David Nierenberg
Analyst · Seaport Global
Thank you, John, and thank you, Mike, for your question. As you heard from Elizabeth's comments, at this moment, of course, the company is doing a nice job of conserving cash while we go through our deliberations. We hope to be able to deliver some, perhaps, most of our recommendations to the Board when the Board meets at the end of July, which at least creates the potential that we could provide some elimination to our stakeholders about this when we have our second quarter earnings call in early August. Hope to do that is different from a guarantee, however. That date could slip, but that's what we're trying to do. I would like to also mention why this project takes time. First, we decided to do this work ourselves rather than to spend millions of dollars on outside consultants. And the reason that we did that was so that our team at Flotek would own the strategy that they would be responsible for executing. Otherwise, there's always a risk that a consultant's report can become a very expensive doorstop gathering dust, and we did not want that to happen. Second, as you heard from John and Elizabeth, the process we're going through is deliberative and inclusive, hearing from virtually all types of stakeholders on a regular basis. And finally, as you've also heard, the process we're going through is a data-driven process and analytical process trying to look out about 3 years to build the value of the company. And in connection with that, it's very important that the data that we use be good data. Flotek completed an information system conversion last year, and the committee understandably wanted confidence that the data we get from that new system about product line profitability, including freight, returns and SG&A allocations, is a reliable foundation for measuring the performance of the business, managing it and making appropriate capital allocations. But having said that, even though the committee has not yet completed its work, we've made some important decisions that you've heard about on this call. Elizabeth has already talked about how CapEx maintenance spending is in the vicinity of $4 million rather than the $20 million that the company suggested could be possible at the very beginning of this year. Second, as you've heard, the company is maintaining maximum intelligent pressure on cost reduction across the board to lower our breakeven level and to conserve cash. We are also using a new and more rigorous capital budgeting process, which Elizabeth and her team have put in place, and the compensation committee, given the uncertainties in the macro environment, is setting individual goals for members of the executive committee for incentive compensation purposes on a quarterly basis to make sure that our focus is sharp and current and that we are making the right expense investments for growth and profitability, both in R&I and in sales and marketing. We can already see from our deliberation that we do want to drive revenue growth, both in PCM and C&S, to better absorb the company's costs. The committee members share our bias that we should focus first on driving organic revenue growth rather than inorganic. And if one wonders why, it's because we want to make sure that whatever we might add later inorganically is going to be placed on a solid business foundation. So we remain riveted on optimizing what we have today without distraction. We are, however, pursuing a number of growth initiatives right now. Danielle is leading an effort, as you've heard about, to better segment our approach to our customers, to better target them and improve our value-added demonstrations. We continue working to reduce the costs of CnF through design improvements, so we can improve profitability. We are looking for, as Elizabeth said, contiguous applications of CnF so that we might be able to reduce overtime, the company's reliance on un-cyclical and unpredictable drillbit activity. And we are also considering ways to, to use a big word, decommoditize PCM intelligently, by analogy, with some of the things which Best Buy has done in their business, and we hope to talk more about that later during the summer. So I would say in conclusion that our growth strategy is focused, as I said, initially on organic as opposed to inorganic. When we get to the point of considering inorganic, speaking for myself, I have a preference for prudently sized and digestible tuck-unders rather than bet the company activities. We are accumulating ideas about that, but now we really do remain tightly focused on self-help solutions first to improve the organic performance of the company. We also share a bias, by the way, that most of the acquisitions that companies do are not as successful as Flotek's acquisition of Florida Chemical turned out to be. In fact, too many acquisitions that companies do are value destroyers, not value builders. As Buffet says, there are no called strikes in the investment business. The best strategy is to keep the bat on your shoulder until you can take a swing at the fat pitch. And finally, once we are done with considering the growth opportunities, we will -- intend to put excess cash back to work for the benefit of our shareholders. We would say that the bias of the committee, subject to completing its due diligence, is share repurchases first, perhaps, then supplemented by special dividends. But the benefit of share repurchases first is that it builds the value for long-term shareholders. As many people know, the authorization to do this is already in place. But we, as a committee and as a Board, want to act as prudent [indiscernible] on behalf of all the stakeholders before returning cash to the shareholders, confident, at that time, both in our hypothesis of the business strategy and confident also in Flotek's ability to execute that strategy well. And this is the end to my filibuster.