ABSTRACT
At 4:00 p.m. sharp, a well-orchestrated event unfolded. The CEO made a short opening speech, and came to the point straight away. Sales had now been down for four quarters in a row, and without serious measures the company would not survive. The consequence was that several sites in other countries such as Denmark, Norway, and the UK would need to be shut down, and that Vienna headquarters operations would have to continue with 60% of the current staff. In total 4,000 employees were to leave the company in the next two years, the centralized marketing and sales operations would be decentralized to be closer to their customers in the field, and central services such as HR, finance, and quality would have to reinvent their workflows and do more with fewer people. The phrases “Lean and mean” and “Walk the talk” were heard a few times during the presentations, and the whole restructuring plan was announced as part of a new company culture, with new values such as honesty, customercentric, and respectful.
