"In a bureaucracy, it’s easier to make a process more complex than to make it simpler, and easier to create a new burden than kill an old one." He should have lead with this.
One fun experiment would be for a company to place all it's middle managers on gardening leave. For a year. Give them the same ability to influence as that of a very minority shareholder (i.e. none). Then see how the bottom line fares. I see three outcomes: 1. Profits are down. Those managers added value after all. 2. Profits about the same. Those managers added nothing. 3. Profits up!! Those managers were dragging t…
That there are three outcomes does not mean they are equally likely.
Oh, and additional possible outcomes (IMO both more likely than yours):
4. the company disintegrates into complete chaos and goes bankrupt before the year is half over.
5. the remaining employees self-organize and the more ambitious among them end up doing exactly what the middle managers were doing before.