Bong in big trouble

[murrum]

I don't understand loyalty to a company, like nationalism for a business. I'ts not tall poppy, its just discussing a businesses fall from grace and why. I don't get why these kinds of discussions get repackaged by people as 'tall poppy syndrome' to negate any kind of actual critical thought.
More like the national pass time is 'don't think too hard'.

[Trev]

I don't understand loyalty to a company, like nationalism for a business. I'ts not tall poppy, its just discussing a businesses fall from grace and why. I don't get why these kinds of discussions get repackaged by people as 'tall poppy syndrome' to negate any kind of actual critical thought.
More like the national pass time is 'don't think too hard'.

Fair comment murrum. There is some of that here and I shouldn't tar all posters with the same brush. But read back through the posts on this topic and I think you'll have to agree there's a certain amount of "glee" in there, sometimes obvious, sometimes between the lines.

Mind you, oldman would disagree vehemently with me about the tall poppy syndrome.

[alakaboo]

Yeah, there's also a fair bit of vested interest in the glee many are taking, not that people will own up to it.

I don't understand loyalty to a company, like nationalism for a business. I'ts not tall poppy, its just discussing a businesses fall from grace and why. I don't get why these kinds of discussions get repackaged by people as 'tall poppy syndrome' to negate any kind of actual critical thought.
More like the national pass time is 'don't think too hard'.

If only there was a like button, then I wouldn't have to type a response to express that I agree with this post.

[murrum]

A bit of schadenfreude never hurt anyone...

Still - that glee has to be a symptom of Billabongs failure as a company. If you set yourself up as a 'core' surf company, you have to be prepared to wear some flack when you are on the outer - that's the nature of the beast when you play in the fickle yoof culture yard.

Not that I would hang shit on them - doesn't really concern me - a business made some bad decisions and is going to the wall. Happens all the time.

[Trev]

Yeah, there's also a fair bit of vested interest in the glee many are taking, not that people will own up to it.

I don't understand loyalty to a company, like nationalism for a business. I'ts not tall poppy, its just discussing a businesses fall from grace and why. I don't get why these kinds of discussions get repackaged by people as 'tall poppy syndrome' to negate any kind of actual critical thought.
More like the national pass time is 'don't think too hard'.

If only there was a like button, then I wouldn't have to type a response to express that I agree with this post.

A "Like" button would be nice. I'll add it to the next list for Don - AFTER he actions the last list.

And as for "actual critical thought", that's fine. But in most cases you have to have some runs on the board yourself to make those valid.
I think Nick's responses have been level headed and well thought out as you'd expect from someone in the industry. If he was being critical I'd take notice.

[alakaboo]

Whoosh.

[Davros]

I see a Big W Billabong range on the horizon.

[BA]

Yeah, there's also a fair bit of vested interest in the glee many are taking, not that people will own up to it.

I don't understand loyalty to a company, like nationalism for a business. I'ts not tall poppy, its just discussing a businesses fall from grace and why. I don't get why these kinds of discussions get repackaged by people as 'tall poppy syndrome' to negate any kind of actual critical thought.
More like the national pass time is 'don't think too hard'.

If only there was a like button, then I wouldn't have to type a response to express that I agree with this post.

ditto

Ditto.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Blacktown I go.

[Beanpole]

I think its just great that any company can make squillions for years selling t shirts with their name on them at $40 a pop. Its brilliant. Change the lettering a bit each year then bring out a retro line with old lettering. Finally when protesters in Syria, Venezuala, Thailand and Greece start turning up on the tv with your t shirts on you know you have achieved world domination.

You can't knock that

[alakaboo]

Seriously, none of you?

[Skipper]

[Hollowed out]

What is now getting interesting with this whole saga is the role the world title race has the potential to play a major part in the futures of the big surf companies.
Joel-Bong #1, KS-QS #2, Mick-RC#3, JJ-Oneill #4 make up the best chances for a title. Bong could desperately do with Joel getting up to give much needed boost, RC are still rumoured to be considering an offer, so a Mick win would boost the price, QS are still under the pump and now have Euro VC's as big part of their control and Oneill would get a big kick if JJ won.
Now considering the last event won by KS was by QS and that they are now done, Bong dropped the Spain event and the next is a RC event, then Oneill event then Bong Pipe.
HUUge amount riding on the last three for thousands of staff and investors

[steve shearer]

good theory but you reckon it's worth that much to a business?

Like life or death stuff?

[Clif]

I wouldn't think investors care about the influence the world tour has. Wouldn't it be a tiny influence anyway? Wouldn't the real percentages to pay attention to be in stock, payroll, space, shipping, etc?

[Hollowed out]

Exactly right Cliff- the TPG auditors were not hanging around the competitor enclosures at the last couple WCT events. They were trawling the books, inventory and payroll etc at Burleigh
^^ That is where TPG and all other VC's get it so wrong when it comes to sticking their greedy big bucks boofheads into the industry. If they did their due diligence properly and got some people on board who did go to theses events they might have a chance of understanding that the nuances of this lifestyle/sport/industry is a different beast to their normal investments and because they will never 'get it' they think that if they just apply their bully know all tactics they can teach these 'surfy types' a thing or two about business.
That is exactly what has got Bong into the predicament they are in because kunkel and the other boofheads on the board are not surfers and could not give a shit about anything but making money at any cost

[brendo]

I see a Big W Billabong range on the horizon.

yep , behind the left isle stocked with mambo, around the corner from badboy, to the rear of mango,
which is next to kuta lines and smp.....

[gibber]

In the car game it was always "who wins on sunday, sells on Monday"

People (read Sheep) will always be influenced by what happens in competition, thats why they exist and sponsors throw big bucks at them.
Its the paradigm business's have employed for years, in all sports.

[Nick Carroll]

Exactly right Cliff- the TPG auditors were not hanging around the competitor enclosures at the last couple WCT events. They were trawling the books, inventory and payroll etc at Burleigh
^^ That is where TPG and all other VC's get it so wrong when it comes to sticking their greedy big bucks boofheads into the industry. If they did their due diligence properly and got some people on board who did go to theses events they might have a chance of understanding that the nuances of this lifestyle/sport/industry is a different beast to their normal investments and because they will never 'get it' they think that if they just apply their bully know all tactics they can teach these 'surfy types' a thing or two about business.
That is exactly what has got Bong into the predicament they are in because kunkel and the other boofheads on the board are not surfers and could not give a shit about anything but making money at any cost

Well no, what got Billabong into this mess is that the company borrowed up the arse to try to gain control of the retail end of the business through mass shop expansion, just at the wrong historical moment.

This on top of rapid and not too well organised growth buying up labels to please the share market, without going through the product lines with a blowtorch and cleaning out the supply chains.

The surf culture is not what it was when Billabong and Rip Curl and Quik got their starts and built their brands. It's moved on. Their big shot at breaking away from the surfing thing is kinda done now, but what is there for them to go back to? If Bong etc just sold to surfers like they did in 1985 or whenever, how do you reckon the books would look?

They can't go back, they can only clean up the business act and keep the brand solid. One thing's for sure, those companies will never dominate surfing again the way they did.