Cars24 scrapped job titles and grades for a single designation: Builder

Cars24, the Gurugram-headquartered used-car platform operating in India, the UAE and Australia, eliminated job titles, grades and organisational bands across its workforce — one of the few technology companies to dismantle hierarchy at scale and one of the biggest restructurings in its history. Every employee now carries a single designation, Builder, under a philosophy called Flatland: authority derives from ownership, execution and customer impact rather than formal rank.

The company redesigned HR systems to strip hierarchy-based distinctions from benefits, travel policies, reimbursements and IT asset allocation; new hires get no grades or levels. The rollout ran in phases over several months, starting with senior leadership. Accountability, performance expectations and decision rights stay defined — only the basis of authority changes, from position to ownership. Co-founder Vikram Chopra: 'Hierarchy was one of humanity's greatest inventions... It helped organisations scale when information was scarce. AI fundamentally changes that equation.'

Cars24 said the overhaul followed an 18-month redesign of its operating model that helped raise revenue per employee 50% year on year in the second half of FY26 while adding nearly 300 basis points to EBITDA without a proportional increase in operating costs. It serves more than 41 million monthly active users and says it turned globally profitable this year. Chopra's framing: 'We want the person closest to the problem to feel empowered to solve it regardless of where they joined or how long they've been here.'

Company-reported: revenue per employee up 50% year on year in H2 FY26, and nearly 300 basis points added to EBITDA without a proportional cost increase.

AI makes intelligence and context available to everyone, removing the scarcity that justified moving decisions up and down layers.

Titles let people mistake position for contribution; removing them takes away the shortcut.

The person closest to the problem should be empowered to solve it, regardless of seniority or tenure.

Ideas should be judged on merit whether they come from a founder or a new recruit.

Titles are shortcuts that let people mistake position for contribution. If information already reaches everyone, authority can shift from rank to ownership — as long as accountability stays defined.

The transition was rolled out in phases over several months before the July 2026 announcement, beginning with senior leadership. Cars24 positions Flatland as the first step toward a broader thesis that AI-era businesses must rethink organisational design rather than merely embed AI in existing structures. It concedes it doesn't have the final answer — 'we believe that question is now worth asking and worth building around' — and stresses that accountability and performance expectations remain explicit under the new model.