What response time should we expect from our manager?

One business day for routine email and phone contact, same day for anything urgent, and immediate for a genuine emergency. That is the common commitment. What matters is whether it is contractual or aspirational, and what happens when it is missed.

Most proposals state response times in the marketing section and nowhere in the agreement. A commitment that appears only in the pitch is not a commitment. Ask for it in the contract, with a definition of what starts the clock and what counts as a response — an acknowledgment is not a resolution, and firms that measure the first are measuring the wrong thing.

Ask for the escalation path in writing too: who the Board calls when the manager does not respond, who that person's supervisor is, and what the commitment is at each level. Every firm has one. Most never give it to the Board, and the Board discovers it does not know who to call at exactly the moment it needs to.

On remedies, be realistic. Very few firms will accept a financial penalty for a missed response. What is achievable is a documented escalation process and a clear statement that a pattern of failures is cause for termination — which, with a cure period, is a real remedy.