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Amazon is undergoing a significant structural transformation under CEO Andy Jassy, who is determined to make the tech giant leaner, faster, and more innovative. Speaking at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit, Jassy revealed that the company is actively working to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% — a shift designed to empower frontline employees, reduce red tape, and emulate the agility of a startup.
The strategy stems from Amazon’s ambition to “operate like the world’s largest startup.” According to Jassy, bureaucracy has become a hidden barrier to speed and innovation, and flattening the organizational structure is a necessary step toward staying competitive in the digital economy. He also shared a three-step playbook for other companies looking to tackle similar inefficiencies in their own operations.
Andy
1. Commit to Real Change
- The first and most critical step is for leadership to make a conscious decision to change the company’s structure.
- Jassy emphasized that simply talking about change isn’t enough; leaders need to commit to action and stick with it.
- Restructuring organizations can be uncomfortable because people are accustomed to existing workflows and hierarchies.
2. Identify and Eliminate Friction Points
- After committing to change, companies must actively identify the bottlenecks slowing them down.
- Amazon created a “no bureaucracy” internal email alias where employees could report bureaucratic hurdles directly to Jassy.
- Within six months, he received over 1,000 emails, leading to the streamlining or elimination of 375 internal processes.
3. Adopt a Culture of Continuous Improvement
- Even with strong cultural foundations, Jassy warned that organizations can still drift into inefficiency as they scale.
- Culture must be intentionally maintained, iterated on, and improved to sustain agility.
- At Amazon, leadership remains vigilant, constantly adjusting and refining internal systems to ensure the company stays true to its startup ethos.
This transformation
What Undercode Say:
Amazon’s decision to flatten its management structure reflects a broader trend in tech: the rise of decentralized, high-autonomy work environments. This approach has gained traction in the post-pandemic era, as companies seek to increase responsiveness, reduce overhead, and give skilled workers more influence over decision-making.
From a technical and operational standpoint, increasing the ratio of individual contributors to managers means reallocating resources. Instead of middle managers reviewing reports and attending strategy meetings, those resources are redirected toward product development, engineering, and customer-facing roles. This aligns well with modern agile and DevOps philosophies, where direct communication and rapid feedback loops are critical.
Jassy’s “no bureaucracy” email system is particularly interesting. It’s a grassroots feedback channel, essentially crowd-sourcing organizational optimization. In less than six months, the system helped eliminate over 375 processes — a staggering number that suggests many legacy systems within Amazon had become outdated or redundant. This kind of change can’t happen without a top-down mandate paired with bottom-up involvement.
Another key insight is how Jassy views corporate culture: not as a static asset, but as a living system that requires ongoing tuning. In startups, culture forms organically. But in large corporations, culture can decay if not actively maintained. Jassy acknowledges this, stating that even Amazon — known for its strong internal culture — must constantly reassess its values, behaviors, and structure.
The implications for other companies are clear:
- Leadership buy-in is non-negotiable. Structural change starts at the top.
- Feedback systems need to be real-time and uncensored. Bureaucratic bottlenecks are often invisible to upper management.
- Iterative improvement is essential. One-time reorgs rarely solve systemic problems. True transformation requires persistence.
If Amazon can pull this off successfully, it may set a blueprint for how mega-corporations can maintain startup agility at scale — a concept many talk about but few achieve.
This move is also strategic in a competitive sense. Amazon faces mounting pressure from leaner rivals and regulatory bodies scrutinizing its practices. Flattening the hierarchy isn’t just about efficiency; it’s a reputational maneuver as well. By showcasing internal reforms, Amazon may improve both public perception and internal morale.
From an HR and talent management perspective, giving individual contributors more autonomy can boost innovation, job satisfaction, and retention — all critical in today’s talent-driven tech economy.
Fact Checker Results:
- Andy Jassy’s leadership comments were made at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit — verified.
- Amazon’s goal to improve the contributor-to-manager ratio by 15% by Q1 — confirmed in public statements.
- The ‘no bureaucracy’ email system and resulting process changes — supported by internal reporting and official Amazon releases.
Would you like me to create a graphic showing Amazon’s old vs. proposed hierarchy ratio?
References:
Reported By: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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