Mindless Cost Cutting in a Recession

So today, they finally made it official and announced that we have been in a recession for a year. No surprises there. However, I share views of Anand Sanwal and Tom Peters here that this is no time for mindless cost cutting. For one thing, in the knowledge economy, cutting people is like throwing away the machines in your factory. It can be a very short-sighted strategy that costs you dearly in the future.

Not to mention the fact that it makes sense to think beyond the current crisis. I believe that sustainability could be the biggest ecnomic boom in history–if companies have the courage to jump on the band wagon. You’ll need your best people for that. In fact, given the fact that it has been years since we have had real job creation in our economy (see my post on comments by Michael Mandel here), there is a national urgency to this mission.