'Do Your Job'
I love this quote by Bill Bellichek, the triumphant coach of the Super-Bowl champions, the New England Patriots.
When adversity strikes the Team, Bellichek extolls the virtues of each Patriots player and staff member 'doing their job...and finding a way to win!' The whole franchise has bought into this Code of Conduct and Franchise philosophy. And it works....
Six successful Super-Bowls later, it is a formula that can apply to any contact sport - or business model for that matter - like setting up a graphite mine in Tanzania and establishing an EcoGraf Pilot Plant in China / Europe. To extend the NFL metaphor, I feel like we are deep into the fourth-quarter here, and our management team are not finding ways to win. Sure, we can blame the timing; the business cycle; political outliers in Tanzania etc etc. They are all valid challenges that provided headwinds to our company's success. But today and on Friday last, I am watching sustained capitulation selling by a large number of holders, willing to take any price to exit this stock. That is deeply concerning.
As a long-term investor in KNL, I feel like I have done my job, consistently supporting management and providing additional funds for successive CRs over the years. I did this on the basis of KNL management's proven success in establishing and developing profitable mines in Tanzania. I think many of us need reassurance that KNL management are doing the job they committed to some years ago. I am tired of photo op snaps and increasingly ambiguous narratives in company statements.
We are out of dough again. Show us why you are deserving of continued financial support. Time to do your job and find a way to win.