Turnarounds
Beating par
How Eddie Fadel turned around Ashworth Inc.’s golf business by refusing to settle for average
By Kristy J. O’Hara
Smart Business San Diego | October 2008
Page 1 of 4
When Eddie Fadel came back to
Ashworth Inc. as president in May 2007, he
knew it wouldn’t be an afternoon stroll on
the golf course.
“The company had kind of lost its way,”
he says. “There was a reason they wanted
me to come back.”
While Ashworth still brought in $209.6
million in revenue in fiscal 2006, its on-course golf business — by far the largest of
its six golf apparel segments — was down
28 percent that year and was already down
double digits in the first two quarters of fiscal 2007, as well.
“Don’t confuse activity for results,” he
says. “You have to look at results. If the
results aren’t what they’re supposed to be,
and they aren’t meeting your expectations,
you have to ask yourself why.”
Part of that answer was attributed to
what the prior administration looked at.
“I think they were looking at the wrong
[metrics],” Fadel says. “I don’t think they
understood the industry. ... I think that
everyone on that level is going to look at
some kind of metrics. It’s just are they
looking at the right ones? To me, the right
ones are the ones that count and produce
results.”
The company had also ventured into
noncore apparel arenas to try to compete
with athletic companies.
“A lot of athletic brands have gone into
high-tech fabrics,” Fadel says. “They snag,
and they smell, and they’re hot to wear,
and it’s not who we are. We’re not an athletic brand. I never got caught up in it, but
the prior administration got caught up in
it. They were a me-too company. They lost
their way. They were trying to be like
everybody else. They thought they were
doing the right thing, but they did the
wrong thing.”
To get Ashworth’s golf segment back on
track, he knew he needed to make
changes, so he went back to the basics.
“I’m a simple guy,” Fadel says. “There’s
three ingredients — it’s people, it’s product and it’s brand. You have to focus on all
three.”
