Another Name For Uncontrolled Growth
I was talking to my friend Doc the other day.
I was bending his ear about how, when I worked for a gigantic Fortune 100 Brown Sludge Monster, they would annually decide that the coming year had to bring some huge percentage of growth.
It was never a sane figure. Never 5%. 6%. 10%. These figures smacked of “moderation” and the shareholders would never accept “moderate” growth. .
It was always 20%. 25%. 30%. More.
Apparently if the company didn’t grow by a quarter or a third of it’s annual intake – it would go broke! If it didn’t double in size every 2 or 3 years – it was worthless! Stockholders would abandon ship! CEO’s would be executed publicly! Bankruptcy would follow! The inside joke was that “cost walked on two legs”. When these extreme numbers were missed – and not suprisingly they often were - the corporation would begin to fire entire departments indiscriminately. Often times the number of people laid off were in the thousands. All in the name of “making the growth target.”
Their first response to not being able to manage this insane level of growth was never “Improve The Product”. Never “Sell More Product”. Never “Treat The Customer Better”. It was always an instantaneous and immediate “Fire People And Cut Payroll Until The Numbers Are Met.”.
They even went so far as to try to sell employees the idea that the layoffs were good things, because… (and I’m NOT making this up) firing people would “grow the company”. (Really… I’m NOT making that up).
As I talked to Doc, I marveled at the surreal level of unmitigated GREED this represented.
I mentioned to him that an uncontrolled rate of growth just didn’t seem… natural to me. I remarked that I couldn’t think of anything in nature that grew continually without ever stopping.
“I can.” My friend Doc deadpanned. “Cancer.”
Add comment November 1st, 2005
