Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Vows To Make E-Commerce Giant Leaner And Meaner By Rooting Out ‘Anathema’ Of Bureaucracy

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Tuesday said that he is working to root out bureaucracy and flatten the organization in an effort to improve the corporate culture and spur innovation, according to a CNBC report.

"I would say bureaucracy is really anathema to startups and to entrepreneurial organizations," Jassy said, speaking at the c-commerce giant's annual conference for third-party sellers in Seattle.

"As you get larger, it's really easy to accumulate bureaucracy, a lot of bureaucracy that you may not see," the report quoted him saying.

Jassy first advocated for a flatter corporate structure last September, when the company announced a move to five-day work from the office, from three days previously, for corporate employees. He set a target for the senior leadership team to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of 2025. 

He also set up "bureaucracy mailbox," a dedicated email alias, for employees to flag unnecessary processes or excessive rules within the company.

Jassy said Tuesday that Amazon has received about 1,500 emails in the past year to that email, and has changed about 455 processes based on that feedback.

To be sure, Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since 2022, including axing some business units. The laid-off staff is believed to include a sizable number of managers.

Jassy's comments come as the fifth-largest U.S. public company navigates tariff headwinds in its e-commerce business and seeks to accelerate growth in its cloud unit, which has lagged behind rivals, while investing in artificial intelligence.

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for Amazon was 'bearish' as of the last reading. AMZN stock is up 6.7% year-to-date, below the 12.6% rise in SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

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