One of the proudest moments of my life was about 6 months ago….
I was valet parking my car at Hotel de Paris in Monaco…
as I was getting out of my car, one of the valet’s came up to me and said “naseba … I just bought some stock.”
As we were speaking, a police officier came over to us and got involved in our conversation…the valet explained that naseba is the first company that started in Monaco to go public and he told the police officier that he should invest as well.
I was so proud as I walked away … I called Sophie and Fabien and told them both…I thought to myself how I want to ensure that this guy makes a big return on his investment….
Since then our share price has been absolutely hammered…
The theme of this blog…a theme I “try” to live my life by is the thought “the man at the top….didn’t fall there” and getting to the top of just about anything is difficult.
It is so much easier for me to sit around, smoke a cigar with my friends and “talk” about the future and what we are going to do…than actually staying consistent through the good and bad and doing/achieving it.
As stated previously, I started naseba in Oct. 2002 with less than 60,000 euros and no outside investment.
When I sold 58% of my stake in naseba, when we took naseba public in oct 2006, the company was valued at 24,000,000 euros.
I made a nice return on my initial investment, +40,000%… however, making a quick buck and retiring is not my interest.
As naive as it might sound, my goal is to make 100+ million euros.
As a good buddy of mine recently, mockingly pointed out, under my leadership as CEO, the company has lost 50% of its market value…
I am confident enough in my ability and value as a leader to state that I did a poor job as a CEO my first year being listed.
It is a whole new ball game … going from basically, a “sales director” style of CEO of a “mom and pop” shop… to being the CEO of a public company.
It took a bit of time for me to understand how to lead a listed company.
Since the beginning, I understood…that I needed an experienced board to help teach and support me.
In the beginning, the first 6 months or so I did not have this at all …. and my board was no good.
So I made a big change…
Now - In my opinion, I have the ultimate board — including me and Sophie Le Ray we have Kim Ying Lee, an ex-Mckinsey who is all about the figures and Pieter Visser a 41 year old retired entreprenuer who has a 190′ mega yacht….who is all about the sales.
One of the biggest inputs was when Stuart Botwright our CFO joined the company in April. Having an experienced and importantly, dynamic CFO makes a huge difference.
Being the Chairman of a board of director looks great in the movies … but its a whole new ball game.
I reiterate — naseba’s public listing is not like Google, Apple, or Yahoo, etc. because not many people know naseba, thus there is very little volume of trading in the shares. My job is to ensure that people get to know naseba…..and by making lots of profit we will become well known.
As focused, and as much as I “want” to succeed….this success will not happen overnight….it will take naseba a few years, like it does for most listed companies to build, build and build….become very profitable, thus drive the value of the company and make our share holders lots of money.
This past year we invested for the future and expanded very aggressively, maybe too aggressively…
We achieved a great deal … we increased revenues by more than 100%; we expanded our Indian office to an army of 100+ (none of our competitors are setup in India as strongly as we are); we did a majority owned JV with the biggest Chinese owned conference company; we went from 16 events in 2006 to 52 events in 2007; we opened offices in Prague and Cape Town ….pitch, pitch, pitch…
… however, I stumbled and made mistakes on this climb over the past year …
Yesterday, we had a board meeting and I told one of my board members who is the toughest and most demanding, but adding the most value (Kim Ying Lee) that I was losing sleep over the share price because my best friend Jason Gorud has invested 200,000 euros and on paper he has lost a lot of money.
Kim Ying asked:
“does your friend want a house or a palace?”
I replied …. “of course, a palace…”
he quickly added …. “a house is easily constructed, but burns down quickly…. but a palace takes a lot longer to build….but when it is finished it is a lot stronger and worth a lot more money.”
Although I know personally, and I like very much each of my 4 main share holders….and each of them want a palace and not a house….it is Jason and the Valet at Hotel de Paris that I think about every single day.
This sunday, I move to Dubai and the next chapter in this climb begins…
In 2008, we will do 11+ million euros in revenue. We will make a net profit.
In 2009 we will do more revenue than 08. We will make more net profit.
2010 the same, but more …
On this climb….I have stumbled and fallen, but I got up each time and continued climbing….
I will not stop climbing until we have built a palace…
One Response to “don’t call it a come back…”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:04 am
A sad day today- Sir Edmund Hillary, a man who conquered his mountain, is dead.
In his words: “I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it”
He did not fall atop Everest, he fought his way to the top step by step and “knocked the bastard off” through dedication, drive and loyalty. He was a man who showed no fear in the face of challenge and adversity, and his example will be missed.
R.I.P.