Case 07 Manufacturing · 2024
Who decides? A family business answers in writing.
Every decision of consequence went to the owner. We wrote down who decides what, cut the leadership meeting load by more than half and gave the next generation real authority.
- Client
- A second-generation engineering manufacturer with 610 people
- Services
- Organisation design
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Team
- Nadia Ellis, Elena Marinova
What changed
Illustrative outcomes for a fictional client.1
239
Standing leadership meetings per week
6014
Decisions escalated to the owners each month
22%100%
Recurring decisions with a named owner
The story
The situation
The founder’s son had taken over as managing director, but staff still escalated to the founder, and the founder still answered. The nine-person leadership team attended 23 standing meetings a week, and decisions taken in one meeting were often reopened in the next.
What we found
We catalogued 140 recurring decisions. Only twelve genuinely needed the owners; the rest had drifted upwards because nobody had been told they could decide. The meetings existed to compensate.
Only twelve genuinely needed the owners; the rest had drifted upwards.
What we did
Working with the founder and the managing director together, we agreed a decision-rights matrix for the top forty decisions, rebuilt the meeting rhythm around it and coached six managers through their first quarter with real authority.
What changed
Standing leadership meetings fell from 23 a week to nine, and decisions escalated to the owners dropped from about sixty a month to fourteen. The founder now chairs the board and is in the building two days a week, by choice.
Timeline
12 weeks
- DiagnoseWeeks 1–2
140 recurring decisions catalogued.
- DesignWeeks 3–5
Decision-rights matrix for the top forty.
- ImplementWeeks 6–10
New meeting rhythm; six managers coached.
- Hand overWeeks 11–12
Annual review agreed with the board.
The team
- Northbridge and this client are fictional. Figures are demo content written to show how outcomes would be reported, not results of a real engagement.