Edtech major BYJU, which was seeking to lay off thousands of employees as part of its business restructuring, on Friday hired soccer star and sports icon Lionel Messi as a global brand ambassador for its social impact arm, and the move did not It has gone well for the industry as well as the people.
The long-term commitment, which begins as Messi embarks on his final campaign to win the World Cup as captain of Argentina, will see him in BYJU’s Education for All promotional campaigns.
Abhishek Desai, founder of CricHeroes, told IANS that when you fire people from one side and hire Messi as your global brand ambassador, it sounds like irony.
“But I think that’s the cost that everyone pays for growing too fast. It’s not that the company doesn’t have money, but growing too fast creates a lot of layoffs in the organization. Sooner or later you have to fix that and I think these layoffs are a consequence of that,” Desai said.
“Not just BYJU, but we’re also seeing something similar happen with Twitter, a public company, right now. Until we abandon that mindset, incidents like this are likely to happen,” he added.
BYJU founder and CEO Byju Raveendran told employees there is a tremendous price to pay to walk the path to profitability and that the company will lay off 5 percent, or 2,500 employees, to “solve duplication.” of functions in… to avoid our company”.
Earlier this year, BYJU’S made history by becoming an Official Sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Soccer has around 3.5 billion fans worldwide and Messi has a social media following of nearly 450 million.
According to Hearty Mart founder and lead mentor Syed Nadeem Jafri, laying off employees is part of every organizational journey.
“However, the hiring of Messi is intended to counteract the image drop that may have resulted from the dismissal, which appears to be more of a public relations image-building ploy than a strategic plan,” Jafri said.
In Kerala, BYJU’s earlier decision to cease operations led to the resignation of 140 of its 170 employees.
However, after conciliatory talks held by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with BYJU on Wednesday, it was decided that the edtech unicorn would not stop operating at the local Technopark campus.
The company said it had decided to reconsider restructuring plans and continue with its development center at the Trivandrum Technopark office.
Shrijay Sheth, founder of Legalwiz.in, told IANS that in order to build a long-term employer brand, companies must recognize the value of sustainable recruitment.
“Here it is important to provide the cohort with enough resources to find alternative options and minimize their personal harm. Entrepreneurs are, in essence, fiduciaries for the general good of stakeholders, including employees,” Sheth said.
One Twitter user commented: “How is that possible? Wouldn’t you get this for free for a company that is downsizing their workforce and making huge losses?”
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Source: www.businessinsider.in
