Now, however, we have been saved by Bill Gates, the microprocessor, and the Internet. It was a time of drastic steps, of takeover artists prowling Wall Street, of slash-and-burn downsizing, of reengineering. Costs were out of control, quality was abysmal, and the U.S. A kinder version of this story asserts that reengineering was a concept suited to its times: one of recession and retreat, when American companies were running from the Japanese colossus. Today, one can scarcely pick up a self-styled guide to the new economy without encountering dismissive comments about reengineering as quintessential old economy thinking. PROLOGUE: REENGINEERING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURYĬonventional wisdom suggests that reengineering was a management fad of the early 1990s, one that like all such fads had its short time in the sun and then deservedly passed into obscurity. Team composition should include rising stars, insiders, and outsiders. It' s not a bad idea to burn bridges, eg 'eine Flucht nach Vorn,' and retreat forward (toward change). Job prep changes from training to education. People's roles change from controlled to empowered. Advancement criteria changes from performance to ability (but pay is on performance). ' Jobs change from tasks to multi-dimensional work. is by reengineering the processes so that they are no longer fragmented. Reengineering is about 'reversing the industrial revolution.' 'The way to eliminate beaurocracy. Reengineering does not seek 5% or 10%, but much larger gains.

Reengineering is: 'If I were re-creating this company today, given what I know and given current technology, what would it look like?' A business process is a 'collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer' - the opposite of Adam Smith's breaking things apart (my comment: not really, it's just that we broke down beyond value in service and started administering processes because of rut thinking). TQM), but in totally rethinking a business in terms of whole processes. The solution is not in automation, management-by-whatever concepts (e.g. The authors assert that the current circumstances of business in America are not due to factors currently blamed (foreign competition, federal government, etc).

Michael hammer and james champy