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Managing Barriers to Business Reengineering Success
by Wolf D. Schumacher
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
It is not true, as a good many industrial
psychologists assert, that human nature
resists change. On the contrary, no being in
heaven or earth is greedier for new things. But there
are conditions for man`s readiness for change.
The change must appear rational to him; man always
presents to himself as rational even his most
irrational, most erratic changes. It must appear
an improvement. And it must not be so rapid
or so great as to obliterate the psychological landmarks
which make a man feel at home; his understanding
of his work, his relations to his fellow-workers,
his concepts of skill, prestige and social standing
in certain jobs and so forth.
Peter Drucker, 1992
Business Reengineering combines the adoption of a process view and the application of advanced Information Technology in planned organizational change efforts. Due to the potential impact on key performance criteria such as delivery speed, low cost per output unit, and high process quality, Business Reengineering is on the agenda of many large and mid-sized companies in many industries; manufacturing and banking/finance being the predominant sectors. The overall objective is to attain permanent customer satisfaction, as a secure basis for future growth.
As a top-management issue, Business Reengineering projects are typically initiated from the top down and implemented from the bottom up, within the hierarchy of a given corporation. Business Reengineering -if implemented successfully- not only transforms processes, but ensures that the structure, the work-place contents, the information technology in use and the culture of the organization successfully assimilate the improved processes.
Due to the amount of potential change affecting people and their work environments, Business Reengineering projects are often accompanied by a considerable amount of resistance from the organization`s members and outside forces. Additionally technical obstacles may prevent Business Reengineering`s implementation success. In the worst case the barriers to Business Reengineering implementation may cause a failure of the whole effort. Sources talk about high failure rates of Business Reengineering projects, some running as high as 80% (Schumann/Hoch, 1996).
Example of a Failed Business Reengineering Project
The CEO of a 2000+ people company, long a leader in its market, initiated Business Reengineering as a method to rejuvenate key business processes. While the people chosen to start the effort, were high level, they were not regarded by many people in the organization as innovative enough. They had little practical experience in organization or process change. So much so, that getting involved with the project began to be seen as as filler by people, who were dislocated or between assignments. Worse yet, the company spent money only on new computer equipment and software, but not on broad employee education and motivation. The initiative failed.
The lesson is, that the right people have to be leading the project. Such people will insist on Business Reengineering being a learning experience for the whole organization. Information Technology is an important enabler for Business Reengineering, but will not by itself take the project to success (Cody, 1996).
This is one of the rare published cases for Business Reengineering failure, the reason being, that companies admitting project failures, might fear to admit their own management failures. In organizations, failure is often not tolerated and people avoid, being associated with failure of any kind (Berg, 1986). A 1995 study undertaken in the U.K. found, that out of the total 120 known Business Reengineering projects finished or in progress, none reported a failure (Cooper, 1995). Yet, we need to study failures and underlying reasons for failure, to learn, how to manage right. Readers of this report may accept the descriptive approach the author is taking, because of the narrow empirical base on Business Reengineering failures available.
1.1. Objectives and Assumptions
This report proposes an enhanced approach to working with barriers to Business Reengineering implementation. The main objective is to help practitioners to steer their projects clear of problems which prevent them from reaping the results expected from their Business Reengineering efforts. To academics it offers some new areas for further research. This report is based on the assumption, that project success is more dependent upon preventing or working with barriers as opposed to reinforce existing positive factors.
1.2. Report Structure
Chapter 2 defines what Business Reengineering projects are about and reviews representative Business Reengineering project methodologies.
Chapter 3 defines barriers to Business Reengineering. The barriers presented cover hard and soft obstacles from the viewpoint of the project initiators and project team. Then some typical barriers (resistance to change and technical obstacles) are traced to their underlying causes within the domains of project content and management, people, organization and environment.
Chapter 4 reviews the Change Management literature for intervention methods and techniques, applicable to Business Reengineering projects.
Chapter 5 presents a Barrier Management framework, serving as a supplement to traditional Business Reengineering project management. The framework, developed by the author, addresses the steps of search for barriers, the identification of root causes, intervention, and the control of intervention success. Several checklists are presented for practical use. The framework can be applied to forecasting implementation problems, as well as to the analysis of barriers during or after the project`s execution.
Chapter 6 describes the case of a Business Reengineering project at a German manufacturing company, the author was consulting with. The framework, described in chapter 5 had been applied to this project.
Chapter 7 summarizes the findings of this report and presents some implications to fellow consultants and managers, who are considering or executing a Business Reengineering project. The report ends with a bibliography.
Related Reengineering Resources
Reengineering Best Practices
Reengineering Toolkits and Document Templates
Business Process Reengineering Methodologies
Business Process Reengineering Implementation
Change Management Strategies and Action Planning
Process Management and Improvement
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