Actor and Producer Suniel Shetty has shared a LinkedIn post expressing his opinion on layoffs. However, the actor did not mention any specific name of the company.
Recently, A global ed-tech company, Byju announced that it will be laying off nearly 5 percent of the workforce or 2,500 employees.
Suniel Shetty’s in his post said, “A recent article about a company laying off 2500 of its employees, was a tough one to swallow. Times 4, that’s 10000 lives affected. I’d like to think that this wasn’t an easy decision to make. Praying that the impacted ones are able to get back on their feet at the earliest. While valuations and fundraising activity saw a sharp rise over the last few years, it is now clear that of late the global sentiment has turned somewhat conservative.”
“I couldn’t help going back to a post I’d come across & saved (see pic) a few months ago. It was a note from a leading global accelerator program to all of its portfolio companies. It was their take on what the global economic downturn could mean for the future of these companies & tips on how best to survive what could be a difficult period over the next couple of years. I believe this note was made from a global perspective and that the severity of a global slowdown may or may not impact India to the same extent as some of the other major economies”, Suniel Shetty added.
Suniel Shetty further said, “I continue to believe in the India story. Among other factors, our population & its aspirations still present good businesses with a huge opportunity to continue their growth, even if it’s at a slower rate than earlier. However, this is a good time for early-stage, small & mid-size businesses to establish a few operating principles, at least until the sentiment starts to improve.”
Stay Alive – assuming no one can predict how bad the global slowdown will get, plan for the worst. If you’re not seeing growth, switch to a survival mindset. Even if it means just hitting salaries & basic profits. The opportunities will return if you stay alive.
Find your course – it’s easy to be pressured into a direction based on what we see around us. Because X company did it a certain way, raised money, grew at a certain rate, or hired 30 folks, doesn’t mean it needs to be your journey too. Identify a pace that suits your story. Don’t be in a rush to scale.
Don’t worry about the uni/sooni/mini-corn status – It’s scary when every other startup you come across claims it’s going to be a unicorn in 3 years. Don’t let that be the goal. Apple, Google, Disney, etc were focused on doing what they did, really well. Just build a solid business, and valuations will follow.
The companies should also focus on the important points, and switch to the bootstrapping mindset:
- Rely on your cash flow to fund growth: Find ways to optimize cash flow. Investing more than you earn, on growth, or overleveraging is a bet that could wait.
- Focus on profitability: Long-term growth can come from reinvesting profits. That’s how we ran our restaurants. Profits & savings from one were put into building the next.
- Prioritize customers: Imagine the delight of a customer when the team of a startup he decided to buy from, is genuinely interested in taking & adapting the feedback he might have to offer.
The actor advised to Think for the long term, Think sprint vs marathon. Think Rahul Dravid. Stable & slow is just as great.
