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Episode #67

Kill the Process Before You Optimize It

Most business processes exist to solve problems that no longer exist. Eliminate the process before you waste time optimizing it.

9 min 42s
Listen on:SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube

Key takeaways

  • Question whether a process needs to exist before you spend a single hour optimizing it.
  • Recognize that entrepreneurs are wired to seek problems, which means you will sometimes manufacture problems to solve.
  • Trace every workflow back to the original problem it was built for. If that problem is gone, the workflow should go with it.
  • Ask your actual customers what bothers them. Your assumptions about their problems are often wrong.
  • Make it every team member's job to question whether their own work is necessary, including their role itself.

Timestamps

00:00The utility company that could not cook
01:22Why broken processes survive in business
03:35Processes outlive the problems they were built for
04:00Ask why the process exists before fixing it
04:51Tesla's noise reduction division that solved nothing
05:55Entrepreneurs are wired to find problems
06:26The loop of optimizing unnecessary solutions
08:20How to simplify: find the one thing, cut the rest
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Read the blog article

Are Your Business Processes Solving Problems That No Longer Exist?

Show notes

What This Episode Is About

Paul Veth argues that the biggest drag on business performance is not a lack of optimization. It is processes that should never have existed in the first place. Before you refine a workflow, ask whether the workflow needs to exist at all.

The Utility Company That Could Not Cook

Paul called his energy provider to switch from gas to induction. The process: wait for the plumber to cut the gas, then wait for the power company to enable induction, possibly days or weeks apart. No cooking in between. Nobody at the company had questioned this sequence. Paul's fix: do not let the plumber in until the power is switched. The woman on the phone laughed. He was serious.

The Tesla Noise Reduction Division

In his book, Elon Musk describes a whole division working on what they believed was noise reduction. The fire safety team thought the noise team was handling a safety requirement. The noise team thought fire safety had signed off on the need. Nobody had. The solution was tested with and without the fix. It made no difference. The entire division was solving a problem that did not exist, at significant cost in time, money and engineering hours from the battery team.

Key Insights

  • Entrepreneurs are wired to find problems. That instinct makes you look for problems even when there are none.
  • Solving a non-existent problem creates a new one: you now have to maintain and optimize the solution.
  • Most processes were built for a real problem. When that problem disappears, the process stays and becomes the problem.
  • The simplest path to solving your customer's actual problem is eliminating everything between you and them that does not need to be there.
  • Ask your customers what their real problems are. What you assume they struggle with and what they actually struggle with are often different things.

The Question to Ask Before Any Optimization

Paul's framework here is straightforward: identify the one thing your business exists to solve for the customer, then remove every step that does not directly serve that outcome. If a step cannot justify its existence against that single purpose, it should be cut. This connects directly to the Identity First principle behind everything Paul builds: start with what is essential, not what has accumulated.

Topics

business process eliminationentrepreneurship problem solvingTesla noise reductionElon Musk business lessonsprocess optimizationunnecessary business processesidentity first businessPaul Veth podcastsimplify your businessfounder mindset

