Because the buck has to stop somewhere.
This doesn’t mean that one person has to be the point person on every project for a single company. For example: one person can be the point person for social media related projects and have a set budget for that. Another can be the point person for the website and have a set budget for that. AND discussions and meetings for each project can occur with more than one person. BUT one person has to sign off on anything major so that the one person who has taken responsibility and ownership for the project on the client end and is fully aware of how things are progressing.
Tale of two owners & two point people: each owner wanted to be a point person and split the responsibilities on a single project. Each approved different parts of the project AND increases in budget. They never really looked at the whole picture or even realized how much each of them was spending. Each assumed the other was keeping track of everything. They were happy with the results but then they got the bill and had a cow. EVERYTHING had been approved but they claimed they had been overcharged until we sat down with the paperwork and they begrudgingly accepted that they had each approved things the other wasn’t aware of and thus spent more than they had meant to.
Moral of the story: Some businesses are better at internal communications than others. Also some people are bad at considering accounting and costs when starting their business ventures. AND it’s good to have one person taking full ownership of a project so that they are paying attention to the big picture.
Why does the project point person have to be someone who has sign-off capabilities? Reality is that whoever has sign off power is the real point person. If that person can’t find time for a few meetings then they shouldn’t be the point person and someone else should be given the authority to sign off on the project. They don’t have to be able to sign checks but they have to have the authority to approve expenses on your behalf if you are the business owner or manager and are making someone else the point person.
If you are a business owner or manager in charge of a project but you don’t want to be the point person: pick someone who is a responsible individual capable of making decisions on your behalf. This is not the kind of thing you delegate to the summer intern that just started last week! 🙂