Is sorry enough?

There was a time that being a business leader was looked upon with seriousness. There was a sense of gravitas to the role. Those business leaders built legacy companies with stability as its bedrock. It's not that there haven't been turbulent times. Ups and downs, profits and losses, soaring and crashing stocks — a business' trajectory is riddled with uncertainty, global headwinds, and erratic geopolitics. But the test of a strong business has always been its ability to stay afloat. And the mark of a true leader would be to ensure that his or her people survived along with the leadership. Unfortunately, in today's 'anyone can start up' clime, iconic business leaders are few, and the price is being paid by the employees.

What a bloodbath it's been! Thousands were laid off at Twitter, 11,000 at Meta, Amazon is set to follow suit. Closer home, Byju's handed pink slips to 2,500 people, while many other startups have been gradually cutting back on staff for the last year or so. It's not an India-only phenomenon, the decimation of the startup stock has been ruthless. Our unicorn and decacorn founders, while impressive with their growth and general spiel, have expanded indiscriminately relying on businesses that are yet to turn profitable. The valuation game has been strong among startups with investors pushing for it as well. The pandemic sobered people up; putting off profits to future financial years was not the answer. The mass layoffs that we see today seem to be synchronised as well. Predicting too much bad publicity during the life-changing Covid-19 pandemic, may have postponed layoffs till the world seemed to (almost) be back to normal.

The pandemic changed the world for ever. Suddenly, all startups became cost aware and cost conscious. The story turned to cutting corners, rationalising costs, and becoming lean. Shouldn't that have been the mantra in the first place? Growing fast and spreading oneself too thin, armed with questionable revenue plans, has been the nail in the coffin. Overconfident founders, some egoistic, some megalomaniacs, many foolhardy, and devoid of foresight. And who pays for the fallacies of these few men? Their staff of course. While there is much to learn from the ingenuity and can-do attitude of startup hustlers, there is also wisdom in the path chosen by traditional businesses. Expansion for startups meant inflating teams, aggressive marketing plans, celebrity brand ambassadors, tapping of foreign shores, and so on. However, petering down of costs has meant only one thing — firing employees.

There are handsome severance packages for sure, and even a few public apologies doing the rounds. But one can only imagine the mental state of the worker who has been retrenched. Losing your job, no matter how generous the compensation, still brings with it instability, fears, and self-doubt. It's bad enough to lose a job but to be made redundant at a time when the market is flooded with many others seeking jobs, is nerve-racking. Many of the founders have said sorry – Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Byju Raveendran. (Elon Musk is an example of absurdity at present. So, let's not delve into that) But many have expressed regret, and while we may conjecture on the genuineness of their remorse, is the admission of guilt enough? The meteoric growth of many companies is now looking hollow and short-lived. Their expansion was too ambitious, too soon, and too much! Unsustainable growth that fizzled out when faced with the vagaries of market conditions. Is that really the kind of entrepreneurship we want to put on a pedestal?

Let's talk about businesses, both big and large, that did not lay off people. Behemoth corporates, old business houses, even some small ones have kept their flock together. Pay-cuts may be, no increments perhaps, but they have repelled layoffs. A well-known Indian paint company, for example, even gave salary hikes in the middle of the pandemic to boost morale. For small businesses like mine, paying salaries on time, and giving performance-based appraisals even in the height of the pandemic, were sweet victories. There are many businesses like this; and while unbridled growth and swashbuckling unicorn founders grab the headlines, let's also talk about those industry captains that have ridden the storm and managed to keep their crew intact.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal