Business Governance Consulting: A Practical Guide for Business Leaders

Business governance consulting can help owners and leaders make decision responsibilities clearer as a business grows, faces pressure, or changes direction. Governance is not limited to a boardroom or a policy manual. It also covers who can make important calls, what information is considered, how exceptions are escalated, and how decisions are carried through. For established businesses with five or more employees, these questions may become more noticeable as teams, processes, and commitments grow more connected.

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What does business governance consulting cover?

Business governance is the practical structure a company uses to direct and oversee its work. It may involve formal boards or advisory groups, but it also includes day-to-day decision rights, reporting, accountability, and escalation paths. Consulting in this area typically starts with understanding how the business currently makes decisions, where that approach works, and where it creates confusion or delay. The work should fit the company’s circumstances rather than assume that every organization needs the same committee structure, procedures, or policy manual.

For one company, routine approvals may still depend on the owner, leaving managers unsure what they can decide. For another, several departments may make commitments without a shared view of cost, capacity, timing, or risk. A company with multiple owners may need to distinguish ownership decisions from operating decisions. Those are examples of governance questions, not a claim that a particular intervention produces a specific result. An assessment should establish which issue is actually present before leaders choose a remedy.

A useful review can examine several connected areas:

• Decision authority: Which roles can approve spending, hiring, customer terms, or operating changes? What limits apply?
• Information flow: What facts do decision-makers receive, how often, and in what form? Are definitions consistent across teams?
• Accountability: Who owns follow-up after a decision, and where are open actions recorded?
• Risk and escalation: Which exceptions require wider review, and who should be informed?
• Meeting and reporting routines: Do leadership discussions result in clear decisions, owners, and next steps?
• Review and adjustment: How will leaders tell whether a governance practice remains useful as conditions change?

Governance should support the business’s actual work. A large, formal structure can add delay if it does not match the company’s scale or risk. Informal arrangements can also create problems if people do not know who has authority or how a decision can be challenged. The aim is a proportionate way to make decisions and carry them out, with enough clarity to support consistent action and enough flexibility to handle legitimate exceptions.

When should a business revisit its governance?

Governance may deserve attention when the way decisions are made no longer matches the business’s size, complexity, ownership, or current pressures. Growth is one trigger, but it is not the only one. A company might revisit its decision structure after an ownership change, leadership transition, new operating model, technology adoption, acquisition discussion, or period of financial or market pressure. A change in responsibility can also reveal that a process depended on one person’s knowledge rather than on a shared understanding.

Look for recurring patterns instead of relying on one frustrating meeting. Decisions may repeatedly be reopened because the approver, evidence, or scope was unclear. Work may stall while people wait for one person to make routine calls. Different teams may make conflicting promises to customers. Leaders may hear about a material issue only after it becomes urgent. A manager may have accountability for a result but lack authority over the people or resources needed to influence it. These patterns can point to a governance gap, but they may also reflect process, capacity, information, or role-design problems.

It helps to record examples before concluding that governance is the cause. Note what decision was needed, who was involved, how long it took, what information was available, what happened next, and what was at stake. Compare multiple cases. If every example concerns a different process, a single approval rule may not solve the wider issue. If the same decision repeatedly gets delayed at the same handoff, a specific authority or escalation boundary may be worth examining.

Do not treat governance as a cure-all. Unclear margins may require better financial information. A delivery backlog may come from insufficient capacity or a poorly designed workflow. Sales commitments that exceed delivery capability may involve forecasting and coordination, not only senior approval. A business can need more than one kind of support, but it is useful to distinguish those needs rather than label every difficulty a governance problem.

Which governance questions should leaders answer first?

A short diagnostic can help establish whether the concern is mainly about authority, information, follow-through, or the operating model underneath. Include people who make decisions and people who carry them out. If leaders hear only from approvers, they may miss the practical effect of a rule on the teams expected to use it. If they hear only from a team experiencing delay, they may miss legal, financial, customer, or safety considerations that explain why a review exists.

