Hippie CEO Life #39 - Corporate Greed
January 6, 2023
“So all of these companies that are going for the big growth, if it continues for any length of time, will outlast their resources and outlast their customers and go belly-up. And that’s why these huge companies have massive layoffs all the time.” ~Yvon Chouinard
Another day, another round of massive layoffs announced by tech companies posting positive growth rates and billions of dollars in net revenue, this time it’s Salesforce.
What’s sad, is that these companies are lying to their employees, saying these cuts are painful to them but necessary for the health of the business. They aren’t painful, the people making these decisions are narcissists who have a thirst for money that can never be quenched — they don’t have the ability to feel the pain of others.
The only pain they are in is the personal pain being inflected on them by their shareholders for not growing fast enough, not making enough profits. But they knew what they were getting into when they made their deal with the devil.
Salesforce isn’t hurting, they are growing (even in a challenging economic landscape) at least 10% a year but that growth rate isn’t good enough for investors. Salesforce isn’t poor, they have billions and billions of dollars of cash on hand. They aren’t losing money, they are banking billions of dollars in net profits every year.
You know who is hurting? The employees, the people they called family, “Our Ohana.”
“Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”
―Lilo and stitch
But their Ohana did get forgotten, they did get left behind, as executives scramble to reduce costs, in order to appease shareholders, so they can buy more beach houses in Hawaii, host more lavish retreats in Koh Samui for their close friends.
Do i seem mad? Because i am very mad!
When are we going to stand up to these bullies and say, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!” You have enough!!!!
When are we going to start celebrating businesses that are taking a more humanistic, sustainable approach to doing business and in parallel stop celebrating, stop putting narcissistic business leaders, that hate their employees, on the covers of every business magazine published around the world?
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When is their lust to create more wealth, for people who are already stupid rich, going to be enough for you to stand up and make your voice be heard? What are you going to do to make a positive difference in forcing companies to think more humanistically about how they do business?
