Nothing says “strategic cost management” quite like laying off people who actually deliver while protecting layers of management that should never have existed in the first place.
Software sourcing at Kyndryl is a great example: bring in a director to manage another director who is already managing sourcing/procurement. Two Band 10 directors for a relatively small function. Brilliant organizational efficiency.
Maybe the problem isn’t that there are too many workers. Maybe the problem is that there are too many chiefs managing other chiefs.
And somehow, when it’s time to cut costs, the axe always seems to fall several layers below where the expensive redundancy actually sits.