Vishal Garg CEO Better.com: Media Poster boy for “Blundered” Execution

CEO Vishal Garg is being projected as insensitive, cold, and harsh by the media for firing 900 employees on Zoom in the run-up to Christmas. However, a deeper look from a wider perspective may help to clear the smoke created by public emotions and possibly bring out some hidden facts or facets of the issue. This is a clear case of Post-Truth culture.

?“Post-Truth” is all about relating to a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts. Cambridge Dictionary.

What is not being spoken about much is that Better.com is valued at about $7.0 billion and has 25 investors, one of the leading ones being Softbank. What was their involvement in monitoring the company operations and how did they influence decisions? Could this have influenced Vishal’s actions?

Elaborating the concept: “No man is an island” here are some questions we could ask ourselves:

·????????Could Vishal decide to fire 10% of the staff without the knowledge of the board?

·????????Would Vishal not have taken the opinions of his senior management including HR? (Identifying 900 employees to fire is a massive exercise and not easy to keep under wraps.)

·????????Would Vishal not have trusted advisors including media experts with whom he bounced off ideas?

·????????Would Vishal not be in close consultation with his key investors for such crucial decisions?

·????????Wouldn’t there be people with privy information who kept the organizations’ influential informed?

·????????Would Vishal has the all-encompassing powers that Indian owner/ manager CEOs possess?

The above questions focus on a single point: Could Vishal be solely responsible for this debacle as projected by the media? Further, could his hands have been tied by investors to take some urgent corrective actions? Or could the latest round of funding be contingent upon making a leaner company?

Looking at the situation and considering Vishal’s actions it is very possible that quite a few of the board members and top management knew of or would have had a say in what Vishal did.

It is therefore important to assess if Vishal is being made a scapegoat to be used as a smokescreen to tide over the current issue or not. The general public seems to be unaware of this. A post-truth phenomenon.

Vishal’s past is being dug up and looked at with a microscope. There are many articles on the net with views from the US, Europe, and Asia besides others. However, we find one area consistently not being considered – “Vishal’s constraints”. This brief note brings in another perspective.

Some comments in the media that could be distracting:

·????????News: Better.com CEO to take time off after firing hundreds of employees over Zoom

·????????News: The CEO of Better.com will be “taking time off” from his role after he abruptly fired more than 900 employees via Zoom, according to an email from the company’s board of directors.

·????????News: Better.com lays off 9% of staff as the SoftBank-backed company prepares to add $1 billion to its balance sheet ahead of a SPAC merger

·????????News: Blundered in execution: Better’s Garg

·????????Social media: "cold", "harsh" and "a horrible move", especially in the run-up to Christmas

Looking beyond the obvious of what is stated often brings another perspective that could lead to the truth.

Some time ago, I had written an article about system creeps and carving your path to stay on top. It resonates well with this incident in case you want to explore:

https://carvingsuccess.com/2020/12/02/carving-your-path-to-stay-on-top

Alan