Amazon CEO Andy Jassy will speak at a presentation event held in New York on February 26th, 2025.
Michael Nuggle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that he is working to eradicate bureaucracy from within the company’s ranks as part of an effort to reset that culture.
Speaking at Amazon’s annual conference for third-party sellers in Seattle, Jussy said changes are needed to ensure that the company can innovate more quickly.
“I think bureaucracy is a real disgust for startups and entrepreneurial organizations,” Jussie said. “As you grow older, it’s really easy to accumulate bureaucracy, a lot of bureaucracy you might not see.”
A year ago, as part of a mission to require corporate employees to work in the office five days a week, Jassy set the goal of flattening the organization across Amazon. He called for a worker-manager ratio to be increased by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of this year.
Jassy also announced the creation of “no email alias for bureaucracy” so that employees can flag unnecessary processes and excessive rules within the company.
Amazon has received around 1,500 emails over the past year, and the company has changed its approximately 455 processes based on its feedback, Jassy said.
The change is linked to Jassy’s broad strategy to overhaul Amazon’s corporate culture and function like the “world’s biggest startup” to stay competitive.
Jussy, who was helmed by founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, has been taking part in a company-wide cost-cutting campaign in recent years. Amazon has fired more than 27,000 employees since 2022 and resolved some of its more unprofitable initiatives. Jassy also encourages employees to invest heavily in artificial intelligence, while at the same time less, the more.
Turning Amazon into a startup-like environment is not easy. The company operates a vast number of companies in retail, cloud computing, advertising and other areas. It is the second largest private employer in the United States, with over 1.5 million employees worldwide.
“You need to remember your roots and remember how useful it is to be sloppy,” Jussy said.
See: Jassy on how AI transforms employees
