Trying to sort out what you are saying....
I think I get it, BUT I
worked at a company that had annual revenues (at the time) of 18billion. They were just like OP said, need 3 signatures and 2 meetings to buy a $30 endmill. In the mean time, they spent around 70million for a project overseas...
Almost all mazaks, couple cnc grinders, sandvik capto tooling and sandvik coolant thru drills to drill thru .25" thick flanges in aluminum.
"The neck of a bottle is to be found at the top".
Their Corporate culture was f**ked. Fat, not lean, "risk averse" be-you-rock-rats tripping over their malformed concept of job security.
Real job security is simply "winning". Do it again, better, more profitably, and faster. Repeat until new goals are set. Or until "all fall down" day.
It is properly done much like Creighton Abrams' dash to Bastogne. No time for prisoners. God might have had mercy on anyone who got in his way, but his boss hadn't thought to include any of that in the ammunition ration.
$78 million 1993 USD took me 3 hours to sort from a cold-start, and I ordered an EFT generated, For $78 million. One go. No paperwork. My phone call. It was what they were paying me to be able to do, so that call was good enough.
I was not personally "special". The JOB was not even that "special". The requirement of that SITUATION was what was "special".
Too many folk forget that.
Many grow to think they somehow "OWN" a rank or a role or an authority as if it had grown into their PERSONAL, physical, bones and the skin of their ass.
That is never really true.
Anyone is only as good as their
most-recent success - plus "part of" whatever they have saved-up in "credit" measured by those with whom they deal.
If not fired or retired FIRST? All-hands will come to a day where they just up and die. Regardless of title or wage!
Employers?
About a dozen employers, here. Northrop the first and largest. Cable & Wireless the last I had anyone else to answer to but the stockholders. All four of them.
Not all small ones were smart. Not all big ones were dumb.
But small firm or larger, "ran a major part of" not just "worked at".
Different viewpoints are natural.
I was
always one of the "change agent"
imports meant to improve over something not running as well as it needed to do. And/or prepare for the FUTURE, not the present. Now and then it was a "train wreck already in long, slow progress". Those can be interesting. Somebody has to deal with them.
IOW,
fixing what others could only grumble about, avoiding cause for future grumble, was "Job One", everywhere I went.
As with any OTHER tasking on-planet. someone who CAN do that, and WILL do that, regardless of obstacles, and even if companies need to be bought, sold, reorganized or liquidated outright, Seniour folks terminations with shrinks in attendance included...
.... is whom gets
put into such jobs.
I say again: "Imported".
Only one exception, actually. Engaged to piss on a singular "major forest fire", did so. Installed a new team. Stayed on. Interesting times, pace of technology, healthy growth among people, and a nicely diverse company. Moved on though several other titles, easily twice as many functional roles in ten years, three C&W entities.
In the beginning .. I had not been BAD at pumping gas, fixing IC engines & transmissions, ... "making chips" and such.
Making
hard decisions fast and well didn't just PAY a whole
f**k of a lot
better!
..it was REALLY, REALLY a greatly more
interesting thing to do!
And I was one who got bored all too easily and too soon on the small s**t anyway.
As they say "It's ALL 'small shit'", too!
Cannot STAND repetitive work. Want to fixture, automate, then delegate, and move-on to a NEW "onesie", be it tool & die making, job shop (repair)...R&D, Product design & devel...new department, division, or whole company-making.
To a "change agent" all those things actually have a lot in common.
Assess, research, plan, organize, execute, and monitor/control for results.
Train
others to SUSTAIN that so they can keep up "normal" forward progress or a bit better...
Payday. Profit-sharing and stock options appreciated even more than a high salary.
And on to the next..