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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 of control to as high as 1:50 in some areas. While much of the discussion around flattening has focused on middle management roles, the C-suite has not been immune. After years of growth, C-suites are shrinking. According to a SHRM study, between 1990 and 2023, the average size of the C-suite, excluding the CEO, grew by 160 percent. While specialist C-suite roles, such as chief data and chief revenue officer, saw the highest growth rates, nearly all C-suite roles grew over this period. However, over the past few years, this growth trend has been reversing. Per SHRM’s data, excluding the CEO, the number of C-suite executives declined by 4.7 percent in 2023 relative to 2022. C-Suite Trends Among Leading Global Companies We wanted to understand how the shrinking C-suite trend was playing out at the largest companies globally. To do this, we utilized The Official Board’s database to analyze the C-suites at Fortune Global 500 companies. Specifically, we looked at N-1 roles (direct reports to the CEO) at these companies in 2022 and in 2025. (It is worth noting that the database at The Official Board is compiled using publicly available information, and complete organization chart information is not always available.) The Fortune Global 500 is comprised of the largest 500 companies (by revenue) globally. In aggregate, the constituents of the Fortune Global 500 generated $41.7 trillion in 2024 revenues and $3 trillion in profits and employed 70.1 million people. For 12 consecutive years, Walmart has been the number one company globally. Based on data supplied by The Official Board, the average number of N-1 executives across Fortune Global 500 companies declined by 9 percent between 2022 and 2025, decreasing from an average of 12.0 to 10.9. All sectors except transportation saw the average number of N-1 roles decline between 2022 and 2025, with the largest decline occurring at finance companies. On a regional basis, Europe, Middle East & Africa, or EMEA, (-17 percent) and North America (-13 percent) saw double-digit declines in the average number of N-1 executives between 2022 and 2025. Asia Pacific and Latin America saw a slight increase (see chart on p.17). We also looked at the trend in N-1 roles among the largest 10 companies in the Fortune Global 500 ranking. Here, the declining size of the average C-suite was even more noticeable. Overall, the average number of N-1 executives across this group of largest companies declined by 15 percent between 2022 and 2025, from 13.3 to 11.3. Finally, we looked at the change in specific C-suite roles. Several newer C-suite roles, most notably in the area of technology, have continued to increase in prevalence (see chart, below right). However, other C-suite roles declined. For example, the number of Global Fortune 500 companies with a chief marketing officer declined by 13 percent between 2022 and 2025. (Per the SHRM study, the percentage of companies with CMOs peaked in 2021.) UPS was one company that eliminated this role. When its CMO left in late 2023, his responsibilities were reassigned to the company’s chief commercial and strategy officer. Johnson & Johnson, Walgreens and Hyatt also eliminated the CMO role in recent years. Executive Search Consultant Evan Sharp, of Russell Reynolds Associates, argued that the trend away from appointing a CMO reflected an emphasis on new data-driven ways of interacting with customers. Georges Elhedery of HSBC, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Andy Jassy of Amazon have shared details of their senior management teams. After Years of Growth, What Is Driving This Change? First, it is worth noting that not all companies have bought into the smaller is better trend when it comes to the C-suite. Jensen Huang, CEO of the global chip company Nvidia, is a firm believer in having a large C-suite. At the DealBook Summit, Huang, who has upward of 36 direct reports, maintained that the “more direct reports the CEO has, the less layers are in the company…It allows us to keep information fluid, allows...
