The AI Great Reset: Why Jack Dorsey's Block is Slashing 4,000 Jobs to Go "Intelligence-Native" In a move that sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley and the financial markets, Block Inc. (formerly Square) announced a radical restructuring that will see its workforce shrink by 40%. CEO Jack Dorsey revealed the plan alongside the company's Q4 2025 earnings call, framing the mass layoff not as a sign of distress, but as a strategic "pivot" toward an AI-driven future. The announcement immediately caught Wall Street's attention, causing Block stock to surge 24% in after-hours trading. The Massive Cut: From 10,000 to 6,000 Block is reducing its headcount from over 10,000 employees to just under 6,000 . This represents a loss of roughly 4,000 roles across its various ecosystems, including Square, Cash App, and Afterpay. According to Block CFO Amrita Ahuja , the company is moving away from the "growth at all costs" hiring model of the past decade....
The Silent Engine of Growth: Why Operational Efficiency is the Ultimate SMB Competitive Edge Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) eventually hit a frustrating, invisible ceiling. Sales are climbing, customer demand is at an all-time high, and the team is expanding. On paper, everything looks like a success. Yet, behind the scenes, cash flow feels tighter than ever, execution has slowed to a crawl, and leadership spends every day putting out fires instead of planning for the future. The issue in these scenarios is rarely a lack of demand. It is operational friction . There is a common misconception that operational efficiency is a fancy euphemism for "aggressively cutting costs." In reality, true efficiency is about designing systems that scale cleanly . It isn't about doing more with less; it's about doing things better so that growth doesn't break your business. For the modern entrepreneur, operational discipline is the difference between a business t...