Daniel Ek thinks he is the "least powerful" person at Spotify.
The 40-year-old businessman serves as CEO as the multi-national music streaming company but has now insisted that he makes the "least amount" of decisions
During a Q+A session, he said: "I often hear the phrase ‘you should go directly to the CEO’… where a lot of people think that you’re magically going to be able to enact some kind of decision.And it is actually true that there are certain types of organization where the CEO would probably always make the decision. There is the Scandinavian leadership model, where you delegate decision-making. You allow your leaders to make [the decisions]. So, in many ways, I’m probably the least powerful person in Spotify and I probably make the least amount of decisions in Spotify."
Towards the end of 2023, the music giant had a staff of around 9,000 but in a memo, Ek told staff that the "incredibly painful" job cuts of around 1,500 would "rightsize [their] costs" as the growth "slows dramatically" for the platform.
He said: "Considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to right-size our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives. While I am convinced this is the right action for our company, I also understand it will be incredibly painful for our team.
"To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us."
The streaming giant is used by more than 200 million subscribers worldwide and it was recently revealed that it would be using Google's artificial intelligence system to offer appropriate podcasts to users based on their search history and previous listening habits.
