Dev Randhawa discusses employment.
One author put a cogent and though-provoking argument in Entrepreneur Magazine, that hiring those who have ‘failed’ in their work may be a good step forward for some companies.
Is it a smart idea to hire those who failed?
Sounds odd, right? I thought so initially upon reading the title, but when I read through the piece and studied the example it offered, I slowly came around – I’ve chosen to summarise and conclude so that you might too.
Amazon’s example
The article’s author offers an example. The example is that of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos hiring executives from Webvan – a failed company I’ve written about previously – as leading figures in the company’s AmazonFresh initiative. Why do this? It appears that Mr Bezos, along with the leaders at Google, has observed that “…failure comes part and parcel with invention.” – this is a wise standpoint to take, even if it opens up risk and danger.
As for AmazonFresh? It’s expanding into new locations and has increased its turf in London – far away from the initiative’s initial location in Seattle, USA.
Still sceptical
While it may sound like I’m fully advocating for the hiring of people that have messed up, be aware that I’m still somewhat sceptical.
It may be a wise move to give a ‘second chance’ to someone who took a risk (like Webvan’s execs did) and failed, but taking on board one who has consistently failed to deliver in their trade is something I still can’t get my head around.
In summary – the piece makes a good point about giving an opportunity to those who’ve made a mistake in unknown waters and learned, but I’d like to add that one should be cautious of ‘repeat offenders’ that disguise their failures as successes or write them off as the failings of others.
About Dev Randhawa
Dev Randhawa is the CEO of Fission Uranium Corp. and an expert in natural resource exploration. He is also an active blogger on leadership, team-building and the uranium industry.
