Editorial Tom Bullock must be fired 9/23/99 For a company that hadn't made the news for one specific event, Ocean Spray received more media attention yesterday on one day than any company in recent memory. It was the subject of well researched newspaper stories in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Cape Cod Times. All three were in depth analyses compiled by a group of experienced business reporters that took considerable time to prepare. To say that these three articles, plus the critical Moody's Investment Services report released the day before, put the company in a bad light is an understatement. The sobering, if not chilling, suggestion by the Wall Street Journal that Ocean Spray's value is a mere $1 billion should be enough of a wake up call to the Board of Directors that more decisive action is needed than merely energizing and refocusing the company during a year-long transition period from management under Tom Bullock's regime to management under a new CEO that Bullock himself will be in charge of selecting. If Ocean Spray aspires to be a world class company, the Board must assure that it handles mismanagement like other world class companies. Not having someone, like the Chairman of the Board, to step in immediately as interim CEO may have led the Board to act indecisively. But, regardless of why he is still in charge, now is the time for damage control. Ocean Spray is a great company led to the brink of bankruptcy; but not by a surplus and competition, made worse by few minor problems (the failure of Wellfleet farms and a troublesome computer system were not minor problems) as Bullock contends. It is where it is today because of Mr. Bullock himself. Despite the fact that Tom Bullock has announced his retirement, he can, and must, be fired.
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