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.

How to Grow in the Down Economy

Stop thinking of it as a down economy. Think of it as a great time for growth. Consider the facts.. A surplus of talented and desperate labor just hit the market. All your competitors have elected to stop trying to grow, and instead decided to lower their goals to survival. Even with revised lower projections, they are substantially missing them. It is not a question of a bad economy for many companies, but rather a question of attitude. If the goal is survival, than how can one expect to excel.

If you must downsize

Make it your last option. Smart companies like Seagate had all their upper management take substantial salary cuts, saving thousands of jobs. Microsoft offered severance packages and is relocating many of the workers from cut departments to other areas of the company.