Well all good things must come to an end. Last week I was fired from the CEO position at the REA Group. Now this was and was not a surprise. The Board and i have had differences for a while and they decided that they wanted someone else to take the business to the next level. This is their choice and i wish them all the best for the future. As the third largest shareholder, i will be watching eagerly from the sidelines at the future growth of the business.
Now i dont want to go into whether this was or was not the right decision for the busness. In many ways it is probably the right decision for the business. There is a gap between the culture of the board and the culture of the business and it is time for someone else to bridge that gap while maintaining the long term growth of the business. What i can say is that i am proud of my record of growing the business from revenues of $4m to over $150m, from EBITDA losses of $6m to EBITDA profits over $30m and increasing the market cap from $8m to over $500m … all in 7.5 years!
What is more interesting is how the whole process was handled. Now i am not going into the details however it would be fair to say that it was not handled well. I have been with the business for 7.5 years and have built it from a small, mainly Melbourne team of 25 people to a global team of 750 (or so). In doing this we have really injected a strong culture (see my previous entry on culture).
Now last week i was summonded to a hotel room in town, asked for my access pass and told not to go back to the office and that my desk would be packed up and couriered to me - 7.5 years over in a flash. I was not to say goodbye to the team. Now this is so different to the culture internally and caused significant shock and amazement amongst the team - i ended up with over a hundred emails, notes, sms’ and phone calls from team members around the world - many of them expressing shock and amazement at what had happened. Everyone wanted to catch up and go for a drink. So we ended up having to have “unofficial” drinks - a week of them!
The point is, i am still a large shareholder, i have lots of institutional knowledge and Australia is a small market - it would have made sense to discuss how to exit in an open way and ensure that there would be a smooth transition. This would have been best for everyone - most importantly the team.
- A Big Thank You to the European Teams of the REA Group
Over the last week I have had the pleasure of visiting the REA Group teams in the UK, Luxembourg and Italy. The purpose of these visits was to see the teams and properly say goodbye to them. When i left...
- Thank you - A Special Message to My Ex-Collegues at the REA Group
A week ago i left the REA Group after 7.5 years leading the business. I didnt get a chance to say goodbye to everyone so i thought i would write a note to the team at the REA Group to...
- The Era’s of Growth of the REA Group
The company i run is called the REA Group. The business was started in 1995 in the garage of one of the founders in the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster. In 2000 it came within a few weeks of closing and...
- Pennies from Heaven
Have you ever had on of those days when things go right and more importantly, something great just pops up and you cant say no. Well i had one of those days last week. I was working away and received...
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August 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
[...] If you get a chance take a look at his MyCEO Blog it has some great articles and insights into his life as a CEO and also some good commentary on his departure. [...]
August 28th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
[...] a 750 empleados y a facturar 88M€. Espectacular. Bien, este señor ha sido despedido hace poco y, tal como explica el mismo señor en su blog, parece que no le han hecho un homenaje por todo lo alto, ni siquiera pudo despedirse de sus [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 10:52 am
[...] was to see the teams and properly say goodbye to them. When i left the REA Group a month or so ago (Click here for entry) i wasnt really given a chance to say goodbye to the teams in Australia or around the world. [...]
September 10th, 2008 at 9:54 am
[...] I was on vacation, Simon Baker, the main investor at Homethinking.com, was unceremoniously removed from his post as CEO of the REA Group by his board (mainly News Corp cronies). It is hard to put into words just how much respect Simon [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
[...] Her departure follows on from the recent departure from the CEO, Simon Baker. (Click here) [...]