Resources
The thinkers behind the case for systems.
Procedurally didn't invent the idea that businesses should run on documented systems. We just built the tool that makes it fast. The references below shaped how the product thinks.
20%
of small businesses fail in their first year
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, BED data
50%
of small businesses fail by their fifth year
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, BED data
94%
of problems originate in the system, not the people
Source: W. Edwards Deming
Reference 01
The E-Myth Revisited
Michael E. Gerber · 1995
Work ON your business, not IN it.
Gerber introduced the idea that a small business should be designed like a franchise prototype — a system someone else could run — regardless of whether you ever sell it. Procedurally is built directly around this thesis.
“If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business — you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic.”
Reference 02
Out of the Crisis
W. Edwards Deming · 1982
94% of problems are with the system, not the people.
Deming is the father of modern quality management. He showed that blaming individuals for process failures is both unfair and ineffective — fix the system and the people stop failing.
“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”
Reference 03
Toyota Production System
Toyota / Taiichi Ohno · 1978
Standard work is the baseline for improvement.
Toyota built the most reliable manufacturer in history by writing down standard work for every job, then continuously improving it. The TPS shows what happens when you document seriously and improve relentlessly.
“Without standards, there can be no improvement.”
Reference 04
The Goal
Eliyahu Goldratt · 1984
You only operate as fast as your slowest constraint.
Goldratt's Theory of Constraints reframes operations: every system has a bottleneck and that's the only thing worth optimizing right now. When you can see your whole business as a system, you can find the bottleneck.
“An hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour lost for the entire system.”
Reference 05
Traction (EOS)
Gino Wickman · 2007
Document the core processes that make your business work.
Wickman packaged systems thinking into a pragmatic operating model for small business owners. The "Process Component" of EOS is essentially what procedurally automates: documenting your 6-10 core processes well enough that anyone could run them.
“You must document, simplify, and follow the processes that make your business work.”
Read the books. Then write the systems.
14-day trial. Document the first 5 systems of your business. See how it feels to have them written down for the first time.
Start free trial