Every business has processes. The difference is whether those processes have an owner.
I have seen elaborate sets of procedures, printed in colour and bound, sitting untouched in a cabinet. The reason is almost always the same: no one was made responsible for the result the process was meant to serve.
Four questions for every process
- Which metric does this process serve? If you can't answer, it doesn't need to exist yet.
- Who is accountable for that metric? One person, not a department.
- Where does that person see the numbers, and how often?
- What happens when the process isn't followed?
Once these four questions have answers, most cumbersome processes fall away on their own, because the person accountable will be the first to want to drop steps that don't produce results.
A process without an owner is just a framed suggestion.