James Champy
Thanks to James Champy and Michael Hammer,
reengineering will remembered as the business buzzword of the 1990s. In
Reengineering the Corporation, they showed how companies could dramatically improve performance by delegating responsibility and authority throughout the enterprise--to the sales clerk, the shipping manager, the customer-service representative. And, indeed, most companies that took up the banner of reengineering saw dramatic improvements. But not to the degree that Champy thought possible. Unfortunately, management, which made reengineering possible in the first place, was the same group that was limiting its potential. Champy writes:
Anything less than a fundamental revolution in actual management practice, we discovered, is like a communist regime introducing free enterprise into a controlled economy while trying to hold on to power. It can be done for a while, but no one supposes that such an arrangement can last. Something's gotta give, and history shows that it's not going to be free enterprise. It has to be management. If management doesn't change, reengineering will be stopped in its tracks.
In
Reengineering Management, Champy discusses the challenges managers face in trying to function in the reengineered workplace. At the heart of the manager's dilemma is the loss of authority and control, which in the new workplace must be delegated. Champy looks at how managers from a wide range of companies, including Federal Express, Frito-Lay, and AT&T, have stepped "out of the boxes on the organizational chart" and wrestled with the hard issues of leadership, values, and culture while at the same time dealing with a marketplace whose only constant is change itself. Wise, well written, and articulate,
Reengineering Management is required reading for any manager looking to engineer a revolution of his or her own.
--Harry. C. Edwards
1 this is a good book, but what is even funnier is that...
this book is on sale for .01 of a cent. That is less then a penny. meaning, that you could by ten of these books for a penny.
2 GREAT INSIGHTS INTO MAKING USEFUL CHANGE IN ORGANIZATIONS
This book is a must read if you have read REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION, plan to do any reengineering, or are considering making any useful change in your organization. Although ostensibly about how to do reengineering better, this book is really about making successful change. I found it to be a helpful and accurate perspective on organizational change, and far superior to REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION. That book promised too much, as sometimes happens with books that are heavily rewritten by others (one business book writer pointed out that 9 out of 10 best selling business books are ghost written by one of two people in the last 10 years, and that REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION was one of them). If you are thinking of reading REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION, I recommend that you read REENGINEERING MANAGEMENT instead. This book deals with people, while REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION seems at times to be dealing with a broken pocket watch instead. If you are in a change project, I recommend that you pull this book out weekly and check to see if you are following its principles.
3 An excellent administrative and operational management book
James Champy explains very easily why many worlwide companies fail in their business ventures, some companies fail eventhough they had excellent and hard working "OPERATIONAL" managers, but they were not very good ADMINISTRATIVE (strategic) managers. This book should be a required MBA textbook , because it mentions the essential fundamentals of management, and it explains why managers fail when they re-design the work of their co-workers, BUT they do NOT re-design their own administrative work. This book also mentions the real job of the manager as a trainer , leader and strategic planner, trying to anticipate the moves of the world economy in order to be prepare and to have his people (co-associates) ready for the tremendous changes in the world economy. Most of the MBA's should read this book to avoid making too many mistakes (by thinking that they already know it all), this book will be quite an eyeopener for everybody (junior and senior management).. We must movilize, empower, define , measure , communcate and ACT to modify our business style and our personalities to be able to be more FLEXIBLE to roll with the punches. We must also form strategic alliances with our co-associates (co-workers), customers, clients, suppliers and all our friends to be able to succeed in this turbulent times, good luck and see you at the top
