Let me tell you a story. There was a small niche consultancy, very successful, growing rapidly and with every chance of that to continue for years to come. It had a great culture, engaged and accessible management, and full of great people. A very very large consultancy came along and ‘made them an offer they couldn’t refuse’. Two years later, said large consultancy grew by 8% and decided that was nowhere near enough and announced 2% redundancies across the board. The previously absorbed consultancy was not excluded, despite being far ahead of 3 year business plan. Far more than 2% – say 15% at least – of little consultancy say ‘fuck you’ and leave. The best 15%, obviously. Goodbye value. Goodbye intellectual capital. Goodbye reputation. And yet the fact that the execs had been seen to do ‘something’ pushed up the share price by 10% or so. Capitalist madness in action.