The leadership team responsible for the last two major acquisitions, BNS and ARRIS, is no longer at CommScope. It is true that the last two major acquisitions failed to meet expectations and the end result is a company mired in debt that is still experiencing headwinds impacting our ability to grow. We can’t change the past; we can only react based on current realities and an unknown future.
Our current leadership team is improving EBITDA and putting us in better stead for the future. We need not, and should not, pay off all of our debt….we just need to make progress in increasing EBITDA and reducing debt, even if it is just incremental improvement. We can’t cripple ourselves by cutting too much and risk capturing future growth…..it would just be writing our obituary. So, we’re improving EBITDA in a responsible way by increasing revenue and decreasing costs. Are we doing this in a perfect way? No. Are we doing this in a pragmatic way? Yes.
Our current leadership team was dealt a bad poker hand and a short stack of chips. They are doing well, IMHO, in managing through a less-than-ideal situation. We still have a seat at the table. I have confidence in our current leadership team to get us through the next couple of years…..mistakes will undoubtedly be made and bad things will happen, but think the end result would have been a lot worse under different leadership.
A lot of companies are managing through issues. Some have more empathy towards their employees (their family) than others. I think this is CommScope’s major shortcoming…..the familial culture at CommScope has eroded and we’re now in a survivor-like situation. There are pockets where people are acting in their own best self-interests instead of the overall best interest of the company. This is something that needs to be fixed/addressed in the near-term in order for CommScope to continue a turn-around to something better.
At the end of the day, there are reasons to be both optimistic and pessimistic about CommScope’s future. But, the same is true for practically every major company out there. I understand the need for people to be negative and angry at past leadership that has let us down, but I also think that there are still great people at CommScope, at every level of the organization, in every geography of the organization, and in every function within the organization. We can and will be better if we work hard and fight for it.
To conclude, I’ll validate the feelings of those who are feeling scared, disappointed, angry, and upset at CommScope…..our past leadership has made enormous mistakes and we’re paying the price for it. But, we do have a brighter future if we focus on what we can control instead of feeling sorry for ourselves over past transgressions. We owe it to the tens of thousands of employees at CommScope (and their families) to be the best we can be under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Just my $.02...I could be wrong.