What If Bureaucracy Is… Good?
Jamie Dimon, Elon Musk and the rest of the efficiency hive are missing the power of structure and processes.
Let ‘er rip?
Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg
Even in our ultra-polarized era, the public and private sectors seem to have reached a consensus on the common scourge of our time: bureaucracy.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon can’t hide his disdain for it, mentioning some form of the word 21 times in his April letter to shareholders and going so far as to say it “kills” companies. Amazon.com Inc. CEO Andy Jassy wrote in his annual missive that people who are trying to build things hate it — that it frustrates and slows them down. Over at the State Department, Marco Rubio identified bureaucracy as the reason for the organization’s massive cuts and restructuring. And Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk famously waved a chainsaw in the air, pledging to slash through what he has called the “tyranny of bureaucracy” in the federal government.