“Scarcity breeds clarity”. Some hailed the words in the recent memo from Alphabet (Google) CEO Sundar Pichai to his employees as a masterclass in leadership. The Indian-origin head honcho of tech giant Google, Pichai recently engaged with the employees for apprising them about the upcoming cost-cutting measures in response to worsening economic conditions including slowing down of the hiring process at Google for the rest of the year.
The message can be interpreted as one which marries leadership and emotional intelligence, when the ” Thank You For Your Hard Work” message, quite a staple of the CEO messages, appeared at the initial paragraph of the note.
Sundar Pichai then delivers his “Scarcity breeds clarity” line. It can be hailed as a swift “wisdom”, and try as hard as it might, it does not hide the cruel realities of the business world. These words of wisom are difficult to swallow by those who will be directly affected by the layoffs due to frustrating and dispiriting times.
In the aftermath of the nasty pandemic which does not want to disppear, the world is witmessing worsening climate change scenario, war in Ukraine, rising inflation, and venomous political polarization. The business units the world over are compelled to take unpleasant decisions in order to stay afloat.
In his memo, Sundar Pichai tried to convey that when times are good, we can try everything., but bad times teach clarity. He seemed to look at the opportunity to focus on the ‘essentials’ in the times which clearly are not good from their point of view.
Google has already hired about 10,000 people in 2022 but will slow that trend for the rest of the year, Pichai said. As A CEO would in times as such, Pichai wants employees to work with “sharper focus” and “more hunger”. There is a hiddent warnig also when he says that the company will need to “streamline and consolidate some initiatives” and “pause others altogether”.
The memo just confirms the unhappy news that Google also is facing economic uncertainty and like all, in probably sweeter words than most, it reiterates the age old bitter truth ‘ perform or perish ‘
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