Business Turnaround: The ABC Framework for Reigniting Growth With David Deane-Spread of Metattude

John Corcoran: 12:44

Yeah. Yeah.

David Deane-Spread: 12:45

Well you don’t see that anymore. They’re there in the space of three and a half years. The CEO, who had built the business over 30 years came back into the business to rescue it. And in the space of three and a half years, he cost the business $150 billion.

And it was taken off the index because it had diminished to an insignificant size. And there were a series of events that I’ve gone into very deeply to actually prove really that it’s thoughts, feelings, words and actions. And combined with your fears or your courage, your useless habits or your better practice or your ignorance or your constant learning, they’re all the causes and remedies of everything. And in every single step that Intel took, you could see that the leaders and the board failed to use their thoughts, feelings, words and actions in, in a, in a in a way that was courageous, better practice and and based on learning. Indeed, they used the old playbook that got the business there in the first place, and they went down the wrong path, and they invested heavily in manufacturing instead of design.

Nvidia went down the design path and until then said, no, we’re going down the manufacturing path because we know we, we, we, you know, and they were getting all their small chips from, from Taiwan. And the CEO of Intel publicly said, we don’t put all your eggs in one in the Taiwanese basket. It’s very geopolitically wrong and strategically wrong. And, you know, whilst they are correct in that they actually depended on those chips from Taiwan, and they depended on the relationship they had with the chip manufacturer, and they were getting a 60% discount. Because of that relationship.

And then the CEO came back in and he blew the relationship up by saying it. Don’t invest in Taiwan. And yet they were dependent on it. And so the Taiwanese heard that because it was a public announcement. In fact, he they were present when he said it.

It was at a conference. They turned around and they said, okay, if that’s how you feel, full price for your chips. So they went from being $13,000, 13,800 or something to $23,000 per chip. And of course that impacted massively on Intel. And then they then the next step was that.

So that was not reading it right. You know that was not a smart thought. They should have realized what they were. What they said was correct. It is geopolitically a risk.

But the relationship right now is more important than that risk. Do they risk they actually didn’t understand that the risk of the relationship was bigger than the risk of the politics? And to this day, Taiwan still hasn’t been attacked. So, you know, come on. And yet the chip prices through the roof.

So there’s a really good example. And there’s a whole litany of those errors that both the CEO and the board agreed to. And consequently, $150,150 billion went down the drain. And that CEO was told, resign or be fired. But it was all too late.

It was too late.

John Corcoran: 16:39

Yeah, yeah. This has been great, David. So any final thoughts for anyone who’s watching this, who’s thinking, you know, we need to turn our business around. What are some things that you advise you would give them?

David Deane-Spread: 16:54

Well, the first thing they need to do is to have a look at what the current situation is and then apply the correct meaning to that situation. Do not act out of fear. In other words, if you can see that there’s a problem, be very, very mindful of what other problems might occur if we fix this problem. So be strategic about it and do not run with the first thought that hits your head. So you’ve got to think about the fact that fear, habits and ignorance applied in our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions are the causes of all the problems that we’ve got.

And what got you into this mess is not going to get you out of it. So you have to change the way you think, and we can help there. Change the way you feel. Because we’re often our feelings often come first because of a belief that we’re not aware of, and we can’t act out of fear. So the CEO was told by his staff.

We can only do $500 million revenue. That’s all we can create. And he said, no, it has to be $1 billion. And then he doubled down on it and said $2 billion. And then within six months had to bring it back to $500 million.

And then when they couldn’t do that, they had to bring it back even worse. And they lost all their credibility. And that was that, out of fear of perception. We have to face whatever the reality is and come up with a different way of thinking. So that’s the number one thing they’ve got to do.

And the board has to do that as well as the C-suite.

John Corcoran: 18:44

And David, this has been great. Where can people go to learn more about you and attitude?

David Deane-Spread: 18:48

Well, I’m the only David Deane-Spread on the planet, so Google me. And you can check me out on perplexity. You can go to LinkedIn, and you can go to my website metattude.com.

John Corcoran: 19:04

Deane-Spread is an apostrophe. Sorry. Dash Spread s p r e a d. Yes.

David Deane-Spread: 19:14

It’s d e a n e hyphen spread.

John Corcoran: 19:19

Excellent, excellent. David, thank you so much.

David Deane-Spread: 19:23

My pleasure man. My pleasure.

Outro: 19:25

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