Citigroup Inc.

The most profitable organism isn't always the largest - sometimes it's the one that prunes most ruthlessly. Citigroup operates in 95 countries with $2.6 trillion in assets, serving clients across 180+ jurisdictions. But for years, this global footprint meant bloated overhead, redundant systems, and 13 management layers between frontline staff and the CEO. The bank wasn't scaling - it was accumulating deadweight. In 2023, CEO Jane Fraser launched "Project Bora Bora," the most aggressive organizational pruning since the 2008 crisis.

By late 2025, Citigroup had eliminated 20,000 positions, collapsed management layers from 13 to 8, removed over 60 redundant committees, and hit its $53.4 billion expense target. The stock surged 68% year-to-date, and the market's Price-to-Tangible Book Value reached 1.27x - signaling that investors no longer view Citi as "distressed." The transformation focused on autophagy: selectively breaking down internal structures to redirect resources toward growth. The company now emphasizes cross-border services for institutional clients rather than competing for retail banking in saturated markets.

The biological insight: branch abscission - cutting off limbs to concentrate resources on surviving tissue. Citigroup shed consumer banking operations in 14 international markets, exited Russia entirely, and refocused on wealth management and transaction services where global presence creates competitive advantage. Q3 2025 revenue hit $22.1 billion (up 9% year-over-year) with adjusted net income of $4.5 billion. The lesson for business: growth through addition looks impressive, but survival often requires subtraction. The organism that prunes aggressively can reallocate resources faster than the organism that tries to maintain every branch.