Business Re-engineering

The most enjoyable Business Reengineering experiences are those with all the right players, no competing issues and where success is the only acceptable conclusion. My most important such experiences, however, have come at the hands of organizations bent on failure. Situations where compromise and good intentions have overcome fundamentals and commitment. It is these experiences that have formed the basis for this presentation.

The following ten principles, in my own experiences and those of others, have proven to be pivotal in fulfilling the potential of any Business Reengineering effort.

Principle #1: Someone Must Lead

In every client with which I have worked, everyone wants to do a good job; everyone wants to see their problems solved; everyone feels they are working as hard as they can. So if everyone in the organization wants things to work well, why do so few meet this expectation? Most of these organizations suffer from a lack of effective and capable leadership.

Hierarchal organizations work best when leadership starts at the top. Efforts to change the business tend to be most successfully implemented when sponsored by top management. This is especially true of business reengineering efforts where the solution is not to do business as it has been done but, in many cases, to do business very differently. Such changes are difficult to achieve without substantial support and commitment from top management. Many authorities will assert that business reengineering cannot be driven by middle management.

Unfortunately, top management's agenda may not include business reengineering. Some managements have excellent skills but strong leadership is not among them. In these situations, someone outside top management must provide the leadership to pursue business reengineering. Fortunately, leadership is a quality that occurs throughout an organization.

It has also been my experience that top levels of management do not always have all the right answers. That's part of what the rest of us are supposed to be contributing. American management was not quick to embrace the quality revolution nor systems of stockless production. There is no reason to believe that business reengineering will be met with enthusiasm without first educating management. It may be necessary to demonstrate reengineering potential with projects that don't impact the entire business.

If you wait for management to tell you to undertake business reengineering, you may never get started. Someone must champion the effort. Without leadership, business reengineering efforts will fail.

Lean Six Sigma Consulting   World Class Manufacturing   
Balanced Scorecards  Strategic Tactical Planning  
Supply Chain Inventory Management  Principles of Total Quality Management
  Manufacturing Process Improvement