VivoPower International was recognized as one of the global winners of the 2021 Turnaround Management Association (TMA) Transaction of the Year Awards. The honor is in recognition of the hyper-turnaround of VivoPower in 2020 and is for the small companies (sub-$50 million in revenue) category.
Since 1993, TMA has honored excellence through its annual awards program, which recognizes the most successful turnarounds and impactful transactions internationally. Awardees are chosen through a rigorous peer-review process by the volunteer TMA awards committee. The process includes extensive diligence of each nominated case, with the judges reviewing all components of each entry and examining well-defined, measurable outcomes.
“We are honored and humbled by this recognition from the Turnaround Management Association,” Kevin Chin, executive chairman and CEO of VivoPower, said. “To be named a global awardee is a testament to the grit, creativity, winning mentality and unwavering commitment of the hyper-turnaround team. I am pleased for each of them to have been recognized as world class in the execution of this mission. Of course, this is now history, and we are laser-focused on the hyper-scaling of VivoPower as we seek to help our customers accelerate towards net zero.”
“In March 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, VivoPower’s prospects were looking very grim, with less than five weeks of cashflow and weighed down by costly legacy distractions and detractors,” Matt Cahir, board member and president of VivoPower, said. “However, within seven months, the company’s status was secured despite COVID and without compromising creditors because of the pace of strategic, cultural, and operational re-engineering. Now, 18 months later, VivoPower’s growth trajectory has been radically transformed into a hyperscale mission. I am delighted for the entire team.”
This year’s award winners have made a “significant impact on the global economy during one of the most challenging times for business in generations,” Scott Y. Stuart, TMA global CEO, said.
“While 2020 was a tremendously difficult year for everyone, the excellent work done by turnaround and restructuring industry professionals during this period is certainly a bright spot and something we can all be proud to celebrate,” Stuart said.
The 2021 Turnaround/Transaction of the Year Awards will be held during the TMA Annual Conference on 26-29 October in Nashville, TN. The event will also be broadcast online.
VivoPower’s Hyper-Turnaround in Summary
2020 was an exceptionally challenging year for VivoPower. Even before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company was already going through a difficult financial and organizational restructuring, with the added distraction of costly legacy matters to contend with. To turnaround VivoPower, Arowana founder and executive chairman, Chin, as majority shareholder, stepped in as CEO of the company in March 2020. He developed and implemented a hyper-turnaround plan, incorporating a strategic pivot code-named Operation Sunfish.
Chin identified the need to “defibrillate” the company’s culture and focus the hyper-turnaround mission on three key elements. First, he challenged the VivoPower team to prove the naysayers wrong, fostering a “siege mentality.”
He then aligned the hyper-turnaround team with performance stock unit shares which became incrementally motivational especially as the stock price started to rise over the ensuing months.
Finally, execution pace and precision were improved, with defined quarterly objectives and key results (OKRs) ingrained and daily huddles to review the completion of OKRs on an execution tracker board ensuring daily accountability. Importantly, a mindset of daily achievement was imbued: close something daily, no matter how small it is.
VivoPower also underwent a transformational strategic pivot to electric vehicles through the acquisition of Tembo e LV B.V. This allowed VivoPower to transform from a solar development and critical power services company competing in a “red ocean” to a company that delivers end-to-end sustainable energy solutions (incorporating EVs) that enable customers to decarbonize and accelerate towards net zero status, a “blue ocean” strategy given very few companies deliver a holistic net zero solution.
As a result, VivoPower’s share price hit an all-time high of $24.00 in October 2020. This represented a 2400% increase in just seven months. It also provided the platform to consummate an oversubscribed $28.75 million capital raising which enabled the company to complete its acquisition of Tembo. It also marked the successful completion of the company’s hyper-turnaround.
