The email below, along with a video from our president and an FAQ document, was sent to all Cook Medical employees on Monday, May 15 at 1pm EST.
Memo header: Company announcement: A difficult step for our strategic success
To: All Cook Medical employees
From: Pete Yonkman
The last several years have brought significant change to our customers, our supply chain, and the way we work. To ensure that we are positioned to be successful in this new world, our global leadership teams have implemented a new five-year vision and strategic plan that were informed by extensive feedback from our customers, employees, and leadership teams.
Today we are announcing the most difficult decision we have had to make in support of our strategy. We will be implementing a reduction in the size of our global workforce by approximately 500 people or about 4% of our total employees. This is a very hard choice, and not one that we have made without significant thought. Steps like this are especially difficult because they impact the lives of people we have come to respect as colleagues and friends. But it is a decision that we are convinced is critical to achieving our long-term success and our vision for who we want to be as an organization.
It is important to note that no hourly manufacturing employees or hourly employees in distribution centers will be impacted. Demand for our products continues to grow and we want to ensure we have the capacity to meet it.
Why we’re taking this action
Our vision for the future is to lead the industry by relentlessly delivering new products and services to address unmet customer needs and underserved patients. Reaching this vision will require careful planning, strategic choices and a lot of hard work. That’s why our mid-range plan is so important—it maps a clear pathway to reach our goals.
The first few years of the mid-range plan have a significant focus on our disciplines of operational and financial excellence. An early focus on these two areas will ensure we’re able to invest significantly in the next phases of our product leadership strategy.
Next steps
We acknowledge that there is no perfect way to communicate this decision in a global, hybrid work environment. Please know that we put thoughtful consideration into every step of the process, keeping the needs of impacted employees at the center of our efforts. We have also worked to provide best-in-class transition services, severance and support for people who are impacted by this decision.
If you are an impacted employee in AMER, you will receive an email between 8:00am and 9:00am EST tomorrow morning letting you know you are impacted and outlining next steps for a conversation with an assigned leader and HR. We want to make sure that you are in a comfortable, private location for these conversations. We are asking all hybrid employees and onsite employees who are capable of working from home to do so for the remainder of the week.
All employees in each country outside the US will receive country-specific information from senior leadership and HR about next steps as quickly as is possible. The process for sharing will take into account local laws and regulations, and our commitment to all employees around the world is to make this transition as smooth as possible.
Please note that a relatively small group of leaders were responsible for the planning and execution of this announcement—your direct manager may or may not be aware of the details and next steps.
Thank you
To those who are directly impacted by this decision: Thank you for your dedication and contributions to Cook. You’ve helped to improve the lives of patients across the world. We appreciate everything you have done for Cook and we are committed to supporting you through this transition to help you in your next step.
Pete Yonkman
President
Cook Group and Cook Medical