Thanks for asking!
From the many resources available that discuss or instruct in the
areas of corporate streamlining, efficiency and re-engineering, I've
selected the following guides, tutorials, articles, experts and
consulting firms. I've chosen and organized these selections with the
goal of providing a shortlist of background and guidance materials for
the task of creating a corporate efficiency project. Given the
research deadline, I have focused my efforts on locating and culling
the best resources, rather than a personal review and summaries. The
usefulness of the listed sources should speak for themselves.
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To begin, the following ARTICLES offer a general overview of several
of the aspects considered most critical to the corporate streamlining
process:
The Real Keys to High Performance by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Leader to Leader, No. 8 Spring 1998
Drucker Foundation
http://drucker.org/leaderbooks/L2L/spring98/pfeffer.html
Excerpt: "Five Cases for High-Performance Management
Studies in a wide range or manufacturing and service industries show
that management systems that encourage personal commitment and
competence achieve greater productivity, quality, and cost efficiency
than systems that impose direct control. Highlights of five studies
suggest just how much people can deliver when supported by effective
management.
Among 702 large firms in many different industries, being one standard
deviation better on an index of high-commitment human resource
practices resulted in an increase in shareholder wealth of $41,000 per
employee, according to a study by Mark Hustled of Rutgers University
and Brian Becker of SUNY-Buffalo."
Human Resources: First Stop for Reengineers by Larry G. Willets
Reengineering.com
http://www.reengineering.com/articles/jul96/humanresources.htm
Excerpt: "More Companies Target the Back Office
Reengineering is usually targeted to development, manufacturing,
logistics, distribution, or occasionally sales and customer support.
But rarely do you hear about finance and human resources. Granted,
these are internal functions and not part of the reengineering mantra
to first fix processes that directly touch the customer or
significantly reduce costs. Human resources, however, is a set of
processes and systems that enable your greatest assets to achieve
their potential. "Human resources should be at the heart of
reengineering," says Row Henson, a vice president of human resource
management systems strategy at PeopleSoft in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Behind the scenes, many American corporations and agencies are
rebuilding their human resources, or HR, function to support larger
reengineering efforts. A key in these efforts is the use of team-based
technology from integrated HR systems to hiring automation to
groupware. "
Don’t Reengineer. Realign
By Jeffrey W. Bennett and Steven B. Hedlund
Strategy - Business
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/?art=14882&pg=0
{Website requires registration for free access to this article.)
Excerpt:
"The logic of strategic alignment becomes clear when it is contrasted
with reengineering, which is based on the century-old theory that
variation is waste. At its heart, reengineering seeks to root out
variation by routinizing, and if possible automating, core business
processes. This approach makes sense when applied to clerical, easily
measured work, like insurance claims processing. But reengineering’s
bias toward static rules means it cannot accommodate the dynamic
thinking and actions of humans in a knowledge economy. What’s more,
reengineering underestimates personal motivation as an influence on
individuals’ decisions.
Strategic alignment avoids these traps through two simple premises:
* Managers are rational actors. They make decisions based on the
incentives, constraints, and information in their environment. To
improve performance, companies must change the factors that influence
managers’ behavior.
* Organizations are complex, dynamic systems. The factors influencing
managers’ behavior constantly interact. If factors are misaligned,
the result can be excessive internal conflict and unintended
consequences."
Beyond Corporate Reengineering By James Champy
Ziff Davis Media | CIO Insight
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,3959,2138,00.asp
Excerpt: "Management guru James Champy has taken his vision of
corporate reform a step further. Here's why you need to reengineer not
only inside but outside your corporation.
The work people do needs to be redesigned—reengineered is what we call
it—in terms of processes rather than tasks or departments. That was
the message Michael Hammer and I delivered nine years ago in our book
Reengineering the Corporation. While the idea of reengineering touched
a nerve and set off a wave of reengineering around the world, the
impact was internal: By and large, the reforms ended at the company
gate. That's no longer enough. The information technology revolution
and the shifts in power among the major global economic players of the
past five years demand that the advances of reengineering be extended
to include all the stakeholders in the corporation: its managers,
employees, customers, suppliers, partners, shareholders—and perhaps
even its competitors."
Here's a counterpoint ARTICLE from the popular business press.
