Jsport5, your memory is letting you down. The management prior to Strong brought in C & L for the big slash and burn. Strong is actually on record as saying how damaging C & L's efforts were and he said that if jobs had to go then he would rather do the task himself instead of bringing in an outside company at great expense to do the job when they don't have a feel for the industry.
Post privatisation, Strong took the company through a consolidation phase whereby the massive debt that he inherited (87% D/E ratio) was more than halved, greater utilisation of assets was achieved (which is why not many aircraft were ordered during his time) and a lot of changes were made to prepare for the expansion phase which has now started. He was aware that a lot of his decisions caused grief to many loyal employees and he had the balls to front up to staff meetings and deliver the bad news himself. Darth, on the other hand, does not have the balls to face his staff and just sends his minions to do his dirty work. At staff meetings, Strong would lay out the long term plans that he and the board had so that staff could understand why unpleasant decisions had to be made. The communication within the company was very good considering the size of the company - his sucessor however has poor communication skills.