This week saw layoffs of over 70,000 jobs, bring the total for the past year to over 2.5 million jobs lost. The economy is bad, really bad. So how can a company grow during this down turn? Fight the trend of slashing jobs. While everyone else is looking to cut cost by firing workers, realize that your workers are some of the greatest assets to your company. While all of your competitors are stalling, recognize that this is a great time to grow your company and add a ton of value while doing it.
Trimming the Fat
I am all in favor of trimming the fat. Every company has inefficiencies and employees that aren't adding value to the company. This exercise of fat trimming should be an ongoing exercise, quarterly. If a company larger than 200 employees is firing 10% or more of their employees they have a serious management issue. No well run company can operate efficiently with 10%+ of "fat", and no company can expect to grow while letting go 10%+ of their staff. While wall street praises companies for taking bold drastic action, all the while they are destroying both the company, and the country that supports them.
