Three years ago, Charles G. Emley Jr. was appointed chairman and CEO of Lakeview Terrace-based Pico Macom, Inc., a distributor of hardware for the cable TV and telecommunications industry. The company was in financial crisis when Emley came on board, and he quickly implemented an aggressive restructuring plan that included axing all distribution to the Asian market and the sale of its Caribbean-based plant, which resulted in the layoff of roughly 250 employees. Now, with around 65 employees, the company is in the middle of the launch of a direct distribution plan in Latin America and may seek a buyer to boost cash flow. Emley spoke to reporter Jacqueline Fox about the challenges of taking on and turning around a troubled company. “I stepped into this role of chairman and CEO after being on the board for a number of years. I essentially came in to try and straighten the mess out. So what I’ve been doing over the last two to three years is a restructuring of capital expenditures and the organization of the company. When a company is teetering on financial health, you have to come in and reorganize and refinance it, and in the course of doing that there are obviously going to be a lot of layoffs. “So in doing that, what’s been paramount to me is you have to do that in a way that you keep motivating people and keep up their confidence, but make sure that you are doing that with respect to the individual. So the leadership issues get a little dicey at times. “As far as strategy goes, number one is you have to use a high degree of honesty and open and straightforward communication with staff and other members of the company. And I tried to offer a high degree of visibility and accessibility directly to me. “This is a real small company. These problems really get magnified because you don’t have a lot of organizational walls to get behind. If Joe’s here one day and not here the next, it’s pretty darn obvious. So what I’ve tried to do is hold a high level of openness to communication and direction as to where we are and why things are transpiring. “And a third piece to it is, I would tell management that, as we got into downsizing activities, I’m only one person and I need to have some missionaries out there.”