The Only Signature That Counted

An owner told me, almost proudly, that nothing over $500 gets spent without him personally approving it. Tight ship, he said.

Then I watched what that actually looked like day to day: a purchase order sitting in his inbox for six days because he was at a trade show, a shop foreman unable to order a part that would've taken the line down for an extra day, a controller re-explaining the same routine purchase for the third month running because the owner genuinely couldn't remember approving it the first two times.

Tight control and a real bottleneck look identical from the owner's chair.

They only look different from everyone else's. That's Leak #3 wearing a suit — it's not that nothing's documented, it's that documentation without delegated authority just means everyone waits on one inbox.

What's the smallest dollar amount in your business that still requires your personal sign-off — and does it actually need to?