I didn’t get into systems because systems sounded interesting. Operations were breaking. I starte...I didn’t get into systems because systems sounded interesting. Operations were breaking. I starte...
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Marilit Iligan
• Sep 8
I didn’t get into systems because systems sounded interesting. Operations were breaking.
I started running a business young, and during the pandemic there wasn’t much room for processes that only looked organized.
There were customers, logistics, people, marketing, money, and problems that still needed decisions.
Later, working in aviation gave me a very different environment, but reinforced something similar:
Complexity doesn’t disappear. Good operations stop it from spreading.
And after working across founder-led businesses, agencies, SaaS, product, engineering, and operations, I keep seeing versions of the same problem.
A workflow problem can actually be an ownership problem.
A missed deadline can actually be an unresolved decision.
An automation problem can actually be a broken process being automated.
That’s why I don’t start by asking what tool we should build in.
I start with:
- What’s actually blocking execution?
 - Who owns it?
 - What decision is missing?
 - What’s the smallest change that gets things moving again?
Then we build what the business actually needs.
Diagnose first. Build what matters.
Until the next problem, Marilit
#BusinessOperations #SystemsThinking #OperationalStrategy #ProcessDesign
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