TABLE OF CONTENTS Your Business, Inc. has learned how to respond quickly to changes in the marketplace by streamlining operations and business processes through continuous business reengineering activities. With a focus on people, processes, and automated systems, a type of workflow fluidity has been founded that has been unheard of until now. It has refined process redesign so well, in fact, that it can change workflow on a dime and introduce new products faster than ever before.
Michael Hammer, the godfather of business reengineering, suggested in his groundbreaking treatise, Reengineering Work: Don t Automate, Obliterate, [3 ]that businesses should raze existing work processes and replace them with new ones that make better use of modern technology. I am not so sure.
While business reengineering is certainly an important business fundamental,-it is better practiced thoughtfully than with total annihilation in mind. After all, businesses are comprised of people like you and me. What would I do if someone came along and decided to blow my business unit to kingdom come? Well, depending on my mood, I just might decide to hunker down and return fire!
Obviously, this is not the reaction that most management teams are after when they begin a business reengineering effort. In this chapter, we will look at some ways in which business redesign programs can be executed that will engage and inspire staff to do their best work and not alienate or put personnel on the defensive (see Figure 6.1).
