My name is Ashley Goodall
and I’ve worked as an executive in large companies
and also with executives to help them improve their leadership.
I’ve spent a lot of time in a couple of very large industries,
looking at how you most effectively lead a large organization
and how to help people get better at it.
I think that what’s happened in the last few years is that
we’ve decided that change
and improvement in businesses are the same thing, and they’re not.
Improvement demands an environment where people can offer their best.
And a lot of disruption directly undermines that environment.
On the day that we’re recording this,
Unilever announced 7,500 jobs are being eliminated
and they are spinning off one of their units.
And I think the reason they gave is streamlining,
which leads you to want to ask, well,
why do we need streamlining today?
There have been, of course, many, many job cuts in Silicon Valley,
but it’s more than just layoffs.
It’s mergers.