Why You Can Safely Ignore Six Sigma by Lee Clifford,
Fortune Magazine, January 2001 Issue
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,9085,00.html\
"Six Sigma, and a couple of similar-looking knockoffs, are nothing
short of a full-on corporate fad, the latest in a long line of
must-have efficiency crazes that perpetually spread through corporate
America. Fueled in large part by GE CEO Jack Welch--who frequently
talks it up to the media--companies today are constantly pumping out
press releases hyping their own Six Sigma initiatives. What's more,
consultancies have sprung up across the country to help CEOs muster
the troops, and the term itself has turned into the financial
equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval. (Incidentally, the
name comes from statistics, where the Greek letter sigma is used to
measure how far something deviates from perfection. Six Sigma means a
company tries to make error-free products 99.9997% of the time--a
minuscule 3.4 errors per million opportunities.)"
The following article reprints are available at a nominal fee from the
Harvard Business Review:
Fix the Process, Not the Problem by Harold Sirkin and George Stalk Jr.
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=90411&_requestid=10895
Management Tools and Techniques - A Survey by Darrell Rigby
California Management Review
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=CMR196
Summary: "Management tools, such as strategic planning, benchmarking,
pay-for-performance, outsourcing, customer segmentation,
reengineering, balanced scorecard, and total quality management,
garner considerable attention in the popular management literature.
Companies throughout the world spend millions of dollars each year
implementing a dozen or so of these tools. This survey examines the
usage of these tools over a seven-year period, assesses user
satisfaction with the tools, and attempts to correlate tool usage with
company performance. Identifies tools that have been consistently used
over time as well as those that seen to have been passing fads."
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The following online TUTORIALS and GUIDES offer more indepth
information, along with specific advice for developing your project
outline.
The CEO Guide to Innovation Delivered: Turning Ideas into Results
Accenture
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=ideas\innovation\ideas_inno_ceo.xml
A five-section Guide to corporate innovation and change
Bringing Ideas to Market: Interview with Joe Forehand
Leading the Creative Charge
The Customer Connection
The Evolution of Outsourcing
Smart Thinking
BPR Online Learning Center
Tutorial Series - Business Process Reenineering
http://www.prosci.com/mod1.htm
A seven part series of tutorials:
Series 1 - Getting Started
Series 2 - Reengineering Methodology and Tools
Series 3 - Change Management
Series 4 - Business Case Development
Series 5 - Industry Best Practices
Series 6 - Continuous Process Improvement
Series 7 - Advanced BPR Topics
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The following individuals are considered preeminent EXPERTS and
innovators in the field.
Michael Hammer
http://www.hammerandco.com/
Biographical Summary and Contact Info:
http://www.hammerandco.com/FacultyFrames.html
Hammer and Company
One Cambridge Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
Telephone 617.354.5555
Fax 617.354.1046
Dr. Raymond L. Manganelli
http://www.sdg.com/home.nsf/plu/PressRelease--Strategic+Decisions+Group+Announces+New+Leadership+Team
Dr. Raymond L. Manganelli, head of the SDG New York office and
Managing Director of the Transactions practice (M&A, Divestiture,
Integration), leads SDG's operational and organizational consulting
across a wide variety of industries. Dr. Manganelli is a recognized
author and speaker, having written a management text and more than 100
business articles, and having lectured before university and
professional groups worldwide. Dr. Manganelli, a graduate of the
Columbia University Graduate School of Business' Executive Program in
Business Administration, holds a PhD from Columbia University, an MA
from Middlebury College, and a BA from Rutgers University.
Strategic Decisions Group
Chanin Building
122 East 42nd Street, Suite 1910
New York, NY 10168
Phone: +1 212 883-4300
Fax: +1 212 883-4299
James A. Champy
http://www.perotsystems.com/frmbase.asp?URL=/content/AboutUs/Leadership/james.asp
Mr. Champy is a leading authority on the management issues surrounding
business reengineering, organizational change and corporate renewal.
He consults extensively with senior-level executives of multinational
companies seeking to improve business performance. His approach
centers on helping leaders achieve business results through four
distinct, yet overlapping areas -- business strategy, management and
operations, organizational development and change, and information
technology.
