Seems like Nortel executives are reaching out to employees. Here’s a letter to the carrier network from Richard Lowe”
CN Employees,
The past several weeks have been the most challenging of my career, and no doubt they feel the same for many of you. While things are difficult from where I stand, I know that in
many ways they are even more difficult for you and your families, and I thank you for hanging in there and continuing to fight this difficult battle together.
Since January 14, the leadership team and I have been reaching out to our customers, suppliers and partners to explain the process we’re going through, and how it’s likely to unfold in the coming weeks and months. Our basic message has been this: despite the restructuring work that must take place, we’re focused on maintaining our network performance commitments to customers, delivering our POR, and ensuring that the supply chain continues to meet the plan.
I’m pleased to report that much of this stabilization work is complete, and that our customers are gaining confidence in our ability to deliver during the restructuring process. I’ve now spoken with virtually all our tier one customers, and most of our tier two and three customers, and they are universally supportive of Nortel and the steps we’re taking. Today’s announcements mark a key milestone on the path to becoming a stable and competitive company.
With today’s news we’re taking the necessary steps in advance of our overall business and restructuring plan to resize our business to match the current market reality. I won’t repeat the basic news: there are comprehensive tools and explanations located HERE, but I’d like to add a little additional context. First, the job actions that will be taking place, over the coming weeks and months and in accordance with local country legal requirements, are absolutely necessary to reduce our cash burn and assist in having the resources we need for any additional measures under the comprehensive restructuring yet to come.
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Economic conditions remain tough, carrier customer spending is down, and we need to make the needed course corrections today to align ourselves with this new reality. Many of the reductions you’ll see are basic adjustments to size our workforce to the market. Some will be as a direct result of our strategic decision to exit mobile WiMAX as announced a few weeks ago. While I can’t go into the details of precisely where and when the impacts will be felt, I assure you that we’re doing everything possible to be as transparent and proactive with you as we can in the current environment.
The second item to note is that today’s news does not change any of our current strategic mandates. Our POR and contract delivery commitments remain in place. We remain focused on driving earnings and feature releases in our foundational GSM and CDMA businesses. We continue to invest in CVAS, where we enjoy the acknowledged #1 share position in CVoIP, and where our applications focus is starting to resonate with customers seeking new sources of revenue for their own businesses.
Despite our disappointment with Verizon’s phase 4 announcement, our LTE solution has gained traction with KDDI and TMO International. We must shake off any disappointment and focus on meeting our LTE program and trial milestones while we continue to explore partnership options for our LTE solution.
Finally, you’ll see that we’re taking some basic steps to re-affirm that the stakeholders are aligned in their desire to move through this process quickly. Incentive programs like those announced today are aligned to both our creditor’s goals to quickly and cost effectively restructure the business, and our own to ensure that employees are encouraged to drive forward in the face of an extremely difficult environment.
Next week I’ll host my regular quarterly GIS to provide you updates on our business and the restructuring process. Most importantly, I’ll be providing a readout on recent customer suppliers in the last few weeks. What you’ll hear me say is that our customers, suppliers, and partners are universally and overwhelmingly supportive. They want Nortel to win. They want us to come through this process and to thrive as a vibrant, stable and profitable company. They have offered whatever support they can to help us get through this quickly and effectively. That, together with driving our established business priorities, is exactly where I will be focusing my personal efforts in the weeks and months to come. Over the coming weeks we will experience the departure of friends and colleagues.
I’d like to thank everyone that is being impacted for their many contributions to the company, and for the sacrifices they’ve made on Nortel’s behalf. I ask the rest of you to be supportive of these individuals at this difficult time and at the same time to remain focused on our business priorities as these changes take place, so that one day we can perhaps welcome our co-workers back to a revitalized and growing Nortel – one that the rest of us are tasked with recreating. The best chance to help those that are leaving is to rebuild a business that can thrive.
I look forward to speaking to you all next week at the CN Webcast.
Richard
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