Big Layoffs Today at HCC
From: "Mark Slaughter" mark.slaughter@rig.net
To: "Chad Winkle" chad.winkle@rig.net, "Morten Hagland Hansen" hansen@rig.net, "Joe Conboy" joe.conboy@rig.net, "Brian Keefover" brian.keefover@rig.net, "Hector Maytorena" hector.maytorena@rig.net... more
Cc: "Marty Jimmerson" marty.jimmerson@rig.net, "Bill Sutton" bill.sutton@rig.net, "Boyd Skelton" boyd.skelton@rig.net
Folks,
We're hearing there were big layoffs today at Harris CapRock Communications (HCC). Reportedly, the layoffs totaled about 60 people, including 30 here in Houston. 59 of the 60 people were reportedly from legacy CapRock, which suggests Schlumberger's people continue to come out ahead. Severance payments were further reported to be quite minimal, so there will be quite a crowd of disgruntled ex-employees out there.
Layoffs are not unusual when companies merge such as CapRock and Schlumberger GCS, given the high degree of organizational overlap, but coming so late after the combination came together early in 2011 suggests something more is at work here. At the very least, Harris' new CEO, Bill Brown, has done a "brown-sizing" to speed the pace of the integration, plus he is well-known as relentless cost-cutter.
On top of today's layoffs, within the last year three senior legacy CapRock executives have left abruptly: Peter Shaper, group CEO; Doug Tutt, CEO; and, most recently, Ron Wagnon, Western Hemisphere VP. They have lost a lot of talent and institutional knowledge.
What does this mean for us? It means further distractions on their side and continued openings for us to approach every single one of their customers who may be experiencing network problems and are otherwise unsettled by all the organizational changes at HCC. Let's continue to pull the gloves off and go on the attack. There's a window here of continued distraction, but we need to move quickly, as HCC will ultimately pull itself together and be a more formidable competitor.
Please drive your sales teams, with Chad's guidance, to approach every single HCC energy customer in the near-term. We certainly need to cover our flank, but this is a unique time to introduce our superior value proposition to their energy customers.
Happy hunting.
Regards,
Mark
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Mark Slaughter | CEO & President
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