Ask in your company: who would be the first to notice if this process measurably got worse today? Not who executes it — but who is responsible for it running well, still fitting in a year, improvements being implemented and problems escalated. In most organisations, the honest answer is uncomfortable.
Processes without an owner: the silent 5–15% leak
Dreher Consulting analysed more than 1,200 transformation projects in the DACH region and found what happens when processes have no clear owner: 5 to 15 percent of achievable efficiency stays permanently unrealised. Not because the technology is missing, not because the ideas are missing — but because nobody has the authority to consistently implement them.
This leak is so persistent precisely because it's invisible. Nobody books "missing process ownership" as a cost line. Instead, it shows up as friction in daily operations: tickets nobody can progress because responsibility is spread across several departments. Decisions sinking in endless review loops. Regressions after go-live because nobody enforces the new rules.
What we observe across multiple projects: the leak often only becomes visible when someone starts looking for it. The moment the question is asked — who is actually responsible for this process? — the honest answer usually turns out to be "nobody, really." And once that gap is closed, problems that were previously written off as unavoidable friction resolve themselves.