Return on investment, plain and simple! As much as Navitas may have tried to project a non threatening presence since they purchased SAE, at the end of the day Navitas and SAE are a business. For those with long memories this is not the first for this, so RUN don't go into denial because if they have to they will cut you loose regardless of how long or short you have been working there. For those employees who are gutting it out in the trenches day by day month by month year by year, the powers that be will never truly understand that passion and commitment to the student. This perfect storm has been brewing for a long time and a quarter of a billion dollars cannot be written off even if it means losing talent, commitment, loyalty and passion! Trust your guts for those of you who are still there keep working hard to keep the SAE MAGIC! But sad as it may be and contrary to valuing employees EVERYONE is replaceable, SAE wasn't built in a day nor Navitas, too big to fail? Maybe not! But they will reinvent to get that ROI!
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I believe you are right that they were counting their chickens before they hatched. I would not have expected that rookie mistake of a CFO. Who does that? I wouldn't necessarily call it greed just yet, but they were definitely making financials investments and decisions with money they didn't have. Glad we have a new CFO, but the other guy needs to go. He was just as responsible as the CEO. And I'd say even moreso because he had both COO and CFO capabilities. Way to abuse your power.
Spending too fast and dreaming too big......that's what happens to a school once they are able to receive federal Fin Aid for there students.....they start counting the money before it comes in the front door. They are guilty of being greedy. NEWS FLASH: For profit schools are under a microscope by the US Dept of Education. The hay days of the early 2000's are gone forever for the for profit schools. Just be content with having a small to medium size school. Don't get greedy and learn from the schools that have already been down the road you are trying to go down.
I think Navitas could have had a healthy ROI if SAE Group did not go overboard with its spending and budgeting of staff. We should have been a little more conservative the first year and build up in the second year. No one really looked at what was happening at the schools.
There's good business and bad business and a way to get your ROI with good business. The team in place in Miami is far from good business. They have been more wasteful than anything else.
It's very difficult to come to work each day, giving your students everything, knowing that your company views you as a pawn