From Steven Chanyi.
I WRITE further to the article entitled ‘Jobs to go at CPA, but global crisis is not to blame’ (JEP, 5 November). As one of those affected, I read this with great interest.

This quote from the chief executive, Peter Sewell, referring to the redundancies, sums it up quite nicely: ‘Basically this is something we do periodically and it is no big story.’ Well, that’s a relief. No need to worry about those 20 or so employees who have given up the majority of their lives for the past year, or five years, or ten years, or nearly 30 years — there is no story there.

Put into the context of ‘record profits last year’ and a ‘flying start’ to this year, one begins to develop a picture of CPA under Mr Sewell’s stewardship. Long gone, for inst-ance, are the days when CPA could boast that ‘caring for its people’ constituted one of its core values.

I suppose that if I were an executive of Mr Sewell’s ilk, I would not see my employees as the backbone of my company and major contributors to its success. I wouldn’t want to discuss the hardships they may face because of the decisions of my executive team.

Instead, I would distract people from such unpleasant topics with things like our shiny new building, our impressive growth, and of course our global reach. I would ensure that I kept everyone ‘on message’ and backing up my primary management priority, which is maximising the percei-ved value of my company to any prospective buyers.

Because, really, that is what business is all about today. Business is no longer about providing a quality product or service, at a reasonable price, and backed up by outstanding customer service, and a relationship built on respect, trust, and mutual benefit.

It’s now about dumping some non-revenue-generating staff and buying in the work that they did, so that you will now be able to re-cord it in your accounts as a capital expenditure instead of an operating one.
If this sort of thinking seems a bit familiar to readers, it should.

It is in a similar vein to the corporate thinking that brought you the ‘junk bonds’ fiasco of the 1980s, the bursting ‘internet bubble’ of the 1990s . . . and the ‘credit crunch’ which is dominating the world economy today.
Sandy Lodge,
Parcq de l’Oeillère,
St Brelade.