[HDThoreaun]

Sure, but youre just talking about semantics here. When Mark asks himself "have we been successful" your definition of success is irrelevant. If the lay offs were because of the company had no successes as the OP posits you have to reason from the decision makers definition of success.

[adi_kurian]

Is your baromiter of success the acquisition of cash?

[lelanthran]

> Is your baromiter of success the acquisition of cash?

Who cares? In the context of layoffs, it's the definition the company uses that matters.

Your definition of success has no bearing on whether the company is going to do layoffs or not. The company's definition does.