A balancing act - Saving many at the expense of the few

I clearly recall one of my earliest Non Executive Directorships. I was appointed by a small but fast growing Organizational Consultancy in London specializing in financial services. The Directors were a great bunch of guys, all very smart and bright, from one of the big named global consultancies and they had done superbly in the seven years of their existence. The staff, who were equally bright and well-motivated were now up to around 100 and we were looking forward to a build and sell strategy. Most of the staff had shared options and the place was a very happy place with people sharing a common vision of success.  
And then we hit a wall – four months of drastically falling revenues as economic uncertainty swept through the financial services sector and clients postponing project after project with little prospect of a change. I sat staring at my laptop, looking at rows of red numbers in the management accounts and promptly called the Finance Director, who stated that “unless w