1. What decisions are difficult or slow? Name concrete examples, how often they occur, and the consequence of delay or inconsistency.
2. Who currently decides? Compare written roles with what actually happens, including informal approvals and decisions made by default.
3. What information is available at the decision point? Note information that is missing, late, inconsistent, difficult to interpret, or too detailed to use.
4. Who is affected by the decision? Include teams that execute it, people who depend on the result, and anyone responsible for relevant controls.
5. How is completion checked? Identify the owner, due date, evidence of completion, and route for raising a problem.
6. What must remain flexible? Separate necessary controls from steps that create delay without useful oversight.
7. What is the cost of changing nothing? Describe operational consequences without assuming that every delay has a measurable financial value.

Use this exercise to replace broad labels with observable descriptions. “We need better governance” is not yet a diagnosis. “Three departments use different approval practices for customer exceptions, and leaders cannot compare the commitments in one review” is more actionable. It identifies the decision type, the inconsistency, and the missing information. It still leaves room to test whether the cause is authority, reporting, process design, or a combination.

Answering these questions does not require a perfect data set. A few documented examples, existing reports, organization charts, meeting agendas, and decision records can reveal where people’s accounts differ. Handle sensitive information carefully. PCG describes initial conversations as discreet discovery, but says that this does not create a binding confidentiality agreement. Discuss any formal confidentiality terms separately before sharing sensitive materials.

How do governance needs connect to broader business pressures?

Governance rarely sits apart from operations, technology, finance, sales, and leadership. If the business is missing operating targets, ask whether the difficulty is unclear authority, a broken process, limited capacity, incomplete information, or more than one of these. If the business is considering automation or AI, clarify who evaluates use cases, approves changes, monitors adoption, and handles exceptions. If sales commitments outpace delivery capacity, decision-makers may need a shared review of pipeline assumptions, delivery constraints, and the authority to adjust commitments.

Financial or tax pressure may affect what information leaders need and how quickly they need to consider a decision. Governance can help organize review and accountability, but it is not a substitute for qualified legal, tax, or financial advice. A company with interrelated challenges may benefit from looking at the whole situation before selecting a narrow workstream. An issue that first appears to be an approval bottleneck might turn out to involve unreliable forecasts, unclear process ownership, and a gap in operating capacity.

PCG describes its approach as assessing the business, identifying a suitable path, and coordinating relevant resources and execution support. Its stated capability areas include operational improvement, technology enablement, sales pipeline development, financial recovery, leadership and workforce support, and capital and restructuring. They are needs-led options, not a fixed governance package or a claim that every business needs every capability. Any capital or financing options are subject to evaluation, due diligence, and definitive written agreements, and are not guaranteed.

For a broader view of the kinds of pressures PCG discusses, see PCG’s overview of financial, operational, and market pressure. Its approach page describes the firm’s stated assessment-to-execution process. These are descriptions of the company’s approach, not independent proof of outcomes or a promise that a particular service fits every company.

What should a proportionate governance structure include?

The right structure depends on the decisions a business must make, its ownership and leadership arrangements, and the level of risk involved. Governance does not have to mean creating a standing committee for every subject. It may be enough to document a few decision categories, define approvers, and establish a regular review rhythm. More complex arrangements may call for formal oversight, but leaders should understand what problem each additional layer is intended to solve and how its work relates to existing roles.

Define decision categories and authority

Start with recurring decisions rather than writing a large policy before anyone agrees what is unclear. List decisions such as hiring, spending, customer commitments, changes to operating procedures, technology adoption, and responses to exceptions. For each category, identify the person who proposes a decision, the person with authority to approve it, the people who must be consulted, and the people who need to know after a decision is made. The same person may perform more than one role in a smaller business, but naming the roles can still reveal gaps.

Distinguish routine choices from exceptions that warrant senior review. Boundaries may depend on scope, a defined spending limit, impact on another team, a customer commitment outside ordinary terms, or a material change to business priorities. The exact thresholds should be determined by the company and its advisers, not borrowed automatically from another organization. Make the rules understandable to the people who use them. A policy that nobody can apply consistently does not clarify authority.

Choose useful information, not more reporting

Identify what leaders need to know before making and monitoring a decision. Depending on the issue, this might include operating capacity, cost assumptions, customer commitments, cash-flow timing, staffing availability, or progress on agreed actions. Define who prepares the information, when it is current, what each measure means, and any known limitations. If different teams calculate the same measure differently, settle the definition before using it to compare performance.

A report can be accurate and still be poorly suited to the decision. A long monthly pack may not answer whether a proposed change can be implemented next week. A brief summary may conceal assumptions that matter to a larger commitment. Match the detail to the decision’s importance and reversibility. Do not imply that a measure is reliable if its underlying data is incomplete, and do not collect sensitive details simply because a template has a field for them.

