Be honest
When you’re cutting products and areas, you’re also cutting people,
so Dutton had to communicate to his 2,300 employees the company’s
state and that many would lose their jobs as he made decisions. With
bad news, it would be easy for them to slack off until they know if
their job is safe, but Dutton showed them how their work output
would affect not just themselves but their peers.
“A lot of it was being clear to our employees and divisions,” he says.
“There were cases I’d walk in and show people our revenue stream,
our cash flow and essentially give them a number — ‘If we reach this
point in cash flow, the company will cease to exist and nobody has a
job, or you can adjust to this level, and then some people will have a
job. It’s your choice.’”
People worked to reach the levels he set out, and Dutton continued
making decisions. Because these decisions affected so many people,
if something had to go, he first looked to divest it so fewer people lost
jobs. About 900 people left as a result of the divestitures. What didn’t
get sold was discontinued, along with the necessary layoffs of about
800 people. Although it’s never easy to reduce a work force that much,
focus on the silver lining.
“The thing is, instead of 1,800 people having to lose their job, it
could have been 2,300, so you have to do the right thing through
the enterprise,” he says. “Whatever that end solution is, the enterprise now is successful in moving forward. That’s what you’re
signed up to do — that’s the ownership you take in that role.”
His advice for others is to get your leadership team on board, and
then move quickly.
“Once a decision is made, move as quickly as you can,” Dutton says.
“Get it done, get it over with, so that the people that are departing can
be helped to the next stage, and the people that have to move the company forward can now be focused on what are the next steps to move
the company forward.
“It’s making pretty tough calls and getting down to a point then
that the businesses you have moving forward are generating value,
and you can translate that value back into a profit. Once you get to
that stage, now you can start building that little strategy going forward.”
