Page 122 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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Reorganization and Restructuring 103
many of them, especially the younger people, quickly found new
ones.
When communication is open and transparent during the
whole process of a reorganization, the people affected are more
likely to respond in a positive way.

Goodwill is vital in a closure situation

Jim Walsh

Goodwill and a solid reputation for effective communication are
vital when bad news has to be given.
Announcing the closure of a plant employing 350, which has
been operating in a small community for 30 years, is not easy.
When faced with that task early in 2006, the management of
NEC Semiconductors Ireland did what they had done for 30
years: they considered the effect on their workers to be a priority
and developed a communication programme to reflect that
concern.
The decision to close was not a local one. It was made by NEC
Electronics Corporation, the Semiconductor’s parent company
in Tokyo; and it was made for sound business reasons. The
company operated a number of similar plants around the world,
in mainland Europe, Asia and the United States. The Irish plant
was the smallest and the international trading dimension of the
business, plus the scale of the plant, made it impossible to
achieve the level of operating costs required. NEC Electronics
was stepping up its cost-cutting measures to improve financial
performance following a forecast of group operating losses for
the fiscal year ending 31 March 2006.
On a stand-alone basis the Irish management and employees
had been working hard to improve efficiency and at the same
time produce to the quality levels demanded in the marketplace.
In the two years before closure, the plant had managed to turn
in a small profit each year, but it was carrying losses from pre-
vious years, which clearly would not be recoverable.
Ballivor in County Meath, the site of the NEC plant for 30
years, is a small village about 30 miles north-west of Ireland’s