RETAIN Series 2: The Business Case for Not Cutting Heads – What the Numbers Actually Say
In brief: The Business Case for Not Cutting Heads: What the Numbers Actually Say Every layoff announcement comes with a similar line: “we had no choice.” If you look at the numbers, the story is different, at least in tech. Let’s start with an example that’s the hardest to dismiss. Nvidia hasn’t made a meaningful layoff since 2008. It didn’t touch the headcount during the 2022-2023 wave that hit Meta (8,000 cut) and Microsoft (4,800 cut). It grew instead, while sitting at the centre of the most competitive, fastest-moving segment in the industry. I know the objection: Nvidia’s rise to a roughly $5.3 trillion valuation by April 2026 (Forbes) is about chip demand, not restraint on layoffs. That’s a fair statement. The AI boom drove the stock, not a no-layoff policy. But that objection actually strengthens the point I want to make. If competitive pressure forced companies to cut, Nvidia…
RETAIN Series 1: The Broken Deal
With this article I’m kicking off a series dedicated to a topic I’ve deeply cared about for a long time: my firm belief that companies having their people’s back and companies delivering strong results aren’t two different things pulling in opposite directions – that they are, in fact, two sides of the same equation. I’ve watched markets go through boom and bust, seen corporations handle hard times in wildly different ways, and observed legendary tech companies built by brilliant people lose their magic within a few years of letting their talented people walk out the door. That interest feels sharper now, when mass layoffs have become a knee-jerk reaction to any sign of trouble – a cure-all for problems they were never built to solve. The Broken Deal I want to be precise about the claim before anyone dismisses it. I’m not saying “no layoffs, ever.” My claim is more…