Appendix C: Sample Speech - Announcing a Company Crisis (Round 1 of Cost Cutting)

Good morning. For those who I’ve not had the opportunity to meet personally, my name is ___________________, ________________’s (Company Name) president and chief operating officer. I come to you today with news about a difficult challenge our company will face over the next several weeks. It is one that will test us, yet one in which I am confident we will prevail and emerge a winner.

Our company faces a crisis that affects everyone in our industry. We have come through the fourth straight quarter of declining sales and profits. This last quarter we experienced a $25 million loss—one that we cannot afford to repeat. Your senior executives and the board know that our core strengths remain strong, that we can weather this downturn, and that we will emerge with a strong competitive advantage. But we won’t survive to see that day if our costs keep mounting. We must take action now and that is why I have come to talk to you.

A $25 Million Problem

We have a $25 million dollar problem. Our losses have been mounting and if we are going to survive, we must find ways to remove $25 million in costs as quickly as we possibly can. On the other hand we need to be smart about it. We cannot afford to lose the very talent we will need to survive this period in our company’s history and to fight into the future.

Your senior executives, the board, and I have wrestled with the $25 million problem for several weeks now and have a game plan. I want to describe this plan to you, tell you how it will impact you, and answer any questions you will have about it. We have set two primary objectives for this plan:

1. Save the company and

2. Save jobs

I can’t guarantee this morning that there will be no job loss. In fact there is a high probability that we will have to cut some jobs in the coming weeks. But I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to prevent job losses, and I think my past record demonstrates my honesty and credibility. We will take every step possible to cut costs before we are forced to cut jobs.