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because at that moment I saw the essence of the value of what you have versus what you don't have, and what may happen if you don't have. I got all kinds of thoughts, how I would survive, if I would be able to start lying to survive, because at that time all kinds of excuses were needed to your banker, to your suppliers, to everyone. Excuses about why you are not doing what you are supposed to do. The world was at a stand-still, there was nothing one could do, not sell anything, nor buy anything. So, what to do in such circumstances? Lie, or go and tell them straight that you need six more months. These things happen in business. Another very important thing: we were obliged to take a call to reduce 20% of the people in India, or to ask them for overtime, so that everybody could maintain part of their salary, but not fire anybody. We had the lowest portion of people fired in that period, in 2008. And in Antwerp, we hardly had to let 4 to 5 people of our staff go in that same period, which felt hard in our consciousness, but at least there was the consolation that there is a social structure that supports them”.
"And not to forget”, the third interlocutor, more familiar with the details of the business, added "we looked carefully at the list, at the family situation of the person involved, before a call to let them go was taken. And the next step was to also look carefully at our relationships outside the industry, to see if we could broker them to find a new job. And they all did”.
“Yes, we did that on our own initiative”, R replied
"Today, what is happening”, R continued “is that before I add one more person, I think 10.000 times, because I know that I do not want to fire anybody. God forbid that times like that may come back in our lifetime, because it is too heavy, to run a company with so much at stake, with all the stakeholders looking at your answer.”
"This is truly wonderful”, the fourth interlocutor said “because one rarely hears in business schools that one should think twice before hiring new people, and that one should think about what may happen when the day comes that you may have to fire them, if you can really afford that in your heart. It is usually the opposite, namely think of the pleasure of hiring, but not of what may happen later".
“So, it is not only corporate responsibility", the first interviewer T said that has guided you in your reaction to those people, but personal responsibility, namely that those you have taken in cannot just be thrown out like that. Once they are in, there is this feeling of responsibility to them, not only as individual, but also to other persons, like in India and Thailand, I would say to almost the entire family, grandparents, and so on. Because in those circumstances you are not only paying salary to one person, but maybe up to fifteen persons or so. Is that correct?”
At this point, R really got excited and started a relatively long monologue:
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