Dear Founder: Letters of Advice for Anyone Who Leads, Manages, or Wants to Start a Business

by Maynard Webb

The first step in this model is to clarify what the decision is and when it has to be made. Write it down. Then, you employ RACI, an acronym that delineates the necessary stakeholders in a decision. This outlines the person who is: • Responsible. Who is the owner? Who sets the strategy? Who will decide? Ideally this should be one person, but it can be two. Remember, decision-making needs to be pushed down to the lowest competent level. If that’s not done, it means you are not delegating enough. Worse, it means that you may be running a monarchy. • Approves. Who will ratify or veto? This person is the one who delegates the work to the “R.” • Consulted. Who will be affected? These people do not have the right to make the decision, but you have the obligation to get their input before the decision is made, and you want to know what they have to say. • Informed. Who has to be informed about the decision? Always err on the side of informing too many people rather than too few.