Re-engineering's missing ingredient : the human factor

Effective corporate initiatives and processes are the bedrock of successful organizations; the "Developing Practice" series provides manager with essential frameworks to identify, formulate and implement the best policies and practice in the management and development of people. Many organizations attempt to transform their levels of quality, productivity and service through business process re-engineering. More than 70 per cent of such initiatives fail - often through neglecting the crucial role of people management. Yet, such setbacks are not inevitable. This book brings together examples of BPR in practice which reveal: how Bass Taverns achieved a quantum leap in turnover by empowering teams of house managers who had hiterto been tightly controlled; how the Leicester Royal Infirmary used a "re-engineering laboratory" to create single-visit clinics and secure other "outrageous improvements"; how Rank Xerox set out to simplify its structures and working practices, move beyond "satisfactory underperformance" and boost its return on assets from 7 to 18 per cent; how Toshiba put through a total organizational redesign within six months, which led to a three-fold increase in productivity; and how the Royal Bank of Scotland revamped its ailing branch banking business and gained #200 million incremental profits within two years. In each case, key players involved in these sweeping changes describe what got them started, how they brought the team together, put in motion the re-engineering programme, coped with distractions, forged a new management philosophy, reviewed the reward processes, maintained the momentum and then established the streamlined organization on a firm footing. Mike Oram and Richard S. Wellins draw out the universal lessons, making this a useful sourcebook for anyone genuinely seeking to push through transformation change.