According to an email sent to Tesla employees on Monday, the company — one of the world's largest automakers — is laying off over 10% of its global workforce, reportedly due to falling sales.
In the memo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company is looking to achieve "cost reductions and increasing productivity" in preparation for the "next phase of growth."
While layoffs are always unfortunate, they are not always avoidable. Cutting down the workforce is a necessary step to optimizing Tesla's growth and productivity. The company must focus on future innovation to remain competitive, and this cost-cutting measure is just one step towards doing that.
Tesla has made poor strategic decisions, and mistakenly thought that growth in the electric vehicle sector would continue the way it was forever. Instead of taking responsibility for his poor business acumen, Elon Musk is attributing the layoffs to plans for company growth.