The Partner.

Every Friday, the same meeting. Seven partners, one hour, five questions. What's our utilisation? What's actually in the pipeline? Who's overloaded? Which jobs are bleeding margin? Are we going to make the quarter?

And every Friday, the same answer: "Let me pull that together." Utilisation lives in a spreadsheet only Priya keeps current. Pipeline lives in three CRMs, because three partners each brought their own when they joined. The numbers exist. They just never quite agree.

It was the quarter they lost money on a job nobody flagged. The project crossed 30% over budgeted hours by week three. The signal was sitting in the timesheets the whole time.

But "the timesheets" meant a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet meant Priya, and Priya was on two weeks' leave. Seven partners, fifty staff, and the truth of the business depended on one person being at her desk.

The Friday meeting changed first. The five questions now have one answer — the same for all seven partners, ready before anyone sits down. Utilisation, pipeline, margin-by-job, capacity: one source, not three CRMs and a spreadsheet. And when a job crosses 80% of its budgeted hours, it raises its own hand. No one has to remember to go looking.

The Friday meeting runs twenty minutes. They spend it on decisions, not on getting three systems to agree. The job that would have quietly lost money got caught at 80%, not 130%. And when Priya takes leave now, the business doesn't go with her.