Intel is joining the hardcore tech bandwagon: 'The best leaders get the most done with the fewest people'

• Intel's CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, announced layoffs and a stricter RTO mandate in a Thursday memo.
• The company also reported flat revenue and a significant loss. Its stock was down after hours.
• Other tech companies are similarly directing employees to focus on efficiency.

Intel's new CEO promised big changes within weeks of taking over the chipmaker. Now, he's laying out steps that echo how Big Tech companies have changed their workforces.

In a Thursday memo to employees posted on the company's website, Lip-Bu Tan detailed his plan for the company's culture: more time in the office, less admin, and leaner teams.

"The most important KPI for many managers at Intel has been the size of their teams. Going forward, this will not be the case," Tan wrote, referring to key performance indicators. "The best leaders get the most done with the fewest people."

Tan said the company will lay off employees over the next few months, starting this quarter. It is not clear how much Intel plans to reduce its head count. As of December, the company employed 108,900 full-time people, a decrease of more than 12% from the previous year, after a round of cuts under the prior CEO.

Tan said that by September, the company will mandate four days in the office, up from three days now. He's making the company's goal framework, called OKRs, optional, and cutting down on administrative tasks.

The CEO also took aim at meetings, which have long been a pet peeve of top executives, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

"I am instructing our leaders to eliminate unnecessary meetings and significantly reduce the number of meeting attendees. Too much valuable time is being wasted," he said.

Tan, an electronics veteran, took over as Intel's CEO last month. His appointment comes after former CEO Pat Gelsinger's sudden departure in December and during a tumultuous time for the once-dominant chipmaker, which has been struggling to compete with Nvidia and Taiwanese players.

On Thursday, Intel reported its first-quarter earnings. Its revenue was $12.7 billion — flat compared to last year — and it reported a loss of $800 million.

Intel's stock fell 5% after hours on Thursday because of weaker-than-expected earnings guidance for the second quarter. Intel's stock is down nearly 39% over the last year.

Intel did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider

'Lean, fast, and agile'

Tan's 'do more with less' memo reflects a broader cultural crackdown across tech.

Younger companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, and TikTok are rethinking a US tech culture known for pandemic-era remote work, unlimited office perks, top-line pay, and job security.

Intel also joins the rest of Big Tech in embracing the "great flattening." Companies, including Meta, have cut middle-level management in favor of more streamlined teams and fewer tiers of hierarchy, which they think should lead to less bureaucracy.

Across the industry, free massages and pet day care services have been replaced with memos filled with words such as "efficiency" and "scrappiness and frugality." Tan, too, in his letter wrote: "Our competitors are lean, fast and agile — and that's what we must become to improve our execution."

Tan's note echoes memos that the CEOs of Amazon and Shopify sent to their employees.

"We want to operate like the world's largest startup," Amazon's Andy Jassy wrote in a September letter. "That means having a passion for constantly inventing for customers, strong urgency (for most big opportunities, it's a race!), high ownership, fast decision-making, scrappiness and frugality, deeply-connected collaboration."

In a memo to employees that Shopify's Toby Lütke shared on social media earlier this month, he wrote: "In a company growing 20-40% year over year, you must improve by at least that every year just to re-qualify."