WHEN IT comes to recessions Denis O’Brien doesn’t waste any time in responding by cutting his cost base.

Communicorp, his pan-European radio operation, and Saongroup, his global online recruitment business, are two such examples.

Both recently filed their results for 2009 and the accounts make for interesting reading.

Communicorp slipped into the red while Saongroup’s profits were down sharply. This is no surprise given the harsh economic backdrop.

But it is instructive to look at the way O’Brien and his executive teams immediately tackled their costs, particularly on the labour side.

At Communicorp, salaries were cut by an average 11.7 per cent in 2009 as O’Brien lopped €4 million off its wage costs.

The headcount declined from 779 to 740 at a business that was always thought to be lean.

At Saongroup, whose subsidiaries include Irishjobs.ie, the cuts were even steeper. Operational expenses were reduced by 33 per cent to counteract a 25 per cent fall in revenue. Staff costs were cut by 25 per cent, while its headcount was reduced by a third to 929.

O’Brien also cut his overheads at his Digicel mobile operation in the Caribbean, which is still going gangbusters.

Not for O’Brien the drip, drip, drip of cost cutting in the hope that a turnaround will materialise. There might be a lesson in that for us all.