Anthropic’s leadership structure stands out, even in Silicon Valley, where founders are known for experimenting with management styles, but he’s not the only outlier.
According to Eric Y. Lee, an assistant professor of management at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, the ideal number of direct reports often depends on a company’s size and complexity.
“I would gather that Anthropic has less complexity in its top management team structure, with fewer roles, levels, and areas of expertise, whereas Nvidia has more,” Lee told Fortune by email. “That would mean a firm like Nvidia simply needs more direct reports to account for that complexity, whereas Anthropic can get away with just one.”
The debate over the ideal management structure is nearly as old as management itself. But the rise of AI has added new urgency to the conversation, pushing companies to rethink how many people managers oversee and how decisions get made.
“The teams needed to tackle [specific problems] should be small and authorized with the decision-making ability to move and act like Navy SEALs or the Army’s Delta Force,” he wrote. “This is trench warfare; it’s about fighting for every inch, moving quickly, and getting things done.”
Special operations units, Dimon said, are intentionally small to maximize accountability, agility, and execution. Businesses can benefit from the same principle: When teams are lean, every employee has a clear stake in the outcome.
“I think if you’re going to report to me, you need to be able to manage yourself,” Zuckerberg said last year, adding that he didn’t do one-to-one meetings with the people who report to him. “But I believe that for the rest of the company, management is kind of important, and it’s an important way that people grow.”
For leaders trying to navigate the AI era, the difference in management structures among some of the most successful companies indicates that while there is no magic number when it comes to direct reports, the willingness to consider new ideas is paramount.
As an April 2012 Harvard Business Review article noted: “The best leaders stay mindful of the evolving demands of their job and continually tweak their team as they go.”
