The strategy by Miller was confused and incoherent.
They started with their own brand selling into the consumer market directly and via some select bricks and mortar stores. Which is fine when starting out, but beyond this Miller had next to no idea how to build on this.
He wanted to push the iq and max’s into the hearing space but could never execute any real deal with any hearing outlet. It appears he believed that simply agreeing on an arrangement was sufficient. Nevertheless they were still able to drive online sales and build the brand. That was remarkable but more was needed. It is hard to understand why the NHS, specsavers etc never went anywhere, did Miller believe it would happen all by itself.
Next he decided to go into the medical devices space, and junk the consumer space, The plan should of been to transition , the company almost went under in mid 2022 if it wasnt for RealTek, their sales had collapsed. Once RealTek was on board, why waste time continuing on with the prior strategy ?? You are not partnered with a chip maker, why waste time and money pursing your old strategy ?
When they finally got their FDA approval they had zero product to sell but this time they were selling under HP branding, in effecting junking their own brand equity. They sales were significantly higher selling under the NUH banner into the consumer market than anything they have achieved selling under the hP brand into the OTC market.
With a new category it is always very uncertain as to how it will it evolve or how the market needs to be sold to. Whether Luna understood this and could not get his way is unclear, but what is clear Miller had no idea, he didnt even understand the deal he entered into with Walmart, conveying one thing then having to play semantics later last yr and revealing it to be very different to what we understood it to be. Whatever one thinks of Luna, he probably understood the US market far better than Miller, it is his backyard.
Each capital raise was to expand into the US market, but surely Miller and Kelly must of had some idea of what is required from a balance sheet perspective, particularly when it was clear the expected sales were not coming through? It appears not.
Then they did a disastrous capital raise in Nov 23 , at this point Miller and Board needed to be aware that they lacked the resources yet they doubled down pursuing a doomed strategy. And here they are now trying to cut a deal to save the company. Regardless of what happens next, he will need to explain himself even if he manages to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
Miller may understand how to start a company being serial entrepreneur , but a serial entrepreneur is serial for a reason, they have no idea how to build or run a company.
He is probably one of the worst CEO’s on the Australian ASX and the sooner he goes the better. He also has serious health issues which he flagged in a very very vague way last year, what most people dont realise is how serious it is and he is in no state to be running a company.
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