Don't follow the crowd
It’s the season of layoffs and it seems like everyone is doing it if you spend time reading online tabloids. Even your favourite brands and businesses are doing it.
And rightly so, there is justification in some cases for these layoffs. Some companies grew too big, too fast, and cannot remain profitable given the global economic conditions. In contrast, some are just using it as an excuse to downsize.
Yesterday I read an interesting article by HBR that pointed out how downsizing may actually increase the likelihood of bankruptcy. What????
This made me remember a concept I heard a long time ago - Hume's Guillotine.
Hume’s Guillotine states that “a cause must be sufficiently able to produce the effect assigned to them.”
He asserts that you cannot derive an ought from an is. In other words, make sure the cause matches the proportion of the end.
Let’s dive in with the premise of this article. Should we all agree that because the global economy is struggling, you ought to fire a number of staff?
Or should founders, managers etc., observe their businesses and ensure that every process is optimised to achieve the organisational goal(s)?
Optimising your organisation doesn’t always have to include firing key members of staff.
This isn’t an article on whether firing / not firing is justified, or how to run an organisation, to be honest. My point here is, do not act because it looks cool or because everyone is doing the same.
Do things because they align with your values and convictions, your future goals and you have analysed and drawn insights from the right data accessible to you.
On this week’s podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mouna Akefli, Marketing Manager of West Africa & Morocco at Ericsson. She talks about purpose-led marketing and why young professionals should focus on growing their talents, taking risks, and experimenting. Catch the full conversation here - Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon