Bigger than they can carry alone: management is reaching outside the company for capability it lacks, because business a
The model's full reasoning — Q4 2023 call → NOWe need to determine if the transcript describes a situation where the company is reaching outside for capability it lacks because its won business has outgrown its own capacity. Let's examine the transcript. Key points: Michael Murray discusses strategic initiatives. He mentions "fab-light strategy" - moving OLED deposition to partners outside China. He says: "we have taken significant steps throughout 2023 to expand our OLED and microLED technology development to partners outside of China, which are U.S. DoD approved and in regions that are NATO supportive. We will complete this transition this year. This new strategy allows Kopin to manufacture our backplane technology and deposit either LCD, OLED, microLEDs or LCOS either internally or externally for cost, security of supply and performance beneficial to the end customers." He also mentions a European partner achieving brightness performance. This is about sourcing capability externally. But is the reason that business has outgrown? He says: "An early success factor of this strategy was announced on Wednesday this week when we announced our European U.S. DoD OLED partner was able to achieve brightness performance far higher than that of our consumer vendor..." That seems like a technology improvement, not necessarily because they have too much business. Later, he talks about backlog: "we booked follow-on orders of approximately $6 million for our thermal weapon IP assemblies... brings our current backlog level to $55 million. We believe this is a record level of orders for the last 10 years. Furthermore, we do anticipate additional follow-on orders... Based just on this current demand, Kopin will potentially ship triple the volume of weapon sites within the calendar year of 2024." He also mentions: "We also continue to acquire inventory into the first quarter to service these larger contracts that will go into production in 2024." So there is a large backlog and they are ramping up. But is the company reaching outside for capability? The fab-light strategy is about using external partners for deposition. Is that because they lack capacity? Or is it a strategic choice for cost/security? He says: "for cost, security of supply and performance beneficial to the end customers." That suggests it's not purely because they have too much business, but also for other reasons.
| Ticker | Company | Call | Date | Call grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRBR | BellRing Brands, Inc. | Q4 2023 | 2023-11-21 | B+ |
| SYM | Symbotic Inc. | Q3 2022 | 2022-08-01 | B+ |
| AOSL | Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited | Q2 2018 | 2018-02-07 | B |
BRBR · Q4 2023 → YESThe question is whether management describes the company currently going outside itself to obtain capability it does not have because the business it has already won has outgrown what it can do on its...
SYM · Q3 2022 → YESThe question is whether management describes the company currently going outside itself to obtain capability it doesn't have because the business it has already won has outgrown what it can do on its ...
AOSL · Q2 2018 → YESThe question is whether management describes the company currently going outside itself to obtain capability it doesn't have because the business it has already won has outgrown what it can do on its ...