Make follow-through visible

Record decisions, owners, deadlines, and unresolved questions in a consistent place. A useful entry states what was decided, who is responsible for the next action, when it is due, and whether another review is required. If a decision changes, capture why and who needs to know. This gives leaders a feedback loop: they can see whether a decision was implemented and whether the assumptions behind it still hold.

A log should not become a second reporting system that nobody maintains. Decide who updates it, how people can find it, and when overdue actions are reviewed. Keep routine tasks with their owners rather than turning each one into a leadership agenda item. Bring an item back to senior review when a dependency changes, a risk emerges, a deadline is missed, or authority is genuinely unclear. The goal is visibility and learning, not surveillance or extra paperwork.

Keep governance aligned with the organization

Review roles and reporting lines when the business changes. A process that worked when the owner was personally involved in every customer commitment may not scale as managers take responsibility. Conversely, a structure designed for a much larger enterprise can burden a smaller organization. Revisit the arrangement when ownership, leadership, risk, or operating conditions materially change, and invite feedback from people who use the process.

How can leaders compare governance options?

There is no universal model. Compare options by the problem they solve, the people and information they require, the authority they create, and the effort needed to sustain them. A decision log may address gaps in follow-through; it will not by itself settle a disagreement about who has authority. An advisory group may bring structured outside perspective, but leaders should define its role and how its input relates to formal decision rights. The table is a thinking aid, not a prescribed governance standard.

Option	May help when	Questions to test
Documented decision rights	Approvals are unclear or inconsistent	Are the boundaries understandable, current, and workable?
Regular leadership review	Risks, priorities, or actions are not reviewed consistently	Does the meeting produce decisions, owners, and follow-up?
Decision and action log	Commitments are forgotten or revisited without context	Who maintains it, and how are changes recorded?
Advisory input	Leaders want structured outside perspective on a defined issue	What is advisory, who decides, and what information is appropriate to share?
Formal board or committee	Ownership, oversight, or complexity calls for a formal mechanism	What authority, duties, and qualified advice are needed?

Begin with the least complex option that can reasonably address the identified issue, while preserving any controls or formal obligations that apply. A lightweight practice may be enough for a recurring operational decision; a significant ownership or oversight matter may require a different process and qualified professional advice. Do not select a board, committee, or outside adviser simply because another company has one. Set a review point to see whether the structure helps people make the intended decisions or merely moves the delay to another place.

Formal board duties and legal obligations depend on the organization and jurisdiction. This guide is general business information, not legal advice. Consult qualified professionals about legal requirements, fiduciary responsibilities, entity matters, or formal governance documents.

How do ownership decisions differ from operating decisions?

In a business with multiple owners, a recurring source of friction can be the boundary between decisions about ownership and decisions about operating the company. The exact boundary depends on the company’s governing documents, legal structure, and agreements, so it cannot be prescribed in a general article. The practical first step is to identify which decisions are being disputed, who currently believes they have authority, and what documents or professional advice may apply.

Operating decisions generally concern the work of running the business, such as assigning resources, setting routine priorities, or handling an ordinary customer issue. Ownership decisions may involve a different level of impact or rights. These examples are illustrative only; a business should not assume that a decision falls into one category based solely on its label or apparent size. A modest operational change can have wider consequences, while a large routine decision may already be covered by an established authority framework.

Leaders can map the boundary by collecting several examples of decisions that caused disagreement. For each, record the business question, the people who participated, the documents or policies consulted, the timing, and the point at which the decision stalled. Then ask whether the disagreement concerns the outcome itself, the decision process, or the authority to decide. These are different problems. People may agree on the desired outcome but disagree about who must approve it; alternatively, they may agree on authority but have different assumptions about risks or priorities.

Use that distinction to shape a discussion with appropriate advisers. A governance consultant may help organize questions and clarify how decisions are currently made, but should not be treated as a substitute for legal advice on ownership rights or formal obligations. A sound process makes clear when an issue requires legal review and how business operations will be managed while the question is being resolved.

What does a practical consulting process look like?

