Category: BPM

Process Excellence and Business Process Management

Continuing the theme of evergreen articles:

BPM and the Balanced Scorecard

Yesterday we posted wrt Skill and competences within BPM (see http://bit.ly/BPMskillsets)


Today, the third in our series celebrating the run up to our 20th anniversary we cover the challange of Balanced Scorecards and BPM 🙂
 
In a few weeks time the BP Group will be twenty years old. As part of the celebration we are publishing an article a day – all are evergreen and provide an insight as valuable today as when they were originally published.

BP Group 20th Birthday – Evergreen Articles

In a few weeks time the BP Group will be twenty years old. As part of the celebration we are publishing an article a day – all are evergreen and provide an insight as valuable today as when they were originally published. 
As we move towards September 19th we will bring the story up to date with a preview of the upcoming book – The High Performance Organisation (Samir Asaf & Steve Towers). Also there are draws from iPad3’s – the first for these on Friday for the recently completed Certified Process Professional Masters® hosted by Jennifer van Wyk in Johannesburg. (see below)
The first article is one we wrote in 2006 – as relevant today (if not more so) – Enjoy!
Developing the BPM skillset for long term success
Tomorrow we’ll cover BPM and the Balanced Scorecard, and Wednesday Business Process Excellence – How to Succeed with BPM in the Age of the Customer

Who is going to win the iPad3 from South Africa?


Outside In from Forrester Research

OUTSIDE IN is the new book from by Forrester Research analysts Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine.
If you can get passed the normal consultancy hyperbole and Americanisms this book promises to provide some interesting information in furthering the cause of Outside In.
Naturally take with a pinch of salt the offers for speeches and presentations from Research Analysts (great stuff but I would rather have the people who have really done this stuff rather than just researched it!) you can review the 80 case studies.

Take away nuggets like “Aim to make it effortless for your customers” Phil Beinart, AT&T and “82% of customers stop doing business with an organisation as a result of negative experience”. The latter leaves me to believe those customers who don’t leave are either very lazy or penalised punitively for trying.

Now as I say don’t let my irony fool you… you review the preview and then order the book from this link. Enjoy! http://bit.ly/OutsideInForrester

Blurb for Forrester:
Based on 14 years of research by the customer experience leaders at Forrester Research, OUTSIDE IN offers a complete road map to attaining the experience advantage. You’ll see how the roots of customer experience success or failure lie deep within your company, not just with customer-facing employees. And you’ll learn about the six disciplines that customer experience leaders must master: Strategy, Customer Understanding, Design, Measurement, Governance, and Culture. With dozens of diverse case studies from around the world, OUTSIDE IN is the one resource you need to turn a focus on customer experience into growth and profit.

For qualification using the CEMMethod® (2006) http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

John Zachman at Architect World 2012

Great conference, fantastic people. 27 Countries recieved 25 Awards in the Architect Worlds 7th Annual Conference in Bangalore.

iCMG hosted the event which has become a truly international festival of achievement.
You can review the full proceedings at http://www.icmgworld.com/corp/ArchitectureAwards/2012/architecture_awards.asp

Here’s a few snaps of yours truly 😉

John Zachman is an inspriation to all

 John Zachman receives his Hall of Fame Award
And honestly it was THIS BIG!!

Looking at the world Outside-In

Outside-In wins the Triple Crown.

The headline claim of advanced process management approaches such as ‘Outside-In’ is winning the triple crown. What do we mean by that?
Triple Crown is the ability to simultaneously reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues as a direct consequence of implementing advanced process management. Outside-In shifts attention from ‘doing things right’ to ‘doing the right things’ and as a consequence much of the work taking place within an organisation becomes ‘dumb stuff’ when tested against the achievement of the successful customer outcome. This ‘dumb stuff’ can be eliminated and typically will result in cost reductions of 40-70% within three to six months of implementation across traditional processes.

What does the cost reduction include?

A large slice of reduction is in the potential effort to run a process – the people. It also includes considerable swathes of information technology, now no longer required to manage the significantly simplified ‘outside-in’ processes.  Saves are also available across the enterprise from reducing the need for ‘outsourcing’ that does not explicitly contribute to the delivery of successful outcomes. Progressive Outside-In companies such as Google, Apple, Gilead Sciences and Southwest airlines actively redeploy staff to the benefit of the bottom line – making more with less. Service improves and revenues grow.

Traditional inside-out companies have a massive opportunity

The size of the prize exceeds normal ‘inside-out’ expectations as many companies who measure efficiency and effectiveness struggle to realise single digit improvements against legacy processes. However when you look at processes through the ‘outside-in’ lens much of the previously assumed ‘must be here’ activity is no longer required.

Why is this so?

Work has grown over time and become complicated and separated into functional specialist areas supported by a multitude of IT systems undertaking specific tasks such as CRM, accounting, claims management and HR systems. In the context of Outside-In these activities can be challenged with the question “does this activity specifically contribute to the achievement of the SCO? “. If the answer to that question is ambiguous then applying relevant techniques creates a  realignment of work and releases significant cost previously disguised as necessary process.

