‘l am sorry to those who will have to leave’: Byju Raveendran says layoffs price paid for profitability
Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO of edtech gaint BYJU’s, said a new focus on profitability and sustainable growth after years of hyper growth has forced the company to initiate the ongoing layoffs. He said the global macroeconomic factors changed the business landscape and this change has compelled the Bengaluru-based firm, like many other tech companies around the world, to focus on sustainability and capital-efficient growth.
“Having expanded exponentially in the past four years, it is now time for us to grow sustainably. So, we decided to define our ‘path to profitability and sustainable growth’ – and to walk on it in earnest,” Raveendran wrote to his employees.
The company is working hard towards achieving profitability at the group level in this financial year itself, he said in an internal email sent on Monday, which BT has reviewed.
On October 12, BYJU’s announced that it is laying off 5 per cent of its 50,000 workforce as part of a restructuring exercise, which amounts to approximately 2,500 people. Raveendran reiterated, in his email, that the overall job cuts are not more than five percent of the company’s total strength.
He said the company scaled up ‘quickly and massively’ across the world during the four-year period of 2018-2021 and expanded the team significantly both in its core business and by on-boarding team members from acquisitions to reach more than 150 million learners globally before economic headwinds of 2022 hit the company.
“Our business has substantial economies of scale and unit economics, which we believe we can leverage to achieve this mandate. However, our rapid organic and inorganic growth has created some inefficiencies, redundancies and duplication within our organisation, that we need to rationalize to realize this,” he wrote.
“| realise that there is a huge price to pay for walking on this path to profitability. We are having to part ways with 2500 of our colleagues to avoid role duplication across our businesses,” he added.
Raveendran said some business decisions have to be taken to protect the health of the larger organization and pay heed to the constraints imposed by external macroeconomic conditions.
He said the layoffs are not a reflection of the performances of employees and that he tried his best to save their positions. He also said the company has made available the ‘best possible exit package’ that includes extended medical insurance coverage for employees and their family members, outplacement services, fast-track full-and-final settlement, and a special provision that allows employees to look for jobs while on the company’s payroll.
Business Today earlier reported the company had started the lay offs and had given many employees a 15-day notice period. Several affected employees have told BT that the company had set ‘unrealistic and unachievable’ targets and when they fail to meet the targets, they are asked to resign. BYJU’s has denied the allegations and said the employees are given “ample time” to meet the targets and the company is no exception to “high performance, high growth” culture.
V Sivankutty, General Education and Labour Minister of Kerala, on Thursday announced that the Kerala government will conduct a serious investigation into the allegations raised by employees of at its Thiruvananthapuram office. This development came after employees claimed that the company has decided to shut down operations of its office at the Carnival building of Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram without prior notice to employees. More than 170 employees are working at Think & Learn Private Limited, the parent company of BYJU’s, at the facility. BYJU’S denied these allegations and claimed that the number is 140 and not 170. Additionally, the employees have also been given an option to relocate to Bangalore failing which they will be laid off.
Raveendran said that the company is opening all the newly created relevant roles to affected employees on an ongoing basis and that ‘bringing them back to BYJU’s by putting the company on a sustainable growth path’ is now the number one priority for him.
“l am truly sorry to those who will have to leave BYJU’S. You are not just a name to me. You are not a number. You are not just 5 per cent of my company. You are 5 per cent of me,” he wrote.
