Ted Waitt Quotes

The consolidation that we started in 2009 was clearly the requirement of that time.

I think there are several departments we could completely get rid of, and we wouldn't miss it.

Prune - prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.

A research group found that 56 percent of major companies surveyed in the late '80s agreed that 'employees who are loyal to the company and further its business goals deserve an assurance of continued employment.' A decade later, only 6 percent agreed. It was in the '90s that companies started weeding people out as a form of cost reduction.

You know, in a workplace, when you shrink the size of a workforce, there is pain there. But there is no question: we have a government that we can no longer afford. That is the cold, hard fact. So we have to make this more efficient. We have to sunset programs that no longer work. We have to eliminate waste and fraud. We must do this.

I think a lot can be said for consolidation, but I think it should be done for the right reasons.

From a productivity standpoint, you're supposed to reduce headcount on par with declining revenue. If you believe the environment isn't going to improve, you should take a bigger cut to get in front of the problems.

Consolidation means less equipment, less networks, and less jobs.

A restructuring of an organisation is always a difficult time and delicate.

For a hot-shot CEO taking over a troubled company, mass firings are the ultimate quick fix, the accounting equivalent of crack: cheap, easy to score, instantly gratifying, and highly addictive.

Downsizing itself is an inevitable part of any creatively destructive economy.

I've been through a couple of mergers - they're not that fun. And it's easy to lose your focus on this grandiose mission you established for yourself as an independent company.

But I don't want massive layoffs of anyone - public or private. We are planning on shrinking government through attrition and reform, not through random pink slips.

We will downsize the government, motivate excess employees to become entrepreneurs, and increase the pay of a lean and mean bureaucracy.

I will be ruthless in cutting out waste, streamlining structures and improving efficiency.

Tough times helped many commodities producers become lean and mean through consolidation, mergers and cost-cutting. All that excess supply has been sopped up.

Much of what is called investment is actually nothing more than mergers and acquisitions, and of course mergers and acquisitions are generally accompanied by downsizing.

We held the team together for as long as possible and then sent all except the most critical personnel home.

There is no denying that downsizing can happen when a company receives private equity funding. It is unfortunate and hard on everyone who is affected.

Things are bad in 2001 at Yahoo. There's been layoffs, restructuring, lots of people left.

The corporate killer downsizing is directly responsive to what the mutual funds have wanted.

In a period of economic downturn, the overwhelming instinct is to pare back, cut costs, and lay off. If you do that, do so with your strategy in mind. The worst mistake is to cut across the board. Instead, reconnect and recommit to a clear strategy that will distinguish yourself from others.

Ford, as I understand it, had done away with the concept of regional management, and now they've re-introduced that in Europe, so it's kind of a two-way street.

We like the size of the company today given the environment and have no plans to split it up and make it smaller.

Sometimes you have to destroy your business in order to save it.