A sound engagement should make its scope clear and connect recommendations to the business’s actual situation. A practical sequence often includes discovery, diagnosis, options, prioritization, and implementation planning. The exact work can vary, and no particular timing, fee, or result should be assumed without a written scope. Leaders should understand what the consultant is being asked to examine, what information may be needed, who will participate, and what decisions remain the company’s responsibility.

1. Frame the issue. Agree on the decisions or breakdowns to examine, who is affected, and what a useful assessment would clarify. Define the boundaries so a focused review does not silently expand into unrelated work.
2. Review how work happens today. Discuss roles, routines, reporting, and examples of decisions. Compare written descriptions with actual practice and use appropriate care with sensitive information.
3. Separate symptoms from causes. Determine whether governance is central or whether the issue is also operational, financial, technological, commercial, or related to leadership capacity.
4. Compare practical options. Consider expected usefulness, effort, risks, dependencies, and the people required to maintain each option. Avoid adding process for its own sake.
5. Agree on owners and measures. Identify who will act, what evidence will indicate progress, and when leaders will review the arrangement. Avoid claiming that a measure proves causation if other factors are changing.
6. Adjust based on experience. Use feedback and observed results to refine routines, while keeping formal approvals and professional advice requirements in view.

A useful recommendation should explain why the proposed change addresses the observed problem. If the issue is repeated uncertainty about authority, the recommendation should show how roles or escalation rules will become clearer. If leaders lack timely information, the plan should identify what information is needed, who supplies it, and what limitations remain. If decisions are made but not completed, the work should address ownership and follow-through rather than simply adding another meeting.

Implementation also needs a realistic transition. Consider who must learn a new process, what existing practices will stop, how open decisions will be handled, and what could go wrong during the change. A simple pilot can sometimes reveal whether a new approval path is usable before it is applied across the whole company. If the process is formal or affects legal duties, seek qualified guidance before changing it. Record what the pilot is intended to test and what evidence would lead leaders to keep, adjust, or stop the practice.

PCG presents itself as a business advisory and capital-solutions firm for established U.S. businesses and describes a whole-business assessment before recommending a combination of support. Its stated capabilities include operational improvement, technology enablement, sales pipeline development, financial recovery, leadership and workforce support, and capital and restructuring. They are needs-led options, not a fixed governance package. Read how PCG describes its capabilities before deciding whether a broader discussion fits the situation.

How should leaders evaluate whether a change is working?

Evaluation starts with the problem statement. Before changing a governance practice, describe what should improve and how leaders will observe it. If the concern is slow routine approvals, track representative decisions from request to outcome and note where time is spent. If the concern is inconsistent exceptions, compare how similar cases are reviewed and whether decision-makers have comparable information. If follow-through is weak, review whether actions have named owners and whether unresolved dependencies are visible.

Choose a small number of indicators that reflect the issue. They might include whether the intended approver is clear, how often a decision is sent to the wrong person, whether required information is available at review, how many decisions are reopened, or whether assigned actions are completed by their agreed dates. These are possible measures, not promised outcomes or universal benchmarks. Use definitions that are consistent, and make sure collecting the information does not create more work than the decision is worth.

Pair counts with context. A shorter approval time is not necessarily an improvement if important risks are now missed. A lower number of escalations could mean that authority is clearer, or it could mean that people have stopped raising concerns. Ask people who use the process what has changed, where work still stalls, and whether responsibilities are more understandable. Review examples alongside any summary measures.

Set a review date appropriate to the decision and its consequences. Some practices can be checked after a limited trial; others require enough time or repeated cases to make a useful assessment. If the result is mixed, identify whether the problem is the design, the way it is being used, missing information, or an external condition. Revise the smallest necessary part and explain the reason. Governance is not a one-time document exercise; it should remain aligned with the work and be reconsidered when the business changes.

What should leaders look for when selecting a consultant?

Ask prospective consultants to explain how they will understand the business before recommending a solution. A credible conversation should make room for the company’s context, the people involved, and the limits of what can be concluded from the information available. Do not assume that a polished framework automatically fits the company or that an outside adviser will take responsibility for decisions that belong to owners and leaders.

