BlackBerry began the restructuring and workforce reductions 3 years ago. Today, in a leaked, internal memo, John Chen told employees of BlackBerry that the workforce reductions and restructuring of the company have now ended.
“We have completed the restructuring notification process, and the workforce reduction that began three years ago is now behind us,” – John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry
John Chen, in the memo thanked the employees that stayed through the hard times and mentioned that he will be hiring people for certain jobs in certain areas such as product development, sales and customer services.
“More importantly, barring any unexpected downturns in the market, we will be adding headcount in certain areas such as product development, sales and customer service, beginning in modest numbers”
The company had 17,500 employees in 2011 and now has 7000. He believes BlackBerry is in a position to be moving forward, being cash flow positive and being comfortable with making acquisitions to further drive the company’s future revenue growth.
John Chen is a man of his words, in the 8 months he has been CEO, he’s worked hard and fast to turn the ship the other way, setting the company up for the long term with all the assets he has on the table. According to the original article, Chen stressed that there was no margin for error in BlackBerry’s turnaround efforts and told employees to remain focused with the upcoming launches of the BlackBerry Passport, the Classic and BES 12.
Source: Reuters