Bill Canady argues decisions need a single owner, not a committee. Reversible choices move fast; irreversible ones require written documentation and ownership. He warns that incremental budgeting locks in past mistakes, and suggests asking instead: if you rebuilt the business today, would you build it the same way?
In a room where somebody is going to say, but that's still $4 million of revenue. It's always gonna happen. And the name decider is one person, not the committee. A committee gives input. One person signs their name. 2 tiers, fast and quiet on the reversible. Just do it and see if anyone complains and see what the outcome is. Slow and written and owned on irreversible. That's it. Fast and quiet on reversible. Slow and written on irreversible. 2 things worth keeping from this one. One, last year's 5% is how you lock in every bad decision you ever made. Incremental budgeting is not a finance technique. It's a memory device, and it remembers your mistakes perfectly and your intentions not at all. The replacement is one question. If we rebuilt the business today, would we build it in the same way again?
