Coffee roasting
Requests arrived from store managers every week and were settled by whoever asked hardest. Their own AI now scores each one against the group's own six measures and returns a written decision with the reasoning attached.
The numbers.
- Request to decisionDown from six weeks, with nothing left unanswered
- 3 days
- Requests screenedAcross two budget cycles at nine locations
- $1.8M
- Measures, not opinionsThe same six apply to every request
- 6
- Decisions on recordEach one carrying the reasoning behind it
- 147
What changed.
A request now reaches a decision in three days, down from six weeks, with nothing left unanswered. $1.8M of requests were screened across two budget cycles at nine locations against the same six measures, and 147 decisions are on record, each carrying the reasoning behind it.
What the Founder does.
The executive seat, one of nine that come with Essential.
Allocates against one standard. Money, people and the owner's attention are scored on the same six measures, so the loudest manager stops winning by volume.
Thinks in years, not weeks. Every call is tested against where the group intends to be in five years.
Sizes the bet to the downside. New ideas are approved at a cost the group can afford to lose, with the stopping point written before the spend.
Starts from the customer. Nothing advances until it names what a customer gets that they do not get today.
Writes the reasoning down. A reversal six months later argues with a record, not a memory.
How a decision moves.
- A request arrives in plain EnglishFrom any manager, no form required
- The Founder scores itAgainst the group's own six measures
- The tradeoff is named, not buriedWhat this crowds out is stated
- The Contrarian challenges the callThe critic seat reviews before delivery
- You decide, then it is loggedApproval is required by rule
How this was published.
The work and the figures below, drawn from the client's production system in September 2026, published with the company name withheld at the client's request.
The client agreed to this study in writing and asked that their name be left out. We do not print the approver either, because naming them would identify the company.
Published September 2026.