Review of: Reengineering Management
(The Mandate for New Leadership)

The author: James Champy

            James A. Champy, chairman of CSC Index, Inc., the management consulting firm that pioneered the development and practice of reengineering, also is no stranger to MIT. He is a member of the Class of 1963 and holds the SB and SM in civil engineering. From 1975 to 1978 he was executive vice president of the MIT Alumni/Alumnae Association and also a lecturer in the Department of Architecture. He is the leading authority on the implementation of business reengineering initiatives.
            Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is the popular term of organizational processes and structures following the introduction of new information technologies into an organization. BPR is put forward as the medicine which allows organizations to institute the necessary changes. BPR represents, in its best form, a change in what we pay attention to in running a business. It represents a new way of thinking about almost any business. The style of management is going from a hierarchical format to a more flatten structure. More people are responsible for tasks and the process as well. Success is determined by the corporate culture (educating, teamwork, and training reinforce it). The managerial system is going from power transferring to access of freedom. The power to change –the ability to learn, and accepting the facts on continuing transition are important skills to select the members of the team. Reengineering is the power to change to new environments and markets.
            This book is easy to read and easy to use as a reference because have many good examples. The authors use direct simple language. They support principles, such as leadership, with techniques to assist the reengineering.
            Champy begins with the impact of reengineering on manager. Managers must change how they work if they are to realize the full benefits of reengineering. Reengineering the work has been explained. How to reengineer management has not. The intent of Reengineering Management is to provide managers with the concepts and tools to reengineer their own management work. Managers must create change, big change and fast nothing is simple anymore. Reengineering changes everything, impacts everything. Managers cannot successfully support a reengineering effort unless they too change. And they need to change in the areas of purpose, culture, processes, and people.

            The author (Champy) suggests that managers today must focus on four questions, in fact "live" them to prevail in successful reengineering efforts:

1. What is this business for?

2. What kind of culture do we want?

3. How do we do our work?

4. What kind of people do we want to work with?

            The book is based on answering these questions, defining what they include, and outlining behaviors that managers should cultivate to answer them. The manager must be able to restate the business purpose and fully mobilize the company for change. Not only must the manager communicate why the company is changing, but he/she must give a vision of what the organization is moving toward, so that people can cope with the sense of loss associated with change. Communication entails inspiration, acknowledging stress, staying positive and establishing measurements. Managers who can reorganize high-morale teams around the needs of changing processes will be successful in the future. There must be a tight fit between the values of the company, the language in which it expresses them, and the way it makes its profits.

            The most part that I agree with Champy is about "Communication with reengineering." Communicating in the reengineered organization is not one way communication; it is not the communication of orders. Communication in the new organization refers to the sharing of knowledge where appropriate, the development of values which facilitate the sharing of knowledge, and creating an environment which enables the sharing of knowledge whether through technology or through teams or other organizational structures. Communicating involves managers continually making the case for change in specifics that identify the "what', the "how", and the impact on employees' lives. The manager as coach must give employees the tools they need to do their jobs, remove obstacles that hinder team performance, and challenge the imagination by sharing information. The sum of all the coach's actions is to give the team ownership of the game and to build trust.

            This book is good for not only Managers, but also employees in every kind of business. Helping each other to reengineer the business and then you will see a new thing. You will see a new world.

            The Reengineering Management (The Mandate for New Leadership) by James Champy has 212 pages. The price of this book is US $25.00, and published in 1995 by HarperBusiness in New York, New York.