I don't think it has to be entirely responsive to a specific poor choice. At the company I worked at the bureaucracy increased hand in hand with the complexity of the system (paired with the departure of the original systems sages [who literally knew every specific of the aircraft on par with the design engineers]). Single persons could no longer see the effect of their decisions on the entirety of the system (and therefore needed to check with others via protocols etc). Cascade that a couple times (smart, ambitious people do not like filling out forms [in general]) and out pops a 20k employee company where no one knows anything except how to fill out form 108DB-A.

Also it should be considered that if a small business makes a lot of ill-considered, fast decisions, chances are they're no longer in business.