Born announces 70 job cuts at Minnetonka headquarters, two other offices
Sheila Lalwani
Star Tribune
Friday, July 13, 2001
Born, a privately held computer consulting firm known for offering unique perks to its employees, said Thursday that it is laying off 70 workers in three of its offices
around the country, including at its headquarters in Minnetonka.
The latest round of layoffs leaves Born with about 775 workers, or a work force that is 30 percent smaller than it was a year ago. Born spokesman Scott Hvidsten said
the job cuts came from a variety of occupations at the company, ranging from from consultants to administrative and corporate workers.
Layoffs, especially in the consulting field, have plagued companies such as Born, which provides information technology consultants to companies under contracts.
Born competitors such as Sapient Corp. of Cambridge, Mass.; Viant Corp. of Boston, and iXL Enterprises Inc. of Atlanta all have cut back. In a slumping economy,
customers are postponing projects, he said.
"This has been an extremely difficult time to let go of really talented people. When the demand for our services isn't there, it's hard to sustain that level of consultants,"
Hvidsten said. "Until that picks up, demand for our services will be flat."
Earlier this year, Born laid off 110 employees, 55 of whom were in the Twin Cities area. In October, the company laid off about 70 employees. Ten more people lost
their jobs when the company closed its offices in other Midwest locations. Similar to Thursday's announcement, the affected people included consultants and
administrative staff.
Born's worker-friendly policies landed it in 12th place this year on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to work for." The ranking considers wages, salaries and
benefits. Born has been included on Inc. magazine's list of fastest-growing companies beginning in 1995 at No. 18. The company dropped to No. 493 in 1999, and last
year it didn't make the list.
Despite going through several rounds of scaling back, Hvidsten said the benefits the company provides, including a $250 allowance for clothes and expenses-paid
weekend getaway trips, will remain.
"One of the things we have been very conscious about is making changes in the culture of the company," Hvidsten said.
Still, Born is cutting costs. The company consolidated facilities from Wayzata and moved to Minnetonka in January. Born also closed three other facilities in
Minneapolis and is scaling back on business travel, meetings and company events.
Hvidsten said Born doesn't have plans to make more layoffs at this time.
-- Sheila Lalwani is at slalwani@startribune.com .
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