Full transcript

View full transcript
0:00
0Please don't be like this company. Last week I called them and I said, I go okay. I want to switch from cooking on gas to induction. And they are like, yeah, that's possible. You can change the energy system in your house to induction.
0:19
0That's that's fine. We will do that for you and we make sure you can connect your stove with induction in your kitchen as well. That's the first thing we will will do and I'm like, okay, great. And then we will switch off the gas, so the plumber comes and we will switch off the gas. And when they do that, then we call the power company and then we will make an appointment to switch you into the induction part.
0:47
0And I'm like, okay, but how long will that take and why not make the appointment now so after the plumber leaves, we can switch to induction or even better, first switch to induction and then cut off the gas. And they are like, no, that's the that's the normal process and we don't know how long it take after the plumber leaves before you can start cooking with induction. I'm like, okay, so maybe hours? And they are like, no, no, no, maybe days or weeks. And other people are complaining about this, but it's just the way we work.
1:22
0And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. It's not possible companies work like that. It's not possible. But it is it is like that because a lot of companies just are funded with loads of money from taxpayers or I don't know where they get the money from because if a normal commercial company works like this and they are working like this, maybe even your company works like this. That's why I'm recording this video because this sounds too silly, but in most businesses there are processes that that works, uh, that are working in the same way or even in a different kind of way, but not optimal.
2:11
0So now I will call them today or they will call me today and I will explain what the the more easy way is. And I just said, but if the plumber comes to switch off the gas, I just won't open the door. I keep the door closed until the power company switches makes the switch and then I will let the plumber in and then I can fix the problem myself. And the woman on the phone start laughing and I'm like, yeah, but I'm serious. I cannot wait with cooking for days or weeks.
2:49
0I need my food. I need my meat. I need my meat not raw. I I need to bake it, of course. Yeah.
2:59
0So it's like that. But there are a lot of businesses working in the same way. There are processes in place that are just built in a way and nobody is looking anymore for that process. Well, most processes are they are not necessary and they are built because there was a problem and then then you build a process for the solution. And when the solution is met, the process becomes more important.
3:35
0So there are teams and employees and even customers focusing on the process. No, the process must work better. But most of the time, the problem it solved maybe is solved in another way. Maybe is not even a problem for people. So the process becomes the problem and the focus on the process is the biggest problem.
4:00
0So before optimizing your process, start asking yourself, do we need this process? And then ask yourself, why do we need this process? I was reading the book of Elon and he told me in the book that there was a whole division working on some safety issue, some fire safety safety issue. But the division was thinking it was working on noise reduction. So they were talking later when Elon find out found out they were talking to the noise reduction company and the division and the noise reduction division thought, okay, yeah, but it's a safety for fire, a fire safety thing.
4:51
0And it wasn't the case. It was not for fire safety and the noise reduction division didn't even need that solution. So they left out that solution that wasn't even a solution. It became a problem because it costs a lot of money and a lot of people working on a solution to give it better noise reduction but it was not necessary. And even the battery team was working on the noise reduction part.
5:19
0It's crazy. So the noise reduction team, they just did a test with and without their solution and it it didn't even matter. So they could skip whole the whole division, the whole team because they were building a solution that was not even necessary. So it costs money and there are so many processes in business that are not necessary. They are they are making more problems and I know why this is because entrepreneurs are problem solvers.
5:55
0We we like to solve problems. So what do we need to solve problems? We need problems. So we are going to look for problems to solve, But most problems you want to solve are not even problems and if you try to solve a problem and you solve the problem, which wasn't even a problem, then you created another problem because you have to optimize the solution. So you start optimizing the solution but that solution wasn't even necessary.
6:26
0So that's the crazy loop a lot of entrepreneurs are in. So what I want you to ask is look at your processes, look at your solutions you've created and look at the one thing you want to do for your customers. So in the case of Elon Musk, it it was like, okay, we brought Tesla and with Tesla we want bring people from a to b with not too much noise. So therefore is the noise reduction team. And of course, in a safe way.
7:03
0Yeah. But you have to watch out that the solutions you create are not solutions for problems who which aren't there. So, of course, noise reduction is part of building a car, but you have to think about it in a way like, okay, why does the car even gives, brings noise? Why does a car make noise? So the noise reduction team can focus on every part of the car and make every part of the car more silent or it can ask, okay, why is this part even there?
7:51
0And and when you think, when every person in your company thinks that way, when every team will think that way. And, yeah, that's that's hard because you always have to think, what I'm working on, is that necessary or not? So if you say no, then maybe you don't even have a job. But it's your job to kill your own job, always. So it's really like that.
8:20
0Look at your own company, find the one thing you try to solve for your customers and the most simple way to solve it, to solve their problems, is by eliminating almost all processes. Almost every part that stands between the solution for your customer and the customer, you need to kill it. And sometimes, you even have to admit that you try to solve a solution, to solve a problem for your customer while they don't even have a problem with it. Because sometimes we think about things like, yeah, they find this a problem, but when you ask your customers, it it can be they can they they will say, okay, these are not even problems for me. We have these problems.
9:23
0So focus on solving these problems, not the problems you think they have. And if you are a problem solver, try to understand that you are going to look for problems to solve because because that gives you a good feeling. But it's not always the right step to do.

Frequently asked questions

How do you know if a business process still needs to exist?

Trace it back to the original problem it was built to solve. If that problem no longer exists, or was never a real problem in the first place, the process has no reason to stay. Test it by removing it and seeing whether anything actually breaks for the customer.

Why do entrepreneurs keep building solutions to problems that are not there?

Entrepreneurs are wired to find problems. That instinct is useful, but it also means you will sometimes manufacture problems just to have something to solve. The fix is to validate the problem with real customers before you build anything around it.

What did Elon Musk find inside Tesla's noise reduction division?

The division was working on a solution that two teams had each assumed the other had requested. When they tested the car with and without the fix, there was no measurable difference. The entire team was eliminated because they had been solving a problem nobody actually had.

What is the simplest way to improve how your business serves customers?

Identify the single most important problem your customer needs solved, then eliminate every step between your business and that outcome that cannot directly justify its existence. Elimination beats optimization when the underlying process should not be there.

Should employees question whether their own role is necessary?

Yes. Paul's position is direct: it is your job to kill your own job if that job is not genuinely necessary. Businesses that reward people for defending unnecessary work accumulate waste. The better culture is one where removing friction is seen as a contribution, not a threat.

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Discussion

The content makes a sharp claim: most processes exist to solve problems that no longer exist. What is a process in your business you kept running longer than you should have, and what made it hard to kill it before you tried to fix it?

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