| There is a word in German engineering that has no direct English translation: ‘Passgenauigkeit.’
It means the quality of something fitting exactly as it was designed to fit. Not approximately. Not close enough. Exactly.
In a German factory, a part either fits or it doesn’t. There is no “almost.” There is no “we’ll be right, mate.”
The Almost Tax
Every business I have wokred with over the last 41 years has been paying what I call the “Almost Tax”.
It shows up like this:
→ A formula that’s “pretty much right” for most months — but needs manual adjustment at quarter end.
→ A report that takes five days to produce because the data doesn’t quite line up.
→ A quoting process that works — unless the job is a certain size, or the client is in a certain state.
Almost right. Almost automated. Almost reliable.
The Almost Tax doesn’t appear on your P&L.
It shows up as overtime.
As staff frustration.
As the manager who checks every output before it goes out the door.
It compounds. Quietly. Expensively. And it can break your business.
What I’ve seen in over 40 years of consulting:
The businesses that scale cleanly are not the ones with the most sophisticated software.
They are the ones whose processes work the same way — every time — whether the founder is in the building or not.
That is precision. And it is available to any business willing to stop tolerating “almost.” |
