In many Albanian companies, the day starts with the boss’s phone. The warehouse asks whether an order can go out. Accounting asks whether to pay a supplier. Sales asks whether a customer can have a discount. The boss answers quickly and with confidence, and the work goes on.
From the outside it looks like strong management. In practice it is a system with a single point of failure.
Many of these businesses were built by the owner. They know the customers, the prices and the people better than anyone. At first this is an advantage: decisions are fast and nobody wastes time on procedure. The problem appears when the company grows and the way decisions are made stays the same.
See where the work waits
Fragility rarely shows in a report. It shows in waiting. A truck that does not leave until the boss is back from a meeting. A quote that stays unsent because nobody else knows the final price. An employee who knows the answer but waits for permission, because the last time they decided alone they were reprimanded.
Every decision that waits for one person is paid work that is not moving.
To see how large the waiting is, note for one week the questions that come to the boss: who asked, about what, and how long they waited for an answer. Often most of the questions repeat. They are not hard decisions. They are decisions without an owner.
Give each decision an owner and a limit
Delegation is often understood in two wrong ways. In the first, the boss hands someone a task and never looks at it again. In the second, they hand it over but expect to be asked about every step. The first leaves the person alone. The second gives them no authority.
A useful delegation answers three questions. Who decides? How far can they decide without asking? When and how do they inform the boss? “Discounts up to 5 % are decided by the sales lead; above 5 %, ask the director” is a rule someone can apply on Monday morning. “Use your judgement” is not.
The useful question is not whether people are ready to decide. It is whether we have told them clearly what they may decide.
Start with the ten questions that come up most often. For each one, write the owner and the limit. Keep them visible, close to where the decision is made. The Area Manager planet has a delegation agreement that holds together the result, the authority, the escalation limits and the review date.
Test the company without yourself
Written rules have value only if they are used. The simplest way to see this is to be absent. One afternoon, announced in advance, without a phone. When you return, do not ask whether there were problems. Ask what was decided.
Review the decisions made without you. When one was good, say so. When one was wrong, look at the rule first: was the limit unclear, was information missing, did the right person own the decision? A single mistake may call for training. The same mistake across different people shows that the rule has to change.
Then widen one limit, only one, and check again after a month.
The aim is not for the boss to become unnecessary. It is for their time to go to the decisions that truly need them. A company is strong when work continues even on the day the boss leaves the room.