this is not a love song (see previous post)
A friendly critic read the last post and challenged me to describe other options a cash-strapped corporation might pursue besides layoffs. I’ve been chewing it over. I’ve got ideas. (I’m also still employed, so I don’t have tons of time. But.)
First idea: you could retool the corporation’s salary tiers, with the CEO earning no more than 10x the lowest-paid worker, and all middle management’s salaries adjusted appropriately. Increase or reduce that multiplier depending upon your goals vis a vis profitability and cash flow.
You could also rethink ‘sacred’ corporate policies that are expensive and provide a debatable return on investment.
Or you could transform your organization in such a way as to ensure growth (or at least survival) in your particular industry segment by, say, quietly shifting your emphasis from products to services.
None of these things are easy, but if the alternative is to sacrifice people’s livelihoods for the sake of a most-likely vain appeal to the investment community… I’ll take the hard option, thanks very much.
