№ 02 · Decision Velocity
15 May 2026 · 5 min read
Decision drag is the EBITDA tax your CFO can’t book.
Every strategic decision your executive team is stalling on this quarter has a number against it. Most CFOs are forbidden from running the math.
Take the three biggest decisions your executive team has on the agenda right now. Now subtract the date they should have been decided from the date they will actually be decided. Multiply each by the daily margin opportunity tied to that decision. Sum it.
That number is the EBITDA tax of decision drag on your business this quarter. The CFO is allowed to model it — but is not allowed to call it that out loud. Doing so implicates the executive team.
Decision drag is the most expensive form of friction inside a mid-market business and the most invisible. It does not show up in any line item. It does not show up in any engagement survey. It does not show up in any 360-degree review.
It shows up when you ask a simple question — when do we expect to decide on the Asia expansion — and three intelligent people give three diplomatic answers that don’t commit to anything.
That is the friction node. That is the number. Once measured, it tends to halve inside a quarter — because what gets named and instrumented gets decided.