Organizational flattening may well be the most talked-about business trend of the year. At Amazon, CEO Andy Jassy is focused on increasing the company’s builder ratio (individual contributors/managers) by 15 percent. Dell is also eliminating management roles, moving to a structure where all vice presidents have 15 or more direct reports, and directors and senior managers have 20+.

Outside of technology, companies like Target are downsizing because of “too many layers and overlapping work.” The German life-sciences company Bayer AG has been one of the most aggressive companies on this front. In a recently published Harvard Business School case, we write about CEO Bill Anderson’s decision to eliminate 5,500 (out of 7,800) management positions across the company, increasing managers’ span

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