The approval limit is £5,000. It was set when the average job was £3,000.

A threshold that once caught the exceptions now catches most of the work, and somewhere along the way the control quietly stopped controlling anything.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The approval limit is £5,000. It was set when the average job was £3,000.

Somebody set the number years ago, probably in a conversation that lasted four minutes. Quotes above £5,000 need the founder’s sign-off. At the time, that captured the unusual jobs: the ones with odd terms, a new kind of customer, a commitment the business hadn’t made before. It was a sensible instinct, and it worked. Then the average job size drifted upward. Some of that was deliberate, better positioning, larger clients, bundled scope. Some of it was simply the price of everything going up. The threshold did not move, because thresholds…

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