The CEO would send down an avalanche asking "what idiot thinks I can sign off hundreds of millions with only a 10 page attachment FFS?" - after which he always got the 200 pager...
Perhaps surprising to many, MoD used be quite efficient at this. My very first task in DGA(N) HQ was to draw up Admiralty Board Submissions for a helicopter Inertial Nav upgrade and a Radar processing upgrade. It was something you were already expected to know, but I was being checked out. The only reason I was allowed to drift on to the second side of A4 was because I suggested a single submission, as both would be embodied at the same time. My immediate boss signed it; the section head, a Commander RN, and his 2i/c, were too senior to be bothered with trivialities.
I suspect today that the Commander would be part of a large committee that sat for a year or so drafting hundreds of pages. I must admit though that I had an advantage. There were no computers or e-mails.