Guest Post from Tom McKeown, President and Chief Operating Officer

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain took the fiscal position of needing to take an axe to the federal budget in order to reduce government spending. In response, then Senator Barack Obama countered with the idea that the better tool was a scalpel so one did not cut off muscle with the fat. Politics aside, many corporations face similar decisions during good times and bad, but must act in a quicker manner than government is able or likely to do. read more »

How successful has your last reorganization been? How much thought was focused on “putting it back together” during your “taking it apart” process?

Yesterday my 8-year old son came to the office with me for a little while. One of our IT guys, Carlos, saw him and gave him an ancient PC and a screw driver and told him to take it apart. My son was so excited! And he dove right into his appointed task. read more »

Layoffs and reorganizations can wreak havoc on your documentation for compliance, such as the FDA and SOX required “who owns what” style. The changes of ownership are happening rapidly and documentation may not be keeping up. Yet the regulators are scrutinizing even closer for that very reason. But there is a scarier data issue: identity management. read more »

Layoffs, or Reductions in Force (RIFs), are not pleasant. Some people get angry that a business would even consider doing a cut in their workforce. A lot of focus is currently going to the layoffs which people perceive are because management didn’t know how to run the business well enough to avoid the cuts. Although many cuts may be happening due to poor management, many of the RIFs are very prudent and intelligent choices by management. read more »

Bloody Monday and Ugly Tuesday are big evidence that there are a lot of jobs being cut. Most people are anticipating more layoffs. That means HR personnel have a lot of work ahead of them. Here are some quick tips to consider to save yourself and the company from a little of the pain of a badly selected layoff pool. read more »