The executive team changed the way forecasts were challenged and approvals recorded.

Contracts that had once been rushed through to please a member of the family received proper review.

Some changes made meetings slower.

Some people complained.

I understood the frustration.

Nobody wanted a business in which every sensible action required five signatures merely to protect the person asking for them.

The goal was clear responsibility, not layers of paper that made decisions harder to trace.

At one review, a manager asked why a delayed delivery was still listed as a risk when the customer had accepted a revised date.