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> most good businesses are actually very inefficient and could cut 10% without missing a heartbeat No, they can't. Organizations don't work that way. People do

> most good businesses are actually very inefficient and could cut 10% without missing a heartbeat No, they can't. Organizations don't work that way. People don't show up to work literally doing nothing, they have some kind of workload that will go belly-up if they just don't show up the next day. Yes, many organizations could be made much more efficient, through restructuring, automation, flatter management structures, etc. But it doesn't happen overnight, and if you try to make it happen overnight, then a lot of the workload just ends up being forgotten about until the customer steps in the door and reminds you in such a way that it becomes critical. Trying to reduce the size of a company needs to be carefully planned and executed over time to do so without affecting operations. Large sudden layoffs, which is to say large layoffs which need to be executed quickly, mean that the company doesn't care about the hit to operations, which means that there are cash flow problems or worse.

alexasmyths 9y ago
" People don't show up to work literally doing nothing, " 50% of what people do in large organizations is a waste of time. It doesn't matter how hard they work. "Large sudden layoffs, which is to say large layoffs which need to be executed quickly, mean that the company doesn't care about the hit to operations, which means that there are cash flow problems or worse." No. Not at all. Corporate raiders since the 1980's have shown this. Hedge Funds see slack, they come in and buy the company, cut the slack and make it profitable. It's not uncommon.
- solatic 9y ago
  > 50% of what people do in large organizations is a waste of time This is not the same thing as literally doing nothing. A waste of time is spending hours changing values around in Excel week after week for a report an executive will spend 30 seconds looking at (if that) instead of automating your job away. Literally doing nothing is taking long lunches, frequent water cooler breaks, and playing around on your phone for so long that your workstation auto-locks from lack of activity. > Corporate raiders since the 1980's have shown this. Hedge Funds see slack, they come in and buy the company, cut the slack and make it profitable. No corporate raider cuts slack and achieves profitability overnight. A few weeks, maybe, but overnight? No. Especially not in an era where automation infrastructure can't be built overnight. We don't actually disagree here.

alexasmyths 9y ago

" People don't show up to work literally doing nothing, " 50% of what people do in large organizations is a waste of time. It doesn't matter how hard they work. "Large sudden layoffs, which is to say large layoffs which need to be executed quickly, mean that the company doesn't care about the hit to operations, which means that there are cash flow problems or worse." No. Not at all. Corporate raiders since the 1980's have shown this. Hedge Funds see slack, they come in and buy the company, cut the slack and make it profitable. It's not uncommon.

solatic 9y ago
> 50% of what people do in large organizations is a waste of time This is not the same thing as literally doing nothing. A waste of time is spending hours changing values around in Excel week after week for a report an executive will spend 30 seconds looking at (if that) instead of automating your job away. Literally doing nothing is taking long lunches, frequent water cooler breaks, and playing around on your phone for so long that your workstation auto-locks from lack of activity. > Corporate raiders since the 1980's have shown this. Hedge Funds see slack, they come in and buy the company, cut the slack and make it profitable. No corporate raider cuts slack and achieves profitability overnight. A few weeks, maybe, but overnight? No. Especially not in an era where automation infrastructure can't be built overnight. We don't actually disagree here.