|
It doesn't seem all that long ago that business process reengineering (BPR) was sweeping across most industries. Actually, it's been about 20 years. The 1990s and 2000s saw the rise of lean; six sigma; and, more recently, the fusion of the two in lean six sigma (LSS). Today, business process management and business process optimization have been popularized, particularly in terms of melding process thinking with technology in order to provide workflow support, better exchange of information, and business intelligence.
Just in the last six months, I have witnessed a huge resurgence of interest in BPR. Operations management pro-fessionals are redefining it as something beyond its original characterization, which often involved expert-, engineer-, or consultant-driven processes and organizational changes that quickly changed the business landscape—some-" times to the methodology's detriment.
Forward-looking leaders at organizations of all sizes are rethinking BPR and alignment of their information technology (IT) strategies at a furious pace.
Decision makers at great and soon-to-be-great organizations are trying to learn how to pick the right busi-ness drivers and metrics, embrace the customer as never before, build better processes to deliver what customers want, leverage the best of technologies and emerging social media marketing, and align their people fully. Winning trust and cooperation for change in
traditional BPR initiatives has been rare—and this must be addressed.
Consider the following acronym, which may serve your organization well in talcing these issues in hand and improving performance. The phases of a never-ending wheel of action follow the letters of the word: RESULTS.
The chief constant in business is change.
Reflection
Driving improvements is decidedly top-down, bottom-up endeavor. It's amazing to me how many good orgnization leaders struggle to articula what their companies should look in the future in terms that are easib understood and embraced by stake holders. Top managers must reflect on and develop a meaningful visioi of the future, asking "Where we are going?" and "What will we look like when we get there?"
This vision needs balance. Customers first, employees second, and the company last is a valid way to reflect upon this subject. The more challenging part is implementing specific measures. Financial results are the easiest to assess. Customer satisfaction is more challenging. And the people part is extremely difficult.
Expectations
The success of any organization ultimately comes down to our ability (or inability) to develop and empower people to support the company vision. Managers must be clear about where the busines is going and what it will look like when it gets there—in measurable terms. It's the people who figure the how. Thus, information must be shared openly, adequate training should be provided, and workers have to understand how process; work. This involves classic LSS a BPR tools. In addition, it's imperative that leaders show support fo the necessary changes.
Once unambiguous expectation set, company decision makers sho align all stakeholders and ensure they have bought into the vision fully. Answering the question "what's in for me?" seems like a simple concept but, in practice, it is devilish difficult. And the bigger and more complex the organization, the mo challenging it becomes.
Selection
Once the previous steps are complete, it's time to select where to apply the toolbox containing BPR, LSS, or other methods. There must be a careful assessment of the organization, specific identification of the current and future performance gaps with metrics, and compilation of a portfolio of potential projects. This must be capped with a few balanced and measurable outcomes so that it's possible to recognize success.
A careful assessment that examines IT, people, processes, current and future customer requirements, supply chains, and potential market shifts will generate far more projects than can possibly be undertaken all at once. Outside consultants can earn their keep by providing competitive intelligence (what other companies out there are doing) and expertise in the best ways to tackle these projects.
Finally, make sure the approach to mapping processes and identifying priorities is done in an inclusive manner. This will pay huge dividends later in alignment and change management.
|
