Louis CarterFounder and Chief Executive Officer, Best Practice Institute · Founder and CEO, Best Practice Institute - Most Loved Workplace® | Organizational Psychologist | Creator of AI Workplace Intelligence and Employer Branding Platform

Layoff Strategy: Turn Competitor's Loss Into Your Gain

26 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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When Pfizer laid off thousands of employees, GSK put up a sign saying "come work for us" and hired many of them. The move improved retention, recruitment efficiency, and innovation, leading to major new product launches. It's a playbook any company can copy.

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Competitor layoff targeting. Great story. Pfizer laid off a bunch of people, thousands of people, and way back. And what happened was GSK says, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to get all those candidates who were just off the, off the subway being sent home to their wives or husbands, being told that they no longer have a job. And I'm going to put up a big sign. Guess what that sign said? Hey, come work for us. It's okay. You don't have to work for Pfizer anymore. Come work for us. Well, what happened? GSK had enormous, enormous improvement in, in their retention and their recruitment. They, they, they, they saved these people and they, they had a boom, a total boom of innovation in the next years to come in the next administration with some of the most important brands that they created that drove their success and innovations. So this is your strategy for that.