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Chip giant Intel on Thursday announced its first-quarter financial results and laid out a cost-cutting plan designed to "reinvent" the company.
Intel officials didn't confirm reports of extensive job cuts, but although CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the company took "a step in the right direction" in the latest quarter, layoffs are coming.
Intel's Q1 revenue was flat year-over-year at $12.7 billion, and the company forecasted $11.2 billion to $12.4 billion in revenue in Q2. The company reported an $821 million loss, which beat Wall Street expectations.
However, Tan laid out a path forward for the struggling chipmaker, including significant cuts to operational costs.
"There will be no quick fixes as we work to get back on a path to gaining market share and driving sustainable growth," Tan said, but the plan is for Intel to get "back to basics."
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Intel's strategy includes streamlining the organization by eliminating management layers. In an email sent to employees Thursday, Tan said the most important KPI for many Intel managers was the size of their teams, but he believes the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people. These structural changes will mean layoffs scheduled to begin in Q2 as the company moves "as quickly as possible" to reorganize over the next several months. Some of the cuts will impact R&D as well as marketing, general and administrative (MG&A) positions. The company already shed some 17,500 jobs last year
In the email, Tan said Intel needs to build on its progress, but "it won't be easy" as the company faces "increasingly volatile and uncertain macroeconomic environment."
As Tan began his effort to remake Intel's culture, he asked customers for feedback — and said that they were pretty blunt.
"We are seen as too slow, too complex and too set in our ways — and we need to change," Tan said. He said many Intel teams are eight or more layers deep, creating unnecessary bureaucracy that slows the company down. He plans to cut out the layers and empower top performers to catch up with leaner, faster and more agile competitors. The company wants to empower its engineering talent, including elevating some to the executive team that reports directly to Tan, to create new products and drive greater accountability across the company.