Costs down, talent up

The ever‐changing landscape of the music industry and the rapid take up of the digital delivery of music was something that EMI had not capitalized on quick enough. This meant a fall in profit margins and a private equity firm buy‐out resulting in the need for a global headcount reduction to save costs, but with the simultaneous need to retain core talent to aid the businesses recovery. The process was highly publicized and the business was under immense pressure to deliver a successful change program to stop the business from freefalling. This paper aims to look at the issues involved.

Penna was approached to work with EMI to implement the downsizing program and its experienced team took a “Cost Down, Talent Up” approach, which is the result of years of Penna experience in the restructuring field. It incorporates an assessment model that is designed to not only retain existing talent but to introduce new talent to lead the business forward while driving down costs.

Penna identified a series of critical success factors for EMI and other companies undertaking such change programs, broadly grouped under the following umbrella terms: set the right goals for your change process; restructure at pace; and integrate talent management.

The paper hightlights how businesses are facing new challenges and must think carefully about their survival strategies, as cost cutting alone is not enough to survive. Employers and HR teams must work to retain the core values embedded in the employer brand, not just when recruiting but also when streamlining or making redundancies.