Core Concepts of Reengineering

2 Hour Topic

Employees, Supervisors, Managers, Directors, Executives

The major organizational panacea of the 90’s, reengineering has developed a sour reputation for being a synonymous with lay-offs and other demoralizing means of cost cutting. The failures of process redesign initiatives seemed to far outweigh the expected benefits to the organizations that undertook these often costly initiatives. We argue that many of the abuses of reengineering in organizations were the result of the improper application of process re-design especially rooted in a failure to understand the principles that guide its effective implementation. As Thomas Davenport, one of the early founders of reengineering has said, “ Processes is how we work. Any company that ignores its business processes or fails to improve them risks its future.” Despite some of the misapplication, we believe that an understanding of how to redesign business processes is fundamental to improving organization performance.