What is the RAPID decision roles framework?
RAPID decision roles are a way to assign who recommends, who must agree, who performs, who gives input and who decides. The letters stand for Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input and Decide. Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko of Bain & Company described the approach in Harvard Business Review in 2006, built on the idea that someone must clearly hold the D. RAPID is a registered trademark of Bain & Company.
Why it matters to a revenue leader
Revenue decisions stall when nobody knows who decides. Discount approvals and territory changes can bounce between sales and finance for weeks. In a buy-and-build platform the problem grows, because every acquired company arrives with its own habits about who signs off. Naming the decider for the decisions that recur most often makes accountability visible and gets customers a faster answer.
Example
Fictitious numbersA fire protection company with 16 sellers takes an average of nine days to approve large discounts because the branch manager, the CFO and the VP of operations each assume someone else decides. Leadership names the VP of Sales as the decider, the CFO as the person who must agree on margin, and branch managers as input. Approval time drops to two days.
"For the pricing decisions we make most often, who holds the D?"