• What information and people would you need to assess the issue?
• How will you distinguish a governance gap from an operational, capacity, or information problem?
• What decisions or deliverables are in scope, and what is explicitly out of scope?
• Who will make recommendations, and who remains accountable for company decisions?
• How will sensitive business information be handled, and what written terms apply?
• What fees, outside-provider costs, and payment arrangements apply? Ask for these in writing rather than assuming a standard price.
• How will progress be reviewed, and what evidence will be used?
• Does the recommendation involve legal, tax, investment, or financing matters that require separate qualified advice?
• How will the consultant handle a finding that governance is not the main issue?
• What would cause the scope, timing, or requested information to change, and how would that change be approved?

Ask for clear assumptions and dependencies. For example, a proposed decision routine may depend on managers having access to current information or the authority to allocate resources. If those conditions are not present, the governance change may not work as described. Ask how the recommendation would be adjusted and which parts depend on company action or other providers.

Be cautious of claims that promise a particular financial result, guaranteed funding, or a universal governance model. PCG’s public materials state that investment, financing, and engagement require evaluation, due diligence, and definitive written agreements; no funding approval or outcome should be presumed. Governance consulting itself should not be treated as a promise to eliminate risk, resolve every disagreement, or guarantee better performance.

How can leaders prepare for an initial discussion?

Preparation helps make the conversation concrete without requiring an elaborate presentation. Bring a concise description of the business and the situation prompting the review. If available and appropriate, note the roles involved, a few examples of delayed or conflicting decisions, relevant reporting, current meeting routines, and changes already attempted. Identify near-term deadlines and what leaders need to decide next. These details help keep an initial discussion focused on the business question rather than on generic governance language.

Separate confirmed facts from assumptions. For example, distinguish “approval took two weeks on three occasions” from “the organization is too bureaucratic.” The first statement can be checked against examples; the second is an interpretation. Likewise, “two teams use different customer exception forms” is more specific than “people do not communicate.” A careful distinction helps an adviser test causes and prevents the business from selecting a solution before it understands the problem.

It can also help to identify what must not change. That might include a required review, a customer commitment, a control the business relies on, or a responsibility that cannot be transferred. Do not guess about legal or regulatory requirements; list the questions and consult qualified professionals. If the company is not ready to share certain information, say so and ask what can be discussed without it. PCG says initial conversations are discreet discovery, but this does not create a binding confidentiality agreement, so discuss formal terms separately before sharing sensitive materials.

Prepare a short set of questions for the consultant, but leave room for the discussion to reveal that the problem is different from the initial description. A useful first conversation should clarify what is known, what remains uncertain, what a next assessment would involve, and whether the proposed scope is appropriate. It should not be treated as a commitment to an engagement, a financing decision, or a guaranteed result.

To learn how PCG describes its initial conversation and process, visit Start a Conversation. The page is an invitation to discuss the situation, not a promise of a particular recommendation, timetable, or outcome.

What are common mistakes in governance work?

Adding a committee before defining the problem. A new forum can create a recurring meeting without resolving unclear authority or missing information. State what decision the group will handle, what authority it has, and what it will return to management or owners. If those points cannot be explained, consider whether a simpler practice would address the issue.

Writing rules that do not match actual work. A policy can look complete while people continue relying on informal approvals. Test proposed rules against real examples and ask the people who will use them to describe what they would do. If reasonable users interpret the boundary differently, simplify or clarify it before broad adoption.

Confusing consultation with decision authority. Asking a team or adviser for input does not automatically transfer the right or responsibility to decide. Make clear whose input is required, whose input is optional, who approves, and who must be informed. This is especially important when decisions cross functions or affect ownership rights.

Measuring activity rather than usefulness. Counting meetings or pages in a manual does not show whether decisions have become clearer. Focus on the original problem: uncertainty, delay, inconsistency, missing follow-through, or another observable condition. Use feedback and relevant examples to interpret measures.

Applying the same controls to every decision. A low-impact, reversible choice may not need the same review as a decision with broad consequences. Excessive review can slow ordinary work; too little review can leave important exceptions unseen. Define proportional boundaries with appropriate professional input rather than assuming that either maximum control or maximum speed is always right.

Assuming governance can fix a different underlying issue. A clearer approval path does not create delivery capacity, reliable data, or a sound sales forecast. If evidence points to multiple causes, make those dependencies visible and decide whether coordinated work is needed. Avoid presenting a governance change as a standalone solution when its success depends on another part of the business.

How can a business test a decision process before scaling it?

