Jamba Juice CEO Champions Middle Management While Everyone Else Zaps Them
KEY POINTS
- •James D. White, ex-CEO of Jamba Juice from 2008-2016 and exec at Gillette, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé Purina, praised middle management on August 19, 2025.
- •White stressed that middle managers are essential to drive company culture and ensure employees buy into the mission for growth.
- •Meanwhile, companies like Microsoft, Walmart, and OnlyFans are slashing or entirely removing middle managers to boost efficiency.
Former Jamba Juice CEO James D. White, who also flexed executive muscles at Gillette, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé Purina, threw a soft smoothie of hope in favor of middle management on Yahoo Finance's 'Opening Bid' this Monday, August 19, 2025. His thesis? Middle managers actually matter for company culture and bottom-line growth, despite the current corporate vogue of slicing that 'squidgy layer' like it’s unripe fruit. Big shots from Microsoft to Walmart have been wielding scissors, reducing middle managers left and right. Meanwhile, OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair boasts $7 billion revenue with just 42 staff, proudly skipping said 'middle management' because 'nobody’s ever had a really good middle manager.' So, while Big Tech and retail bosses flatten org charts like pancakes, White clings to middle management like his life depends on workplace pep talks.
Share the Story
Middle managers: vital lifelines for company culture or just the world's most expensive message relayers? Apparently, billion-dollar firms are betting we can all just shout from the top and hope for the best.
Corporate strategy 2025: Cut middle managers, hope mission and vision somehow teleport directly into employees' hearts. Spoiler - it doesn’t.
OnlyFans runs $7B business with 42 people and zero middle management. Meanwhile, most companies struggle to manage one coffee machine.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 12/30/2025 | Author: Aditi Bharade
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