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Erik Clarke is a business executive and chief financial officer from Denver, Colorado.

getty​One of the most common management mistakes in large organizations is confusing broad participation through collaboration with clear accountability and executive decision-making. Major initiatives often begin by assembling representatives from finance, operations, technology, legal and other functions. That collaboration is usually necessary, but problems emerge when no single executive is clearly responsible for the outcome.

I believe every major initiative should have one designated executive owner who is ultimately responsible for the initiative’s success. That means organizations should be able to identify who ultimately owns the result, what outcome that person is expected to deliver and what authority they have to drive decisions to get there.

​Why Financial Turnarounds Especially Need A Single OwnerFinancial turnarounds make this principle especially clear because the causes of weak performance usually cross departments. Expenses may have grown faster than revenue, legacy processes may be inefficient, pricing may no longer reflect the economics of the business, or technology investments may not be producing the expected return. Finance, operations, technology and business leaders may all have reasonable ideas for improvement, but a collection of individual initiatives does not automatically become a coherent turnaround strategy.

When ownership of initiatives is unclear, difficult decisions are more likely to be deferred. Departments may optimize for their own objectives, underperforming initiatives may continue longer than they should, and conflicts can remain unresolved because no one has a mandate to make the final call. The solution is an accountability structure that is designed to drive outcomes.

Committees and cross-functional collaboration have their place; a financial turnaround, for example, requires substantial involvement from chief executives, department leaders and business unit managers. But one executive should still be responsible for integrating those efforts into a single plan and driving implementation.

For a turnaround, the executive owner should be measured by outcomes, not just level of effort. Launching a cost-reduction program, reviewing contracts or implementing a new reporting structure can be useful, but those are not outcomes. The outcome is whether operating margin, cash flow, working capital or another key financial measure actually improves.

​Ownership Versus Project Management Versus Committee WorkA capable executive owner needs to understand how to make resource allocation trade-offs and recognize when segments of the turnaround should be adjusted, expanded or paused. This is why executive ownership is different from project management. Strong project managers are essential to coordinate timelines, dependencies and workstreams, but executive owners must also focus on capital allocation, risk, organizational priorities and trade-offs between short-term disruption and long-term value. Those decisions require executive authority and organizational leadership judgement.

Committees have an important role in eliminating blind spots. Finance may identify risks that operations have underestimated, while operations may recognize implementation challenges that are not visible in a financial model. Technology leaders may see an opportunity to redesign or automate a process rather than simply streamline process steps. The purpose of that collaboration should be to improve the quality of the decision, but executive leaders should not allow committees to make decisions themselves. These are input functions for better data and more thoughtful considerations.

These same principles apply to both the public sector and the private sector, even beyond financial turnarounds. Technology transformations, acquisitions, restructuring programs, major capital construction investments and strategic growth initiatives all benefit from explicit executive ownership.

​Final ThoughtsUltimately, we, as executives, are judged for the result, not just the level of effort or intention. We have a responsibility to build decision-making frameworks and implementation based on our own executive judgement and knowledge. By embracing the responsibility of leadership and owning executive accountability, we can set our organizations on a better path by achieving better outcomes. ​

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