Lenovo top management shares in ‘resource deployment’ pain :: WRAL.com
Posted: Today at 7:57 a.m.
MORRISVILLE, N.C. — Lenovo’s “resource deployment plan” sounds just like “resource action” at IBM – restructuring and layoffs. However, there’s one thing Lenovo didn’t inherit something from Big Blue when it acquired IBM’s PC division for more than $1 billion back in 2005. The Chinese founders and U.S. investors who control the company are making sure management pays the price for lack of performance.
While 11 percent of Lenovo’s global work force – including a couple hundred among the 1,700 at the global headquarters campus in Morrisville – hit the street, they aren’t the only ones who will be feeling the pain. Lenovo said top managers’ compensation will be cut from 30-50 percent.
That slash in pay is a stunning rebuke for Chief Executive Officer William Amelio and the other top managers he hand-picked to lead Lenovo after he bolted Dell for the top spot at the world’s No. 4 PC-maker in December 2005.
via Lenovo top management shares in ‘resource deployment’ pain :: WRAL.com.
Lenovo to slash 11% of work force; net of 100 jobs leaving RTP :: WRAL.com
Morrisville, N.C. — Lenovo Group said Wednesday it will lay off 2,500 workers, or about 11 percent of its work force, as part of a plan aimed at helping the computer maker remain competitive amid the global economic downturn.
The company, which is the world’s fourth-largest PC maker, also warned that it expects to report a loss for its fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Lenovo’s headquarters is in Morrisville. Most of its operations are in China.
The restructuring will mean a net loss of 100 jobs for the Triangle, according to company spokesperson Ray Gorman. Lenovo said it would close a call center in Toronto, Canada, and move those jobs to Morrisville.
However, some 250 jobs will be cut in the Triangle, Gorman said. The hires for the call center work will be made locally, he added.
The 250 cuts in the Triangle will be made in “all functions,” Gorman said. “It’s across the board.”
The layoffs are expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter, Gorman said.
Lenovo now employs around 1,700 people locally. Recently, 50 positions were eliminated as part of cross-company, cost-cutting moves. Hundreds of former IBM employees have left or been laid off since Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC division in 2005 for more than $1 billion. IBM’s PC group was based primarily in the Triangle.
via Lenovo to slash 11% of work force; net of 100 jobs leaving RTP :: WRAL.com.
Separation Meeting Scheduled
(l-r) Skip Johnson, me, Kenny Wicks, 1993
First of all, no, I didn’t get a weave.
I call this the “My Two Dads” shot. This photo is from a dear friend,colleague,and mentor, Ken Wicks’, IBM 25th anniversary luncheon in Chicago, atop the Standard Oil building. Ah those were the days. I had attended the other guy’s, my manger Skip Johnson’s, 25th anniversary luncheon a year or so prior. (Skip passed away in 2005.)
What’s with the nostalgia, you ask?
I’m scheduled for my official separation meeting on January 12 now. Yep. Even though I knew it was coming, the fact I have a meeting scheduled on the calendar crystalizes it in my mind.They offered me the option to meet off-site, but I want to go in.
I’m not trying to be dramatic or wallow in self-pity. I’m just coming to real grips with this. I mean, I’ve never been a job-hopper, I’m intelligent, I have a well-honed midwestern work ethic, I’m creative,good looking(hey had to break the list up somehow).
Doesn’t matter now.
I’m not bragging when I say it will cost more to teach someone what I and so many others like me have achieved the last 20 years than it would to keep us. Brain trust is not valued, it seems.
I want to let you in on a little secret: Laying people off won’t solve these companies’ problems. It won’t. Oh it makes good press. ” Spacely Sprockets slashes X jobs! We took swift action! We are slashing costs.” Skip used to use the expression “They’re not moving the car forward, they’re just backstage pulling the curtain making the scenery go faster.” (think old Hollywood road movies)
Doesn’t matter now.
I’d imagined having a 25 year dinner in the future too, IBM-style, with all my friends and family…stainless steel Rolex (Do they still do that?) 5 more years after that, retire and start the rest of my life. Indeed the times they are a-changin’, Mr. Dylan. Indeed.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’. –Bob Dylan, 1963
Triangle unemployment rate increases – Business – News & Observer
Triangle unemployment rate increases – Business – News & Observer.
The Triangle is home to a large concentration of traditionally stable industries: health care, education and government. But job cuts now are hurting workers in those sectors.
Wachovia economist Mark Vitner expects the state and local jobless rate to pass 9 percent before any type of recovery.
“This is a wicked recession,” Vitner said. “And it’s gotten whole lot worse.”
alan.wolf@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4572
Reformed Laid-Off LinkedIn User
“
I changed my ways, sir!” –Thomas Sams in the movie “Lean on Me”
After all the great comments regarding my Laid-Off on LinkedIn post, I had no choice but to admit the error of my ways and reform. So, with all the contrition of Thomas Sams on the rooftop with Joe Clark in “Lean on Me”, I took the advice of the readership and made my title reflect my laid-off status. My title now reads:
Web Marketing Strategist w/20 Yrs PC Industry Experience Seeking Social Media Marketing Opportunity at Technology Company or Social Media Agency
(See my full profile here.)
My original post on this subject drew the 2nd larget amount of traffic, and largest number of coments on The Downsized Diaries to date. I am grateful to all the recruiters and industry professionals who took the time to give me feedback: Julie Walraven, Lindsay Olson, Leighsah, Susan,and Lisa Creech”Bruiser” Bledsoe.
NPR: Listeners Check In: Layoffs
Follow-up to the podcast I was interviewed for on Friday on NPR’s Planet Money podcast-K
On the Friday podcast, we took up the idea that layoffs might be good for our economy — even if they’re not necessarily good for the people involved. Complete post at:NPR: Listeners Check In: Layoffs.
BlogHer Quotes The Downsized Diaries
Shout-out to Eleana Cantor at the wondeful blog/movement that is BlogHer for linking to The Downsized Diaries in her post
My Final Performance Evaluation (Video Diary)
Downsized Diaries: My Final Performance Evaluation
My ‘video diary’ entry immediately after my final performance evaluation at my soon-to-be-former company.
My Interview with NPR’s Planet Money
I was interviewed by NPR’s Planet Money podcast program today about being laid off. Podcast, blog post, and download links are here.
