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A well designed business method or process saves time, improves reliability, lowers costs. Every restaurant has a standard process for welcoming and serving customers depending on whether they want to dine-in or take out. An auto mechanic goes thru a process of inspection, providing estimates, and then begins work. When you apply for a process, the steps are nonnegotiable. These are very straightforward and standard processes, and rarely does a customer ask for an exception.

The most important point that is missed when creating a method or process is that it is useful only when it satisfies a customer need. Most creators of a business process or method is more engrossed with internal efficiencies and cost control.

Analyze the customer’s problems before you adopt a process or method. If the customer is not satisfied, then change the process. Or change the customer’s expectations. For internal processes, most co-workers will learn to live with a defective process and find workarounds. That creates other problems, as we saw in a prior blog. External customers, those who pay the bills, will either move to a different source or they will lower your profits by raising your costs, the costs of handling their complaints, and the emotional aggravation caused to your employees.

A business process or method can be a business advantage, but you have to design it well and you have to execute it even better.

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From time to time, you will feel the need to change your role or change your job. A combination of frustration, stagnation, boredom, or the need to do something different. Or maybe you found an opportunity that is simply impossible to pass up.

A previous boss advised me not to run from something, but to run towards something. While that advice is difficult to follow under pressure, it is fundamentally sound.

You took the role or job you have for a reason. The following are some good reasons to give it up:

• You’ve given it your best shot and in your heart you know it is not going to work out.
• You’ve outgrown your current role and there is no potential where you are. Or, your role is fast becoming irrelevant.
• You have external constraints outside your control, for example, you cannot travel or you need to cut down on your commute to be closer to home.
• Life is too short. Having to put up with your dysfunctional bosses and co-workers in the name of “becoming tough” is simply not worth it.

Unless you are having a nervous breakdown or other dire emergency, take the time to line up your next role or job. Make a realistic plan to present your case, look for a hiring manager you can work with, and a company that has fundamentally sound management practices. The last thing you want to do is jump from the frying pan into the fire.

As always, prepare well in advance. Yes, occasionally you will be taken by surprise, and you’ll have to act in a hurry. But most of the time, you’ll have plenty of time to plan and prepare for your next gig.