This was my pocket reference guide when I ran into major challenges transforming Fortune 500 processes from out of control to simply flowing with improved working climate. Timeless too.

Any Michael Hammer book is worth checking out. I have also read Beyond Reengineering. ( )

"BPR reached its heyday in the early 1990s when Michael Hammer and James Champy published their best-selling book Reengineering the Corporation."

Substance: Although the examples are dated, the substance is not. Concentrates on methods of improving the company bottom-line by concentrating on what it is there to accomplish (can be applicable to other aspects of life).
Style: Straight-forward, with a refreshing absence of hype, false suspense, repetition, and inanity. ( )

The authors assert that the current circumstances of business in America are not due to factors currently blamed (foreign competition, federal government, etc). The solution is not in automation, management-by-whatever concepts (e.g. TQM), but in totally rethinking a business in terms of whole processes. 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). Reengineering does not seek 5% or 10%, but much larger gains. Reengineering is about "reversing the industrial revolution." "The way to eliminate beaurocracy... is by reengineering the processes so that they are no longer fragmented. " Jobs change from tasks to multi-dimensional work. Advancement criteria changes from performance to ability (but pay is on performance). People's roles change from controlled to empowered. Job prep changes from training to education. It' s not a bad idea to burn bridges, eg "eine Flucht nach Vorn," and retreat forward (toward change). Team composition should include rising stars, insiders, and outsiders. ( )

Ein mittlerweilen überholter Klassiker der Managementliteratur ( )