The problem
A growing plant we work with had good managers and a hard-working owner. Yet many decisions stood still until the owner was free.
Managers kept problems in their pocket until the owner met them in person. The owner checked and signed every invoice at month end. Any price for a non-standard product came to him. Problems that had been open for years went back to the start every time they reached his desk, because he had no time to build the process himself. When a manager was on leave, the others did not know who would do his work.
There was a quieter effect too. Whenever the owner, or a senior consultant, was in the plant, people stepped back, because someone senior would handle it. Nobody was at fault. The plant had simply never written down who decides what.
What we built
We worked with the owner and the managers on the decisions that came to him most often. For each one we agreed who decides, up to what limit, and when it goes up.
| Decision | Who decides | When it goes to the owner |
|---|---|---|
| Price of a standard product | Sales, from the price list | Never, for list prices |
| Price of a non-standard product | Sales, from a reference sheet with a range | Only when the price is below the range |
| Invoice before it goes out | The person given the authority, with a checklist | Only for exceptions |
| A long-pending problem area | One named manager, who works on it every week | As the escalation, with regular updates |
| A new problem or idea | The person who sees it, raised in the system in his own name | Through the review, not by waiting for a meeting |
The price reference sheet groups non-standard products of the same family by size or weight, with a range around a base rate. A salesperson may go above the range on his own. Going below it needs the owner's approval. Mistakes are allowed, and they are reviewed.
Invoice checking was put into a template with fixed checkpoints, and the authority was given to the right person, so that a wrong invoice becomes a process question, not the owner's daily job.
Three more steps supported the limits:
- A cover plan. For each manager, a written note of who covers his work on the days he is away, so the system does not break.
- Problems on paper. Managers wrote problems in a four-part sheet: the problem, at least three solutions, the outcome of each, and why it must be solved now. Problems are raised under the person's own name, so they count in his review.
- Seniors run the closing meeting. Each department's closing meeting is led by its senior manager, not by the owner. The owner monitors the senior managers through reviews and audits, not the daily work.
The list follows the "who decides" part of our owner dependency audit: one person decides each item, with a limit, and a clear point where it goes up.
An owner who decides everything is not in control. He is in the queue.
What changed
- The owner no longer checks each invoice himself; the checklist and the authority do that work.
- Sales has a clear limit for non-standard prices, and knows exactly when to ask the owner.
- Each long-pending problem area has one named manager who keeps it moving between reviews.
What other plants can take from this
- List the decisions that reach the owner most often. Start with five, not fifty.
- For each one, write one person, one limit and one point where it goes up.
- Put routine checks, such as invoices, into a checklist, and hand over the authority with it.
- Give every old problem a named owner below the owner.
- Write who covers whom before someone goes on leave, not after.
- Review the results each month, not each single decision.
Key points
- When decision rights are not written, managers wait and the owner becomes the bottleneck.
- An approval matrix can start small: a few decisions, each with one person, one limit and one escalation point.
- A checklist with authority lets the owner stop checking routine work.
- This is a step from Owner-driven to system-driven, and it prepares the Second Line of Leaders.
