Why do capital investment decisions receive so much management time and attention?

Why do capital investment decisions receive so much management time and attention?

Since a capital investment is a major outlay of money in one form or another, Cash, Loans, etc, it is the responsibility of the management team involved to select the best avenue for their ROI. They will have to deal with current value vs future value, current usage and integration with current needs. For example will the plot of land to build the new office be a drain on their resource or in actuality bring them to a new level of sales due to the location. Will the return warrant the expense. Another question they need to ask is how will current production be affected -down time to convert to the new machinery, will the current work flow be interrupted to a damaging extent. Will the new equipment increase the production with out creating a bottleneck in production from other areas and if is does create the bottleneck what other costs are involved. Simple as it may sound their are so many variable involved that management must spend a lot of time in considering all aspects. I have give only a couple but this could translate into many others.
Factors concerned are time, cost, implementation, learning curve, depreciation, resalibility, why a capital investment is even being considered. Ford just closed some plants and laid off a great many people but they did so at a cost that was exhorbitant. Like the capital investment the decision to close a plant is both time consuming and expensive. The same questions were covered but with a different take.
Do the costs warrant the expense? Consideration being given to all aspects of the proposed investment.

they are some of the most difficult and complex decisions made by management - especially because capital investments are not part of a company's core competencies.

but i think your question is deeper than that... what do u really want to know?

I can think of one good reason- otherwise you end up with a warehouse being half-way finished sitting outside your office window. Thus is my life everyday. I just wish they would've spent a little more "time and attention" on that decision than they did.