The means justifies the ends
There is little upside in pushing out hard decisions like this slowly because of the simple fact that you’re burning gas while you’re deciding.つらい決断だからこそ急げ、と。もたもたしている間に、どんどん燃料は燃えていく。
... you need to get the members of your management team to agree that you’re going to pursue your very difficult job with as little emotion as possible. If it helps, pretend you’re an outside consultant and you’ve been given the task to “save the company” with these cuts–because that’s not far off from the truth.(とても感情的で、つらいことだけれど)できる限り感情を抑制して、できれば「会社を救う」という業務を委託された外部コンサルタントになりきれ。
The first step was getting out our P&L and looking at each line item in detail. ... We had exactly three years of capital in the bank when we started this process, and while that is 2-10x the runway of most startups, I set the goal for the company to reach four years of runway.足元のP/Lを行ごとにきっちり分析して、事業を継続するためにどの行を削って、いつまで保たせるかゴールを設定せよ。
It was fairly clear in looking at our budget that we were spending two editorial dollars for every technology dollar... As a venture-backed entrepreneur, you have to be able see through the fog of millions of dollars of investment in order to find your way sometimes.経費は1円たりともおろそかにしない。常に「この1円はもっといい使い道があるんじゃないか」と自問せよ。
Question every dollar you’re spending and ask yourself: “Is there a better use for this dollar?”
The most obvious things we found on our P&L were operational things regarding our facility: office space, phones, servers, etc. We swapped our communication systems out and saved $1.5k a month, we rented out a bunch of space, we cleared out some other offices to rent them, and we cut down on non-essential travel (think: my never-ending speaking gigs). The saving here was solid so we moved on to the hard stuff referred to coldly as “human capital” by accountants. People.まず、明らかな経費部分から削減の努力を。そのあとに「人件費」の検討。
We’re getting focused on revenues a little earlier than we thought we would, and that’s never a bad thing in my mind. However, our goal is to build a service that has 7-10m unique visitors a month. We don’t want to get to break-even and stay for 4m for ever. That’s a nice business, but we want to build an EPIC business.もちろん売り上げを上げることも至上命題だけれど、ゴリゴリやりすぎて事業の本質的な成長をつぶしてしまっては元も子もない。我慢するところは我慢。
The fact is, too much debate is probably not going to help. As the leader of the organization, you can take all the information in and make a quick decision.議論ばかりしても、小田原評定。リーダーとして速やかな決断を。
If you cut too deep, you can hire folks back, and given the economy, it’s better you secure your company’s survival right now and think about scaling up when the market gives you some signs of hitting a bottom. There is no sign of a bottom right now–despite what the clowns on CNBC might say.今の底が見えない経済状況では、まずは会社の生き残りを。生き残ればあとでスケールアップもできる。
1. Don’t spread layoffs over multiple rounds: This is a horrible idea because it creates massive fear and uncertainty inside of your organization...レイオフは小分けにせずに一度に。一人ずつではなくグループで話を。きれい事ではなく、正直に正面から、どういう理由で何を行うのかを説明せよ。給与減額は、一般的には人員削減より悪手。辞めてもらわなければならない仲間にはできるかぎり太っ腹に。この手のことは1日の終わりに、後を引かないように。対象者が家に帰って家族やその他いろんなことに処する時間を。レイオフしたら、残ったみんなはゴールを再確認して、それに集中するように。
2. Don’t lay people off one at a time, do it as a group...
3. Don’t sugar coat it: You need to be 100% honest and up front with people about why you’re doing it and what your decision was based on...
4. Cutting salaries over headcount is *generally* not a good idea...
5. Be as generous as you can...
6. Don’t drag it out: It’s better to do these type of things at the end of the day, and if folks are done with their questions, let folks leave. Folks have families and a lot of issues to deal with, and there is no need to keep them around for the entire day or for a couple of more days. The folks who are left can clean up the loose ends.
7. Get everyone focused again: After the layoffs, you have to make sure everyone understands what the goals are–even if they haven’t changed–and get folks ready to kill it again...