Every business, be it a service provider or a manufacturer, or a restaurant or insurance company, goes through a chain of activities to deliver its offering.

To be in the restaurant business you need to get the ingredients, mix it up in a bowl, fry it up in a pan, put it on a plate and serve it.

To be in the insurance industry you need to make the cold call, discuss the project, write up the specifications, put it in a quote and deliver it to the prospect.

Every business is simply an assembly of many different chains.

If you want to get that food prepared faster – if you want to get the quote out earlier – you need to fix the slowest part of the chain. Your business can only operate as fast as the slowest part. Stop trying to fix everything. Just fix the slowest part.