Jamba Juice's former CEO says middle management is crucial for success.

"In the era of America's " Great Flattening," one longtime executive still believes that middle management has an important role to play. Speaking in a Monday episode of Yahoo Finance's "Opening Bid" podcast, Jamba Juice's former CEO, James D. White, said companies should not lose sight of the fact that humans and company culture drive bottom-line growth. And White said that middle managers are crucial for driving a good company culture."

""It's really hard to drive culture into an organization if you're not focused on the middle management of the organization," he told host Brian Sozzi. White said one reason for this is because most workers report to middle management. "If that part of the organization doesn't have the tools, hasn't bought into the mission and vision, and they're not being appropriately rewarded or invested in, you don't have the best chance of getting that message into the heart of the organization," White said."

Middle managers serve as the primary conduit for mission, vision, and cultural norms to reach most employees and therefore materially influence performance and growth. Without investing in middle management with tools, rewards, and alignment, organizational messages struggle to reach the workforce and culture weakens. Recent corporate trends favor a flattened hierarchy and reductions in middle-management headcount to cut costs and boost efficiency, as seen across Big Tech and retail. Some companies report very high revenue with unusually small staffs, illustrating the flattening trend. Balancing efficiency with deliberate middle-management investment affects long-term company culture and bottom-line results.

Read at Business Insider