby would be sticking around till the end. If this isn't the end, is he being politely asked to step down?

That's another thing. It could be one of those "We'll let you resign gracefully" situations, which is almost always covered up by corporate marketing to put a positive spin on it because "We outed our CEO" rarely looks good.

I guess the answer will be if he remains Chairman. If yes, then it's likely him choosing to step down for some reason or another (possibly with pressure), if he's removed (bought out? IDK how it works) then he was removed.

rigeld2 wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Given that Kirby holds about 8% of the shares, and is the longest running board member with 20 years experience of the business, it would be difficult to justify not keeping him on in some capacity.

Depending on the outcome of this report, sure.
But that's the point, isn't it? We all assumed Kirby would be sticking around till the end. If this isn't the end, is he being politely asked to step down?

Assumptions, assumptions.

Kirby is 63, he has made a ton of money from GW and, if he believes in the company, he thinks he will make a ton more from dividends and eventually selling his shares, not to mention his salary as Chairman will be considerable and he will also have collected a substantial pension fund over the past 20 years which he can cash in next year for 100% tax free cash. He may just want to kick back and enjoy his money.

 MWHistorian wrote:
I hope the new CEO understands that the internet exists for more that direct sales.

I wonder... was all of that nonsense policy from Kirby? Could a new CEO actually turn the ship around and rekindle relationships with retailers, allow them to sell online at a discount, bring back the bitz, etc?

If I were CEO I'd push for reestablishing a relationship with independents, I'd bring back the Mail Order Trolls, empower the design studio, etc. Of course that's as someone who knows the game. It's very unlikely that the new CEO will be familiar with that.

 Wolfstan wrote:
Deduct shares? Breach of contract for being stupid, incompetent? I don't know!?! Something for crying out loud! :-) The guy has managed to BS the company in to a bad place.

Deduct? Breach of contract for being stupid? I guess you are not terribly familiar with how corporate world operates