How to cut jobs? Check styles of HP and NY Times

Meg Whitman, the CEO of struggling Hewlett-Packard, told the bad news of massive 27,000 job layoffs as it is. In an internal video, she cited how the workforce grew exponentially when revenue growth was on a death spiral. “We’re struggling under our own weight. And we’ve got to restore a healthy balance…the workforce reduction is only one piece of a comprehensive effort,” she said in the video. To analysts, Whitman “gets it and might even turn this supertanker around.” 

That’s not the same sentiment shared at the New York Times board after Janet Robinson was ousted as the newspaper company’s chief executive in December. While declining advertising revenue, a plummeting stock, and 3-year no-dividend policy played a role, at least two board members apparently blame owner Arthur Sulzberger Jr.’s new girlfriend Claudia Gonzalez who reportedly “either took Sulzberger’s attention away from company business for long stretches of time or inserted herself into it at [Robinson’s] expense.” Business and personal affairs don’t mix.  

Read more on the Guardian and Reuters