Hastie Group Limited - what went wrong?

Hastie Group Limited became a publically listed company in 2005 with a strong growth outlook in the supply of commercial air conditioners and other commercial services as they diversified. Looking through their annual reports, it appears that in 2009 they were struggling off the back of the GFC, property/building bubble burst and an increasing focus on reducing energy use/costs and carbon footprint. In 2010, profits were down and 2011 saw continued concerns despite some diversification.

Hastie Group Limited had stayed the course with their original strategy at time of public listing through to 2011 which was to ‘expand its range of technical building services and geographical coverage through organic growth and acquisitions’ (2011 Annual Report). I do wonder at this continued strategy during a GFC, building sector downturn, tightening of markets and climate change adaptation pressures. Perhaps this momentum contributed to Hasties going into administration? The $20 million anomaly found a couple of weeks ago at a time when new leadership were trying to revive the business and negotiate funding broke the camel’s back but failures are rarely simple.

The Financial Review released an article today titles 'Heads in the sand eventually bury Hastie' which highlights systemic problems within the organisation around its leadership and culture. You can find the article here.

No doubt this will be one to watch as the experts provide further insight and analysis. I certainly will be looking at this one a little closer of the next few months. I would encourage you to have a look back through some of the annual reports, read some of the analysis by the experts and make up your own minds about what went wrong and please share your views.

While we can study this, and I am sure many of us will, let's not forget the human cost of these failures. It is as good a reason as any to continue our journey and improve our understanding and development of organisational resilience.