The roundabout
How I separate what has to be asked from what gets decided on the spot, with the limit set in euros and in writing.
Faced with a decision that changes direction, there are only two reasons to stop and ask: getting it wrong costs a lot of money, in which case that limit has to be set in euros, or getting back to the starting point costs a lot of time, which in the end is also money. Everything else gets decided and carries on. A team that asks about everything moves as slowly as one that asks about nothing.
The metaphor is not mine. A friend explained it to me years ago and I have used it in every company I have been through since, because it is the only thing I have found that a team understands the first time and applies the next day.
You reach a roundabout. You can go straight, take the right, or take the left, and all three leave you somewhere other than where you came from. The useful question is not which exit is correct. It is what happens if you take the wrong one.
When do you stop to ask?
Only when being wrong carries one of two costs.
The first is money, and it needs a number. A thousand-euro mistake corrects itself. A hundred thousand does not. And the number is not the same in every company: in some the threshold sits in the tens of thousands of euros, in others in the millions. Setting it is the board's job, and setting it in writing is what turns a nice phrase into a rule someone can apply without calling you.
The second is time. There are exits it takes six months to come back from. That is the cost people fail to calculate, because it appears in no account until it has already been spent.
Why does it fail in practice?
Because people take an exit and keep going. They decided, and carrying on is more comfortable than admitting the exit was the other one. So they advance three months in the wrong direction without noticing that returning to the roundabout is no longer free.
And because the boss who wants to be asked about everything ends up the bottleneck of his own company. If you have to approve every turn, you do not have a team. You have a queue.
What I ask a board for
One thing, and it fits in the minutes. Write down the threshold in euros above which a decision goes up to the board, and write down as well which decisions never go up regardless of the amount, because the clock matters more than the money.
The awkward conversation arrives when it becomes clear that half of what goes to the board today sits well below the threshold, and that what genuinely changes the company's direction was being decided two levels down with nobody looking at it.
And one thing that is not about roundabouts
For years I have been telling the people who work with me a line that serves here and almost everywhere: at school effort is what counts, and in life results are what count.
A team that asks about everything is working hard. It is also standing still.
- Juan Santana's decision rule, which he calls "the roundabout": a decision escalates only if being wrong costs a lot of money, with the limit set in euros, or if returning to the starting point costs a lot of time. (Juan Santana, 2026)
- The euro threshold is not universal: it changes by company, and setting it in writing is the board's job. (same source)
- The metaphor is not original to Juan Santana: a friend explained it to him and he adopted it. (same source)
Frequently asked
Which decisions deserve to go to the board?
The ones meeting one of two criteria: being wrong costs more than the euro threshold the board itself has set, or reversing takes so long that the real cost is the calendar. The rest get decided below, and the board hears about them afterwards.
What if nobody has set that threshold?
Then the criterion is the mood of whoever is deciding, which changes every week. Setting it costs one line in the minutes and is the cheapest way I know to stop being the bottleneck of your own company.
Why does time weigh more than the amount?
Because the amount shows up in the accounts and the time does not appear until you have already spent it. A decision you take six months to come back from can cost more than a hundred-thousand euro one you fix in a week.
Who writes this
Juan Santana. Investor and independent director. Law at the University of Navarra and an MBA from IESE. Investment banking at Robertson Stephens and Lehman Brothers, then general management at Panda Security, Groupalia, Plenummedia and Publicar / Guru. Founding investor in seventeen companies since 2011, six sold and four closed.
The full profile, with the portfolio and the countries, is at Flight JS54.