The Unbearable Slowness of Decision Making: EU edition
Decision latency is a hidden cost. At team level, you already know that. But what happens when it shows up at the level of regulators?
If Trump takes 15 days to redesign the American car market, and China exports 2.156 billion batteries in the first 6 months of the year, what is Europe doing? Postponing the decision.
It’s not a management error. It’s a system error. And the consequences are not measured in weeks, but in billions and in lost competitiveness.
Decision latency is not democratic
The higher up the chain it sits, the more damage it does. When a team leader postpones, you lose a few weeks. Your sprint slows down, focus disperses. When a CEO postpones, you lose a quarter. Investments freeze, plans stall, the market doesn’t wait.
When a regulator postpones, an entire sector goes into suspension. Not for a week. For months or years. And in those months, the rest of the world doesn’t stop.
That is what is happening in Europe right now.
What happened while Europe stood still
In the US:
Trump didn’t just take his foot off the pedal: he completely redesigned the framework in less than 15 days from taking office. He officially announced the rollback of the CAFE standards (the Biden-era efficiency standards). He reduced the target from 50.4 mpg by 2031 to 34.5 mpg. He revoked California’s emission standards. One decision. Clear. Irreversible. Communicated.
Result? Every global manufacturer knows exactly where to stand. They have received the essential decision inputs to redesign their production plans in a matter of hours.
In China:
China exported 2.156 billion batteries in the first 6 months of 2025 (+17.6% year over year). Battery prices fell 30% in 2024. China produces 94% of global LFP batteries and 70% of the world’s processed lithium. A structural hegemony. In November 2025, China added batteries and technologies to its export-control list. A deliberate strategy: keep control of raw materials, export the added value, dominate the global supply chain.
Here too, the message is crystal clear. Investors know where to go. Factories know what to bet on.
In Europe (the homeland of the ping-ponging):
The deliberative meeting of the European Commission on the revision of automotive regulations had been scheduled for 12 December 2025. It was postponed to 16 December 2025. It is not a routine meeting. It is the decision that sets the future of an entire industry for the next 5–10 years.
On the table, the decision to maintain or postpone the ban, now set for 2035, on combustion-engine cars, the one on plug-in hybrids and, more generally, a necessary stance on hybrid technology alongside purely electric.
This uncertainty, this “maybe”, “it depends”, “we’ll decide soon” has frozen everything.
What this means for European manufacturers
On 10 December, CEO Antonio Filosa spoke at the Anfia assembly (the Italian automotive manufacturers’ association) and said: “These decisions will have implications for the automotive industry in the next 10, 15, even 20 years. I cannot update the industrial plan until the EU decides.”
In the meantime, Stellantis’ production in Italy has collapsed to 283,000 cars in 2024, the lowest level in 70 years. Filosa invested 2 billion euros in Italy this year, but the cars coming out of the plants (increasingly less Italian, where production of some parts of mass-market models and a few selected niche models of the range remains) continue to decrease.
Why? Because no one knows whether to invest in current technology. No one knows whether plug-in hybrids have a future. No one knows whether Europe will create room for “carbon-neutral” fuels or whether the only path is pure electric.
Three different scenarios, three different strategies, three completely different investment paths. And the CEO does not know which one to choose because the regulatory context requires a change that is not being decided on.
The lesson
There is a universal pattern here, which works at any level: the quality of execution does not depend only on the talent of the teams, but also and above all on the clarity of the decisions that come from the top.
When leadership (whether a CEO, a board, or an institution) does not decide, it creates a cascade of paralysis. It’s not that European automotive teams are less capable than their American and Chinese counterparts. On the contrary. It’s that the message from above is confused.
And confusion from above means paralysis at every level below. This is what I want to say to founders and CEOs: if you do not bring clarity, your team cannot move. Because the foundation on which to build action is missing.
It applies to a 10-person team. It applies to a 50,000-person company. And it applies to an entire 1-million-person industry.
Who I am and how I can help you
I’m Francesco Malmusi, founder and C-level operator with 20 years of experience scaling teams and companies in Europe and the United States.
Today I help founders, CEOs, COOs, and HR leaders bring clarity, focus, and operational discipline into their organizations through OKRs, managerial coaching, and strategic advisory.
If you want to discuss how to bring decision clarity into your company at team, board, or strategy level, I’m always available for a conversation.
No pressure, no pitch. Just honest dialogue with those who are trying to solve the problem.
Connect with me on LinkedIn for a chat.
