Back in the 80s and 90s, many managers waxing rhapsodic over the idea of a "management-driven business" where there are no employees other than managers, and all the work is outsourced.

The idea of "everyone is a manager" was written up in journals.

And then there was this thing -- "agile" -- where the idea was that teams would take an active role in managing themselves. And then "lean startup" where the people formerly managing become more like business analysts and team members.

Now the idea of being a middleman, where you take needs from a customer base somewhere and outsource all the work -- seems kind of crazy. It seems like it would ensure rapid obsolescence of the management org.

After all, why bother going through a middleman and paying the markup if you can just outsource it yourself?
And, indeed, that's pretty much what happened to "everyone is a manager."

But every once in a while, if you go to a large enough corporation with a long history, you find that it is still alive.
Whether you find it appealing or not, do you see anything happening other than people "routing around the obstruction" in this model?

And if people do "route around the obstruction" what does that mean for the economy and the large, storied companies we know? Does the future belong to doers instead of directors? Where are we here?
Maybe I need wardley maps for this?