I am writing to request an urgent executive intervention and an independent audit of our middle level management layers, specifically targeting the density within our Director and Junior Managing Director tiers. The excessive bloating of these mid-to-upper tiers has evolved into a severe operational threat, a structural liability, and a massive drain on company money. In a large asset management firm like ours, we are suffering from classic "big company problems." Instead of driving firm-wide success, these middle level managers are acting as decentralized "empires" designed to maximize personal interests at the direct expense of our clients, our operational standards, and our market reputation.
We are facing critical vulnerabilities across our operations that require immediate control. To protect their turf, certain managers are taking unnecessary risks and creating compliance gaps, exposing the entire firm to severe scrutiny. Meanwhile, client deliverables and asset performance are being pushed aside to fund flashy, low-utility initiatives. We are seeing fast, consecutive promotions handed out in a year and the year immediately after, specifically for manufacturing these superficial initiatives, which exist only as a paper show and bring very little revenue growth to our clients. This is a mutually agreed deal where managers use quid pro quo arrangements to endorse each other's subordinates and secure each other's political turf. Worse, many of these individuals are fast-tracking their teams because they plan to build their own businesses outside or join a competitor soon.
They are intentionally inflating their subordinates' titles and salaries now so that when they leave, they can strip the company and take their entire loyal team with them.
This rampant nepotism has left us with siloed teams staffed based on personal loyalty rather than technical competence, actively driving out our top independent investment and operational talent. The financial waste is completely unsustainable. We currently have multiple lines where a middle level manager only oversees one or two people. This is a massive waste of corporate capital. We need to look at major tech companies, which they have successfully laid off massive portions of their middle level management layers with the help of AI. In fact, this is the biggest area getting hit and replaced by automation right now. These firms have explicitly proven that without these redundant layers clogging up the system, a flatter reporting structure improves employee happiness and makes the organization significantly more efficient.
Industry best practice across all sectors is now focused heavily on shrinking this layer. Making the middle level manager class smaller is vastly more beneficial for companies and shareholders as a whole.