Barton ended up in the situation by a combination of going to quickly and not gathering support along the way. The relationships he built were good but he was too close to Ace Jackson and it appears that confiding in him, to win his approval, may have been his biggest mistake. His communication has come from the “ivory tower” and people are not with him, they do not fully understand the reasons. The board have lost strength of purpose and he has missed their change of heart until it is too late. He has accepted the first approval to proceed as enough mandate and not continued to test it along the way with his key decision makers.
He needs to regroup the board and seek clarification on what parts of his plan can actually be approved and then get the group to agree what will be done collectively to deliver the plan that saves and possibly even develops SMA for the future. Alternative options need to be hammered out with the board as the status quo will only lead to its demise. He needs to get the board to see that. It is not time to resign as this is a moment of “change resistance” by the board and if they only “screw their courage to the sticking place” there is a strong chance that this new vision, or a more agreeable version of it, will save the company. He must appeal to their sense of the moment and ensure that they know if things remain the same they are the custodians who are captaining the ship to the bottom of the ocean and will go into business history with that reference. He needs to win the press back and therefore requires some spin put in immediately to stem that rumour mill and prepare a platform for presenting the board as a united front on the “modified vision” that will still secure and build the company’s future. He then needs the employees to come on board and should recognise that this is his biggest challenge. Without these people the company will not flourish and yet without their acceptance of change it will not flourish either. Much work is required.