I helped a company lay off 10,000 people.
I didn’t fire them. I optimized their processes. The layoffs came after. They always did.
To me, they were just a number on a slide.
Then one night, in a hotel room, I caught a documentary about three executives my client had let go the year before.
One was burning through the last of his inheritance.
One was mowing lawns to feed his family. He cried through the whole interview.
The third had taken his own life.
I confirmed the story was true and walked off the project.
That was thirty years ago. And I haven’t helped a company shrink since.
I went on to found and lead Accenture’s 20,000-person process and innovation practice. A group built around a different mission: helping companies grow. To create jobs. To make existing jobs better. To help people feel powerful and valued at work.
When people ask me why I do what I do, that’s the answer.
Behind every reorganization and “headcount” decision, there are people. People with families, mortgages, and dignity on the line.
The companies that win don’t get bigger by making themselves smaller. They win by getting more out of the people they already have.
That’s what I help them do.
What about you? What’s your why?