Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has changed executive management by managing a surprisingly small team of 25 to 30 people, which is lovingly called the “small group.” Zuckerberg revealed during a conversation with Stripe President John Collison at Stripe Sessions in San Francisco how his small team promotes flexibility and productivity that resonates with his goal to streamline Meta’s organizational structure.
Zuckerberg rejects set-up meetings in favor of flexible, as-needed communication. “If you’re directly accountable to me, you should have the responsibility to manage your own work,” Zuckerberg said, highlighting the need for self-motivation. He communicates freely with team members regularly, although not in the form of formal check-ins. He also mentioned that he has a fair share of free time to make communication more flexible.
This view is similar to what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also said, and he does not want to plan routine one-on-ones, as he believes that they can hinder transparency and add more bureaucracy.
Zuckerberg’s “small group” is an integrated team that can have continuous, open-ended strategy discussions and weekly operational reviews. He called the team a “core army” that is good at delivering cross-cutting initiatives quickly.
The company is now divided into 15 different product divisions, each led by top executives. Under Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer, main platforms like Facebook and Instagram are managed, and Javier Olivan, COO, handles larger functions. Andrew Bosworth’s team has teams that focus on new technologies like AR/VR and AI.
This flat structure was embraced by the company and accelerated in 2023 as Meta sought to be efficient and ended up with the elimination of 10,000 job positions. In order to make operations more streamlined and agile, several mid-level managers were given individual contributor positions.
By minimizing the hierarchies and empowering leaders, Zuckerberg continues to change Meta’s culture, stressing agility, focus, and clear strategy from the top level of management.
