By Alexander Yanchuk, owner of a consulting company, management consultant in the field of organizational development, lean manufacturing and quality management;
By Natallia Karnialiuk, junior researcher
Are you sure you run a business—and not just a chain of lucky accidents?
Check your security cameras: an order comes in, a manager grabs it, runs to logistics, someone yells to another department, someone else does something, someone forgets to enter the data somewhere—but eventually, the client gets what they ordered.
Or almost does.
Accidental success is not a strategy. And definitely not a system.
If you're reading this, chances are something is working in your company. The question is—how? On impulses? On gut feeling? On “seems to work”? Or on a repeatable, scalable, and—most importantly—transferable process?
We've already explained how chaos eats into your margin (see: “Bread – OK. System – no” https://centerqod.com/blog/qod-blog-2/bread-ok-system-no-7). But today’s about something else. About how the skeleton of a business is built. No ten-level flowcharts. Just the essence.
A process is not a diagram. It's a company’s habit of surviving and earning.
Every company produces more than just a product. It produces actions. Someone does something, someone else checks it, a third fixes it, a fourth ships it. That entire chain is a kind of logic the company lives by. If that logic repeats, if it delivers predictable results—that’s a process.
Don’t think a business process is some rocket science consultants put in PowerPoint. In practice, it's simple: person, function, responsibility, result. Repeat. Document. Transfer. If you can't—you're driving with the handbrake on.
You don’t need to turn the business into a machine—just stop repeating the same mistakes because every time you have to “remember how it's supposed to work.”
Not all processes are equally important. But some are critical.
There are core processes you can’t leave to improvisation. If you’re not in control of them—you’re not running the company, you’re just paying for someone else’s habits.
- Sales
We’ve shared how to build a sales department without pain (see: “AI in the Quality Control Department” https://centerqod.com/blog/qod-blog-2/ai-in-the-quality-control-department-3).
The key isn’t a charismatic manager, but a repeatable path from first touch to invoice.
Who handles the incoming lead? Who decides if it’s “hot”? What’s the response time? Who writes the proposal? What happens next? And who, in the end, keeps the client in sight?
The more clearly and in detail you design the action script for an employee, the higher the chance the client will buy. - Production / Service Delivery
Classic case: the contract says one thing, the result is something else. Why? Because there’s no documented production process. Or if there is, it’s only in the boss’s head.
And when he’s on vacation—everyone’s afraid.
A service is also a product. It must be consistently high quality, regardless of who delivers it.
We wrote about this in the article “A Good Product Isn’t a Reason to Come Back”—it’s all about repeatability, not luck. - Financial Framework
If you want predictability—start with money.
Budgeting, approvals, payments, reporting, receivables, bonuses—none of that should be random acts of goodwill. It should be a system. A transparent one.
If your financial process boils down to “ask Olga”—you’re heading straight for a cash gap. - Customer Service
Usually remembered only when the client’s already furious.
Service isn’t just “we talked like humans.” It’s a sequence: request received, confirmed, processed, clarified, closed. Ideally—automated.
Without service, there are no repeat sales.
Without repeat sales—there is no business. - People Management
You can be a strategic genius, but if people don’t understand who does what—everyone burns out.
Who hires? Who trains? What’s the employee’s path? How do you develop them?
If every new hire means two months of chaos and then “either they’ll fit or they’re out”—that’s not management. That’s survival.
Where everything breaks: at the handoffs
Now to the tricky part.
Some processes look simple on paper but collapse the moment they cross two departments. Why?Because there’s no clarity on where one team’s responsibility ends and the other begins.
A common example: the sales team sells “whatever the client asks for,” without digging into the details. Production suffers. Quality control shrugs. The client is furious. And no one’s to blame. Or everyone is. Which is worse.
Or take CRM implementation. Bought, installed, trained—doesn’t work. Because:
a) real processes weren’t accounted for
b) roles weren’t aligned
c) motivation wasn’t tied in
All predictable.
The bigger the company—the harder the cross-functional processes. But even a small team can break. Especially if the same person is writing proposals, running projects, and managing the company’s Instagram.
We audited processes for a manufacturing company with 40+ employees. The owner was convinced everything worked fine. After diagnostics, it turned out 70% of requests were relayed verbally. Proposals were handwritten. Responsibilities shifted based on the situation. Sales ran on luck. After building clear handoffs between departments, revenue grew 18% in 4 months. And no one was running around yelling, “Who’s supposed to do this?”
Want to grow? Stop and rethink how you work
You can make all the yearly plans you want—but if your processes aren’t structured, you’re setting goals for things that can’t be repeated. Processes aren’t about boring formalities. They’re about making sure your business runs just as well when you’re on vacation.
The problem is—you don’t see where the leaks are. You’re used to them. You patch them. You pride yourself on “knowing everything.” But real growth starts when you stop being the hero and start being the architect.
If you want to understand how things really work in your company (or don’t)—start with a diagnosis. No implementation. No 40-tab Excel. Just a breakdown. Sorted. With conclusions, not excuses. It’ll hurt—but it’ll work.
Bottom line: it’s not the system that serves the people. It’s the people who serve the system—if there is one.
You shouldn’t be a permanent administrator. A good system runs without kicks. A bad one needs your attention every week. Business runs either on predictability—or on miracles. And miracles always run out.
Check how your process works without your involvement. And if it doesn’t—call us. Not to write you a manual. But to help your company finally stop depending on your personal involvement in every little sneeze.
This isn’t hype. It’s operational maturity.
And that’s where scaling begins.
We audit and build business processes for B2B companies. We work fast and get straight to the point. If you’ve read this far—it’s probably time. Write to us. Just write.