15 minutes a day sound like nothing.
Per employee, based on roughly 240 working days, that adds up to about 60 hours per year — more than a full working week lost in small steps no one questions anymore. At typical total employee costs of around € 30 per hour, that equals roughly € 1,800 per employee per year. And you sign off on it every month.
And that is only the part you can still calculate. The expensive part often sits where no one looks anymore.
In every company, money leaks away — usually not where people look first.
Friction is rarely spectacular. It sits in habits, old routines, silent detours and things that appeared at some point — and have kept running ever since. Not because people are careless. But because daily operations rarely leave time to take them apart properly. Unless someone comes from the outside and does exactly that.
What you pay for every month, without it being properly used.
Accounts, licences, contracts, capacities. Much of it looks small until you add it up. It only becomes visible when someone checks systematically what is still actually needed.
What keeps running in the background, although no one is watching.
Processes that have not changed in years. Interfaces people simply accept. Workarounds that became normal. They cost quietly — every day.
What gets done although no one consciously asked for it anymore.
Reports, checks, lists, follow-ups and duplicate work. Some tasks do not remain because they create value — but because no one has questioned them properly.
You do not touch grown systems roughly. You touch them by procedure.
Switching something off, changing it or simplifying it sounds easy. It is not. In grown companies, more is connected than people see at first glance. That is why I do not work with assumptions, but with a clear procedure: understand first, prove it, decide, then act.
Take inventory — without judging too early.
What exists? What is used? What does it cost? What depends on it? Nothing changes in this phase. First, the real situation becomes visible.
Findings backed by data, not gut feeling.
Each element gets a status, an owner and an assessment. That turns a suspicion into a solid basis for a decision.
Step by step, documented and reversible.
Nothing changes without approval. With backup, test run and rollback path. Not jumping bravely into the system — improving it under control.
- Every step is documented transparently.
- Every intervention has a clear way back.
- No shutdown without prior verification.
- No change without your approval.
- Every measure is planned to remain reversible.
- You see at any time what was checked, recommended and implemented.
You do not need to know where the money leaks away. You only need to let someone look who knows how to find it.
Peter Seifritzberger · ORVANIS