By: Olivia Bolton

Many entrepreneurs pursue comprehensive digital transformations while overlooking the repetitive tasks that drain hours from their teams every week. Pablo Gerboles Parrilla, a technology entrepreneur who has built multiple seven-figure companies, argues that this pursuit of sophisticated solutions causes businesses to miss their highest-return opportunities.

“The biggest ROI in automation almost always comes from the smallest, simplest solutions,” Gerboles Parrilla states. “Companies skip right past the obvious wins because they don’t seem impressive enough.”

Through his work building software solutions for businesses across industries, he’s developed a contrarian approach: target specific pain points with focused tools rather than attempting wholesale operational overhauls. The results consistently prove that tactical simplicity outperforms strategic complexity.

Finding Where Human Effort Adds Zero Value

Gerboles Parrilla’s diagnostic process starts with a question most leadership teams never ask directly: “Where are people doing work that machines should handle?”

“We analyze internal operations to find inefficiencies and bottlenecks,” he explains. “Usually, we discover tasks being done manually that don’t require any human judgment whatsoever. We identify these repetitive, time-consuming processes and automate them using AI or custom software capable of performing the same tasks, only faster, more accurately, and around the clock.”

This perspective comes from his years as a Division I professional golfer before shifting to entrepreneurship. Competition at that level taught him that excellence emerges from perfecting fundamentals, not attempting advanced techniques prematurely.

“In golf, you’re playing a long game, every decision matters, and the smallest mistakes can compound,” Gerboles Parrilla notes. “Startups are the same. You need patience, strategic thinking, and the discipline to keep executing even when results aren’t immediate.”

Applied to automation, this means companies that chase transformative implementations before eliminating obvious inefficiencies waste both resources and time. Those that systematically remove friction points build capabilities that support larger improvements down the road.

A 30-Minute Task Worth 180 Hours Per Year

Gerboles Parrilla uses his mother’s bakery as a case study in how small automations deliver disproportionate returns.

Each night, she would manually process the day’s orders for thirty minutes, calculating production quantities and creating worksheets for the factory team. “She had to go to the office late at night, every single night,” he recalls. “It was tedious, time-consuming, and there was always the risk of human error in the calculations.”

His team built software that reads incoming orders, processes the data, and automatically generates production sheets. The entire operation now takes seconds.

“What used to take her 30 minutes of tedious work every night is now done in seconds with a single click,” Gerboles Parrilla explains. “She doesn’t have to go to the office late at night anymore, and the process is now error-free and more reliable.”

Beyond saving 180+ hours annually, the automation eliminated stress, reduced mistakes, and improved work-life balance. These secondary benefits rarely appear in standard ROI calculations but often matter more than time savings alone.

The Three-Factor Prioritization Model

Gerboles Parrilla’s approach to business automation follows a clear evaluation framework that any organization can apply immediately.

“Start by identifying your biggest pain points, the tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, or error-prone,” he advises. “Look for areas where human input isn’t adding strategic value. Once you’ve mapped those out, prioritize based on which tasks consume the most time and resources. That’s where automation can give you the fastest ROI.”

His framework scores opportunities across three dimensions: time consumption, error frequency, and strategic value. High scores on the first two combined with low scores on the third signal immediate automation candidates.

“The goal is always to make the business smarter, not just faster,” Gerboles Parrilla emphasizes. “At the same time, we eliminate unnecessary steps and redesign workflows to be leaner and more efficient.”

This distinction matters critically. Accelerating flawed processes simply produces bad results faster. Intelligence means automating tasks that deliver consistency, accuracy, and reliability, creating genuine competitive advantages.

The Hidden Costs of Sophisticated Systems

According to Gerboles Parrilla, the technology sector’s preference for complexity actively undermines practical problem-solving. “Businesses feel pressure to implement cutting-edge solutions when straightforward tools would serve them better,” he observes.

Building companies across software development, infrastructure, and marketing has repeatedly shown him this pattern. Complex systems that require extensive training, continuous maintenance, and specialized knowledge often create new problems while addressing old ones.

“You don’t need a massive system overhaul,” Gerboles Parrilla states. “Sometimes the best automation solutions are small, simple tools that make a huge difference.”

The bakery project demonstrates this perfectly. Instead of installing comprehensive management software with unnecessary features, his team solved one specific problem. Limited scope enabled faster development, easier deployment, and immediate value without disrupting established workflows.

Momentum Compounds From Initial Victories

Managing multiple ventures simultaneously has taught Gerboles Parrilla why quick wins matter more than perfect solutions.

“You can always adjust a fast-moving car, but you can’t steer a parked one,” he notes. “That’s exactly how automation should work. Start with quick wins that build confidence and expertise, then tackle more complex challenges.”

This strategy generates momentum that comprehensive transformations rarely achieve. Teams that see immediate improvements in daily operations become automation advocates rather than change resisters.

Sequential small solutions also surface unexpected patterns. “As individual processes become automated, you start seeing synergies that weren’t obvious before,” Gerboles Parrilla explains. “These insights rarely appear when companies attempt comprehensive transformations from the outset.”

Accounting for Opportunity Costs

While businesses focus on implementation expenses, Gerboles Parrilla argues they ignore the compounding costs of manual work. “Every repeated task represents not just time but opportunity cost, the strategic work that doesn’t happen because teams are occupied with routine operations,” he points out.

Professional athletics taught him to evaluate costs beyond surface-level metrics. “In both worlds, consistency beats intensity,” he observes. “It’s not about one great shot or one big win, it’s about showing up, making calculated moves, and adapting when conditions change.”

For automation, this means recognizing that manual processes tax organizations daily. Those thirty minutes processing orders represented mental bandwidth, accumulated fatigue, and error exposure that could derail production. Simple automation permanently removed all these drains.

“Automation naturally reduces the need for human labor, which significantly cuts down operational costs,” Gerboles Parrilla explains. “But more importantly, it removes the friction of growth. When systems are automated, there’s no need to scale your workforce at the same rate as your customer base. Your business becomes scalable by design, ready to grow without growing pains.”

Implementation Guidance for Immediate Action

For organizations ready to start, Gerboles Parrilla recommends taking action rather than succumbing to analysis paralysis.

“Map out your biggest pain points this week,” he suggests. “Identify one repetitive task that consumes significant time and creates frustration. Solve that problem first, measure the impact, and use the success to justify additional investments.”

This pragmatic methodology reflects his experience across multiple successful ventures. Rather than pursuing comprehensive solutions that require months of planning, focus on specific problems that deliver measurable value immediately.

“The businesses that win in increasingly automated markets won’t necessarily be those with the most sophisticated systems,” Gerboles Parrilla concludes. “They’ll be the ones that recognized the cumulative power of simple solutions and built momentum through practical improvements that compound over time.”

Success requires less technical sophistication than strategic clarity about where human effort creates genuine value versus where it perpetuates inefficiency. Organizations that make this distinction systematically will discover that their smallest automations often deliver the largest returns.