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 A Business Process Reengineering Classic
Michael Hammer is the guru of business processes. Though the first edition of the book was written in 1998, the content in the book are timeless and are equally valuable and applicable today. The core idea of the book is to forget the assembly-line and specialization-oriented process design, which clouds the overall goal of producing superior output and customer value-add. Assembly-line mentality promotes specialization and gives rise to narrow job focus, which leads to misaligned incentives and undermines the overall goal of delivering value to customers. Instead, the author proposes that processes be innovated and radical re-designed and integrated horizontally. This is a classic book on business process and I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in this subject.
Remembering Michael Hammer
In a new world of more abundant capital, deregulated markets, freer trade and, most especially, inexpensive computing and communication, economies of scale and scope were being redefined. Hammer saw that yesterday's competitive yardsticks were no longer meaningful and that businesses needed to start managing themselves relative to their new potential, not just against their historical performance. See [...]
A must read for all managers and consultants
One of the reviews for this book mentioned that it would be better to read anything by Alfred Chandler than read this book. As I recall, Afred Chandler recommended that structure follow strategy (or was it the other way around). One of the nice insights in Hammer and Champy's Reengineering the Corporation is that structure should follow process. That is, first figure out how to do business well, then assemble the people and formal systems to make it happen. Michael Porter was on to this concept, of course, in his 1996 HBR article, "What is Strategy", where he talked about the importance of a company's 'activities'.
The book describes process-orientation as a reversal of the 'division of labor' ideology that has been the basis for 200 years of industry. The authors explain how the new customer focus and global competition are driving the quality and efficiency gains made possible only through a focus on end-to-end processes. They describe the weakness of functional design, and how the desire for outcomes such as 'innovation' can only be actioned through strong process design. Great stuff!
Even though BPR has been around for 15+ years, and is now called business transformation, it's amazing how many companies cling to to the traditional functional design. How can a company expect to imlement IT projects or other large scale change without a process orientation? It's no wonder that 70 percent of IT projects fail!
Truly a great book, and should be read back-to-back with Champy's Reengineering Management.
Important Read
The title might suggest that this one would be a bit of a sleeper. Not so. Somehow the authors managed to make it an enjoyable read. It's surprisingly straightforward. It starts out explaining a problem - i.e. companies are not designed properly. Decades ago, efficiency was achieved through the division of labor -by thin-slicing tasks into meaningless activities. Bloated bureaucracies were required to manage all the disparate parts/functions. It worked fine back then, but not any more. The customer has more say now, competition is stiffer, and change is rampant. In order to thrive today, businesses must organize around process not around functional silos.
The answer? Reengineering. It's not about making gradual improvements - like six sigma or TQM. Rather, it's about "tossing aside old systems and starting over." It's about dismantling the obsolete structures and redesigning processes to achieve dramatic improvements.
The book goes into a fair amount of detail explaining how to undertake a reengineering project. Examples of companies that have achieved successful reengineering efforts are provided to assist. Very helpful.
This is an important read for anyone that works in corporate America - from the CEO to the front-line employee. All can benefit.
-- Nick McCormick, Author, "Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager"
 A must-read book
It's sometimes difficult to find good managerial books that are based on more than pure management theories. This book is an exception. A must read piece of art crafted by people with feet deeply planted into the real way of doing things at corporations.
This book strains people's brain in the sense that they feel compelled to think about what is going on at work heading for a better company through reengineering established processes. Specially for me, this book also brings hope, hope that no matter how critical some process (which in many cases we are part of) may be, there is always a solution that can be pursued.
But the book also comes with a major drawback. One may think that the solution for all problems is reengineering.
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