Corporate Greed Chronicles: Friends, Family, and Final Paychecks at Intuit

We have spent decades navigating the complexities of organizational effectiveness and software development. Our days are usually filled with ERP advisory and data science strategies, but today we once again find ourselves reflecting on the sheer audacity of the latest entry in the corporate greed chronicles. Intuit recently reported a massive third quarter with total revenue reaching $8.6 billion, which represents a ten percent increase year over year. Their GAAP diluted earnings per share also grew by eleven percent. Despite these healthy financials, the company chose this exact moment to announce they are showing the door to 17% of their global workforce. It is a classic move from the modern playbook where record profits and raised guidance are met with a pink slip for 3,000 once devoted employees.

Simplifying the Human Component

The leadership at Intuit claims this restructuring is necessary to simplify the organizational structure and become a faster and more focused company. CEO Sasan Goodarzi explicitly noted that reducing complexity would help deliver better products through an AI focused strategy. It is fascinating how the term velocity is often used as a euphemism for clearing out the cubicles. From our perspective vantage point, telling thousands of people their livelihood is being sacrificed for a leaner machine while you raise revenue guidance is the height of corporate cynicism. While they talk about architecting a sustainable future, they are actually architecting a future that excludes the very people who built their current success.

Prosperity for the Few and Dividends for the Many

The irony of Intuit’s stated mission is almost too much to bear. They claim to be a global financial technology platform that powers prosperity for the people and communities they serve. It is hard to see how taking away salaries and impacting thousands of families fits into the definition of prosperity and being a community contributor. While employees are losing their jobs, the company is busy receiving board approval for a new $8 billion stock repurchase authorization. They also just increased their quarterly dividend by 15% compared to last year. In the world of corporate finance, it seems that powering prosperity is really just code for compounding shareholder value at any human cost.

The Corporate Responsibility Comedy Hour

The company spends a significant amount of time promoting its efforts to solve challenging problems and build a better future for its employees, customers, and the communities it serves. They release extensive stakeholder impact reports that brag about an inclusive culture designed to empower the world’s top talent to do the best work of their lives. These glossy documents are filled with True North Goals intended to drive accountability and measure success against how the firm delivers for every stakeholder group. It is a masterpiece of corporate branding that paints a picture of a purpose-driven mission where everyone has the opportunity to prosper.

“What is right in the corporation is what the guy above you wants from you.”

Robert Jackall, author ‘Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers’

However, the cold reality of these organizational structures often reflects a much darker set of priorities. Robert Jackall famously noted in his book Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers that “what is right in the corporation is what the guy above you wants from you”. This sentiment cuts directly into the heart of the firm’s hypocritical messaging because, while they promote stakeholder impact, their actual incentive structures are primarily anchored in the baseline of financial performance. When the leadership demands a 17% reduction in the global workforce to fund an AI pivot despite earning over three billion dollars in a single quarter, the inclusive culture suddenly becomes a secondary concern to the mandates from above.

We couldn’t help but take notice of a specific employee resource group named Guardians that is not explicitly detailed in the provided reports, though it is described as a community that champions employees balancing work and caregiving by providing support to grow their careers and care for their families. If such a group exists within the 14 global employee resource groups intended to support families, the hypocrisy is staggering when you consider the local communities and families being disrupted by these massive layoffs. It is difficult to imagine the conversation in those resource group meetings when the ultimate support for your family’s future has been reduced to a severance package.

True prosperity should involve more than just compounding shareholder value through stock repurchases and dividend growth. While the company celebrates its ‘Stronger Together’ value and its commitment to caring and giving back, these words ring hollow for the 3,000 individuals who are being sacrificed in the name of velocity. For those losing their livelihoods, the performance feedback and goal-setting workshops designed to drive growth have reached a cynical conclusion. In the end, the company has chosen to trade the trust of its human capital for the efficiency of an AI agent.

The Main Thing and the Magic of AI

In our world of information technology, we often talk about keeping the main thing the main thing. For Intuit, it seems the main thing is a transition to an AI driven expert platform regardless of the internal wreckage. They have signed multi-year deals with AI startups while simultaneously recognizing approximately $300 million to $340 million in restructuring charges related to these job cuts. This focus on AI is being used as a shield to justify a massive reduction in headcount despite a net income of over $3 billion for the quarter. These distractions of employee resource groups and cultural festivals like the ‘Friends and Family Fest’ feel like a hollow performance when the real strategy is a mass exodus of talent. True organizational effectiveness is built on trust, but Intuit has chosen to trade that trust for a few points of margin and an AI buzzword.

Thank you for reading until the end. Before you go:

• Please consider clapping and following the writer! 👏
• Follow us on **Twitter(X), [BlueSky](https://bsky.app/profile/nsagheen.bsky.social), [Truth Social](https://truthsocial.com/@nsagheen), Substack, and LinkedIn.**