A limited test can show whether a proposed governance practice is understandable in real work. Choose a decision type that occurs often enough to observe, but avoid using a pilot to bypass required oversight or professional advice. For example, a company might test a clearer route for approving ordinary customer exceptions within an existing policy. The purpose would be to see whether the right person receives the request, has enough information, and can communicate the result to the teams that need it.

Before the test, write down its boundaries. State which decisions are included, which exceptions still require a different review, who has authority during the test, and when it will end or be reviewed. Choose participants who represent the roles involved, not only the people who designed the process. Explain how to raise a concern and what happens if the designated approver is unavailable. A pilot without these boundaries can create uncertainty rather than reduce it.

During the test, collect practical observations. Did people know where to send the request? Was the information requested proportionate? Did the decision-maker understand the limits of the authority? Did the affected team receive the decision in time to act? Were exceptions redirected for a clear reason, or simply because no one knew what to do? The point is not to create an elaborate measurement exercise. A small set of real examples and short feedback conversations can reveal whether the instructions are usable.

At the review, compare what happened with the original problem statement. If requests moved more clearly but decisions still took a long time because key information was missing, the next adjustment may concern reporting rather than authority. If the process worked for routine cases but not for unusual ones, clarify the escalation boundary. If it created duplicate approvals, examine whether each review adds a distinct perspective or control. Keep the useful parts, revise the unclear ones, and record why the change was made.

A pilot is evidence about how a process operated under particular conditions, not proof that it will work in every situation. Note what was different during the test, such as temporary staffing, unusually low volume, or a leader providing extra attention. Before expanding the practice, consider whether those conditions will continue. For significant decisions, confirm that the proposed arrangement is consistent with governing documents and applicable professional advice.

What might a governance diagnosis look like in practice?

Consider an established company in which several managers report that customer requests for exceptions take too long. A quick fix might be to give every manager broader approval authority. That could help in some cases, but leaders should first understand what kind of exception is being requested and why current reviews take time. One request might involve a delivery date, another a change in scope, and another a commercial term. Treating them as one decision category could conceal different risks and dependencies.

The leaders could sample recent examples and map the path of each request: who raised it, what information was provided, who reviewed it, what question remained unanswered, and how the final decision reached the teams involved. Suppose the examples show that routine delivery changes wait for senior approval because managers do not know which capacity information is required, while unusual commercial terms need review for a different reason. The diagnosis would then suggest two distinct questions: what authority can be delegated for ordinary changes, and what information should accompany cases that still require escalation.

Next, the company could compare options. A short decision guide might clarify ordinary boundaries; a standard information summary might help with more complex cases; a log might make unresolved requests visible. These practices would be proposals to test, not automatic prescriptions. Leaders would need to confirm who owns each process, how teams will be informed, and whether any contract, policy, or other obligation affects the decision.

After trying a limited change, leaders could review representative cases and ask whether requests reached the right person, whether the review used suitable information, and whether the decision was communicated. If a request still stalls, they can identify the point of delay rather than conclude that the whole governance structure has failed. This example illustrates a disciplined way to investigate a problem; it does not predict a result for another company or imply that the same intervention fits every business.

Frequently asked questions

Is business governance consulting only for large companies?

No. Governance questions can arise in established businesses of different sizes. The appropriate level of structure depends on ownership, decision complexity, risk, and how work is organized, not on adopting a large-company model. Five or more employees is a useful audience signal for this guide, not an eligibility cutoff.

Does governance consulting replace legal advice?

No. General governance planning is not a substitute for legal advice. Questions about directors’ duties, entity requirements, ownership rights, contracts, or formal board obligations should be addressed with a qualified legal professional.

Does every business need a board or committee?

No. Some businesses may benefit from clearer decision rights, regular leadership reviews, or action tracking without adding a formal board. The appropriate structure depends on the business and any applicable legal or ownership requirements.

Can governance work address operating problems too?

It can help identify how authority, information, and accountability relate to operating issues. But process, staffing, technology, sales, or financial problems may need separate or coordinated work. An assessment should clarify those connections rather than assume governance alone will resolve them.

Does discussing capital or financing mean funding is assured?

No. Any capital or financing options are subject to evaluation, due diligence, and definitive written agreements. An initial conversation does not establish approval or guarantee access to capital.

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Clear governance is not paperwork for its own sake; it is a practical way to help the right people make informed decisions and carry them through. Start with the decisions that are difficult today, test what is causing the difficulty, and choose a proportionate next step.