Contact Information is available through Perot Systems website by
selecting Strategic Consulting, and following the Selections to United
States contacts
http://www.perotsystems.com/FrmBase.asp?URL=ContactUs/Index.asp
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CONSULTING FIRMS
The Boston Consulting Group
http://www.bcg.com/
"BCG aims to help the world’s best organizations make decisive
improvements in their direction and performance by sparking
breakthrough ideas for clients, the business world, and society at
large.
BCG aspires to achieve these goals with individuals as well as with
organizations. We seek to inspire enterprising and imaginative
people—at our clients and on our staff—with unparalleled opportunities
for professional and personal growth. In this way, we hope to forge
lifelong bonds with them."
Contact Info:
http://www.bcg.com/contact/contact_splash.asp
Booz Allen Hamilton
http://www.boozallen.com/
Booz Allen Hamilton combines strategy with technology and insight with
action, working with clients to deliver results today that endure
tomorrow. Booz Allen, is a global leader in strategy and technology
consulting, provides services to major international corporations and
government clients around the world.
Major areas of expertise include:
Strategy
Organization and Change Leadership
Operations
Information Technology
Technology Management
North AmericaContact Information
http://www.boozallen.com/bahng/SilverDemo?PID=Home.html&dispType=HTML&NGPgID=locations&Region=21&Taxonomy2=21&contType=TABLE
Directory of Business Process Re-engineering Consulting Firms
Business.com
http://www.business.com/directory/management/operations_management/business_process_re-engineering/
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BOOKS and STUDIES
Future Role of IT in Business Process Reengineering-Benchmarking
Report
Human Resources Learning Center
Executive Summary
http://www.iplabs.com/hr/it-executive.htm
Streamlining: Using New Technologies and the Internet to Transform
Performance
by Robert B. Handfield and Ernest L. Nichols
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/books.jhtml?t=operations
Summary: "Clearly it's a skeptical world out there these days when it
comes to the over-promises of information technology. But this book
argues that the latest Internet and other communications and
data-processing technologies can help your organization meet the
less-is-more challenge dictated by the current economy. Streamlining
attempts to debunk the Internet debunkers and looks at companies such
as Dell, Oracle, Siemens, and BP that have successfully leveraged
technology to improve operations and bottom lines. One example: De
Kare-Silver shows how auto insurer Progressive Insurance employed
1-800 numbers, wireless PCs, and an electronic data warehouse to
authorize checks to customers minutes after an accident, service that
dramatically improved the company's market share. Chapters cover the
streamlining of the supply chain, knowledge management, procurement,
and customer relationship management."
Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution
by Michael Hammer, James A. Champy
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0066621127/ref%3Dpd%5Fsim%5Fbooks/104-1106379-6468702
Review: "What ever your feelings on reengineering (dramatic process
improvement or excuse for downsizing payroll) Hammer and Champy
reinvigorate the topic for the new millennium in this clear revision.
Learning from their mistakes (they move process to the front instead
of radical in their four word description), they reintroduce the goal
of making major gains in reducing wasted work and time. Their case
studies read as a list of comeback stars in corporate America and show
that great strides can be made and do pay off. Just as Six Sigma is
trying to reengineer TQM for a new economic reality, this book once
again brings process improvement to the forefront of business
management consciousness."
Beyond Reengineering : How the Processed-Centered Organization is
Changing Our Work and Our Lives
by Michael Hammer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0887308805/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/102-9141666-4191321?v=glance
Editorial Review: "The coauthor of Reengineering the Corporation
offers insights into the consequences of today's process-centered
reengineering that marks the end of the Industrial Revolution. This
book is required reading for executives and front-line workers, for
students and investors, for everyone who wants to be prepared for the
new world that is at our doorstep."
The Reengineering Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Business
Transformation
by Raymond L. Manganelli, Mark M. Klein
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0814479235/ref=pd_sbs_b_3/102-9141666-4191321?v=glance
Editorial Review: "A businessperson's guide to "re-engineering the
corporation" that explains what that process means to a business, how
to determine if such efforts are needed and what they will do, and a
detailed methodology of how to carry out the transformation."
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Search Strategy
Perusal of leading business informational websites, including the
Harvard Business Review, the Wharton School, Business. com, Hoovers,
and Google web index searches.
Google Search Terms:
"corporate streamlining"
"corporate efficiency"
"corporate re-engineering"
I hope you find these resources useful. Should you have any questions
about the material or sources, please, feel free to ask.
Thank you,
larre-ga |
