20/08/2026
According to reporting by Business Insider, Roland Busch — CEO of Siemens, Germany's most valuable company at $251 billion — replies to most emails with two letters.
"OK" or "No."
He receives about 200 emails a day and keeps his inbox below 100 unread messages by responding quickly and using as few words as possible. "My team is trained to communicate this way," he said. If a longer response is needed, he dictates it while walking through the office.
His meeting structure follows the same logic. Busch has no recurring one-on-ones with his direct reports. Instead: open door, come when you need me. "I don't need to entertain people and they don't need to entertain me."
The philosophy behind all of it comes from an unlikely place. Busch doesn't have an MBA — he has a Ph.D. in physics and started his Siemens career in research. "Physics taught me how to de-layer a problem," he said, "separating the core issues from the less important ones. Once you isolate the core variables, you have a much better chance of making the right decision."
Siemens' shares have more than doubled since he became CEO in 2021.
The pattern holds elsewhere. Jensen Huang runs Nvidia with around 60 direct reports — far above the standard five to seven — and skips individual meetings entirely. "We present a problem and all of us attack it," he said on the Lex Fridman Podcast.
Two CEOs of two of the world's most valuable companies have independently reached the same conclusion: unnecessary words, unnecessary meetings and unnecessary layers of hierarchy are all costs. The leaders who treat them that way tend to move faster than the ones who don't.
