- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has 50 direct reports.
- In an interview with Stanford GSB, he said CEOs should have the most direct reports.
- “I don't believe in a culture or environment where the information you have is the reason you have power,” he said.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang doesn't believe in gatekeeping.
“By definition, a CEO should have the most direct reports of anyone in the company,” said Huang, who oversees 50 direct reports. He made the comments Tuesday in an interview with the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Huang's rationale is that CEOs have more bandwidth than other managers because those who report to them (in theory) require minimal supervision.
And hiring more direct reports could also help CEOs level the playing field. According to Huang, the more people a CEO communicates with directly, the less likely an employee's position in the company will be determined by access to critical information.
“I don't believe in a culture or environment where the information you have is the reason you have power,” he said.
In Huang's view, the role of managers is not to mediate power between employees, but to collectively motivate the company's employees.
“Our position in the company is based on the ability to reason through complex matters, lead others to great accomplishments, inspire others, empower others, and support others. It must have something to do with it,” he said. “These are the reasons why management exists, to serve everyone else who works in the company.”
The AI chip maker has been making headlines since announcing blockbuster financial results for Q4 2023 late last month. Huang also manages more employees than other big-name CEOs (Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has 16 people reporting to him), according to a 2023 company report. Nvidia has nearly 30,000 employees. That means Huang only oversees a small portion of Nvidia's workforce. .
Huang may be an outlier (and overachiever) as a manager, but CEOs are increasingly taking on direct reports. According to Harvard Business Review, the number of direct reports to CEOs has doubled from five in the mid-1980s to nearly 10 in the mid-2000s.
This is a fairly optimal number. Hal Gregersen, a former MIT Leadership Center executive and his director, previously told BI that his ideal number of direct reports, whether they be the CEO or lower-level managers, ranges from his six to his director. He said there were 12 people.
