What is downsizing? see http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci759501,00.html
As I've searched the net for topics related to downsizing, I have come across this particular subject in one of the forums connected to industries and companies. Thanks to Hoovers Business Insight Zone, I have found a subject for my assignment.
What attracted my attention is a featured telecommunications company (of the day - in the forum) which has, or is, actually experiencing continuous layoffs with its employees.What I'm talking about is the Alcatel-Lucent, a company that operates in telecommunications equipment sector. According to what I have searched, Alcatel-Lucent took its current form in late 2006, when French company Alcatel plunked down $11.6 billion to buy Lucent in a merger. They agreed in a $13.4 billion deal to combine their productions, creating a company with revenue of $25 billion, 88,000 employees and phone customers across the world. The merging of North America with Central and Latin America in Alcatel-Lucent's sales structure is part of a broader move to simplify the way the company sees the world, splitting it into just two regions: the Americas, and the rest.
But with the 2006 merger, reports said that the $27.5 billion company has posted six quarterly losses and has taken more than $4.5 billion in writedowns, while its stock has plummeted 50%. Despite the efforts of CEO Patricia Russo and her team the misery hasn’t gotten better since the two companies joined forces.
In fact, I've learned that the company has undergone company downsizing and further layoffs after its postmerger financial performance continued to disappoint. As part of the restructuring, the company also announced that it was going to lay off 16,500 employees throughout the country. Well, the lay-off plans were mainly due to the company's three-point plan for restoring the company to profitability.
Last Oct. 31, 2007's news is full of stories on Alcatel-Lucent’s plans to lay off 4,000 employees. Worse than the news is how little surprise it provoked: the company has already announced layoffs of 12,500 people this year, it just reported yet another sizeable loss.
Russo will in future be advised by panel of seven senior executives, down from 11 before. Just two of them are former Lucent employees: Cindy Christy, who will add Central and Latin America to her existing responsibility for North American sales, and John Meyer, head of services, a role he held at Lucent.
Other changes ahead for the company include a tighter focus on products to help carriers transform their networks to an all-IP (Internet Protocol) infrastructure, a move from products to value-added services, and a more streamlined organization with fewer staff in support functions to eliminate post-merger duplication.
Pedini's role in human resources is particularly significant as the company prepares to shed a further 4,000 jobs by 2009, having already cut 3,800 in the first half of this year. Her approach is likely to focus on the numbers -- the company hopes the job cuts will save it a further €400 million -- rather than the people, as she worked for four years as Alcatel's deputy CFO, only taking on the role of vice president of human resources and communications in January 2006.
This June 1, 2008 news said that already 2,000 Lucent employees left the company's 600,000-square-foot Lisle office to work across the street in Naperville. The building on Warrenville Road was more than 50 percent vacant. The move will consolidate 4,100 employees and contractors in the Naperville office.
Meanwhile, the Lisle location will be put on the market. Until 2005, Lucent Technologies also operated in Naperville Woods Office Center on Warrenville Road. The employees at that location were moved to the Naperville/Lisle office as the telecommunications equipment giant suffered losses and enacted companywide downsizing.
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Major Source:
Hoovers Business Insight Zone
[http://www.hooversbiz.com/category/telecom/]
Online articles:
Update: Poor results at Alcatel-Lucent prompt more layoffs By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service
Oct. 31, 2007
InfoWorld
[http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/31/Alcatel-Lucent-poor-results-prompt-more-lay-offs_1.html]
Alcatel-Lucent CFO leaves in management change by Peter Sayer, Wed, 31 Oct 2007
About.com: PC World Computing Center
[http://pcworld.about.com/od/networkin1/Alcatel-Lucent-CFO-leaves-in-m.htm]
With the use of digital playback equipment (recorder), and a word