Triple Crown plus

It gets better. The reality of processes in an Outside-In context means they are specifically contributing to the achievement of the SCO and correspondingly meet additional requirements such as compliance and regulation more effectively. Transparency of process – seeing who does what, where, when and why – is another by product of the new environment. So in addition to reducing costs, improving service and growing revenues we better meet regulatory requirements. The latter is especially important in the new business reality created following the recent recession and reshaping of industries such as banking.

If it is so good why aren’t we all doing Outside-In?

Large bureaucratic organisations typically suffer from senior management inertia, disbelief and arrogance.
The reality of successful Outside-In companies is plain to see as they become leaders of their business sectors. Their performance outstrips competitors by several magnitudes and they are often regarded as having some magic ingredient – you may have heard your management team say ‘ha yes they are quite different to us as our challenge is unique’.  The bottom line is that Outside-In companies utilise a range of tools and techniques that improve alignment to the successful customer outcome and these approaches go way beyond the industrial/information age mind-set.

A new way of working

Outside-in approaches create a completely new reality that reshapes how we manage and organise work so much so that functional pyramidal structures become artefacts of the past. A senior manager who may have spent considerable time clambering to the top of these rigid monolithic structures is directly threatened by the shift to Outside-In and may be understandably reluctant to embrace a new order of business that completely changes most things you have ever known.

How can you embrace Outside-In?

The shift in mind-set is underpinned by method and new techniques (CEMMethod™) appropriate to process alignment for successful customer outcomes. Several organisations offer support, training and coaching towards the new order and include emergent technologies that enhance our ability to better organise work. Direct training is available through the BP Group (www.bpgroup.org) where people are encouraged to qualify as licensed BP Group Certified Process Professionals®.
Associated Licensed partners and companies offering consultancy and technology support can be reviewed at www.oibpm.com
 
Join the community
You can read more in the latest book ‘Outside-In. The secret of the successful 21st century companies’ at www.outsideinthesecret.com and join the global community through LinkedIn at http://bit.ly/joinbpgroup

Three part webinar OUTSIDE-IN, Discovery, Understanding and Implementation

This next few weeks sees a rush towards Outside In with several books in the pipeline from academics, researchers and practitioners. Both Forrester and Gartner join the fray next month following existing publications from Wharton, Harvard and Sloan Business schools.
Not to mention of course our very own Outside In – The Secret (published in 2010).

http://bit.ly/Outside-In_BPGroup

What is the fuss all about? Find out how you can embrace all that is Outside-In in this snappy, to the point webinar by yours truly 😉

>>>>> Please register for Outside In 101 – A three part programme <<<<<

http://bit.ly/Outside-In_BPGroup

Discovery – Understanding – Implementation

Part One: Discovery
What is Outside-In (OI)?
Why is OI the preferred choice for the 21st century leading companies?
How does OI fit with other process approaches?

Part Two: Understanding
If OI is so good why isn’t everyone doing it?
What are the direct benefits of OI?
Who is implementing OI and how does it compare to the Old Ways?

Part Three: Implementation
What can I do to implement OI?
How do I get started?
How do we take others on the journey?

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

http://bit.ly/Outside-In_BPGroup

___________________________________________________________________
Steve Towers | BPGroup.org | SVP & Founder | www.bpgroup.org
BP Group, New Bond House, 124 New Bond Street, London W1S 1DX
Offices in London – Houston – Denver – Bangalore – Sydney – Associates in 118 countries
Office: US: +1 303 800-0924 | UK: +44 20 3286 4248 | Fax: +44 20 7691 7664
Mobile: +44 7429 518277 (worldwide) |
steve.towers@bpgroup.org | Blog: http://bit.ly/ZYbPHhttp://bit.ly/LinkWithSteve | http://twitter.com/stowers

Latest Video: http://youtu.be/hjfDrrzjfuY
Recent visit to UK PM’s office: http://bit.ly/SteveJohnCharlesNo10

Six Sigma on Steroids – Keynote from PEX

Steve Towers with six sigma on steroids

BPM and Process Excellence is changing the world

Join the growing number of monthly readers following Steve Towers and his BPM column on the PEX network, BPM Leader and the BP Group – 8,600 strong now and growing.
Steve has consistently received great reviews by his clients and readers and it seems people are telling their colleagues to check these columns out. 
Steve is the founder and CEO of the BP Group (established in 1992), a Keynote speaker and workshop leader with the PEX Network, and featured author on the BPM Leaders blog.  He is the author of FIVE books on business process and performance transformation and is a member of the prestigious California based BPM Forum.
Because of his activities with the BP Group, leading international corporates, including Citi, Apple, Disney, Zara and many others, Steve can be found always at the pragmatic leading edge of what is going on in Advanced BPM and Outside-In.   He believes that his work with these organisations and his exposure to a broad range of situations through global leaders and their approaches provides insight into the problems and issues leading BPM professionals face every day. 

Steve says that these experiences have caused him to look at BPM in a remarkable way. As the catalyst for global transformation BPM and process excellence is the means to realign our organisations on behalf of its employees and customers to achieve spectacular results.
If you’d enjoy sharing some of the insights and the secrets of 21st century organisation success you will enjoy his columns.

You can find Steve’s latest columns at on:

 
BPGroup:
http://www.bpgroup.org

Motivation and the 21st century difference

More on the shift to Outside-In described very effectively by Dan Pink discussing how inside-out motivational ideas (carrot and stick) have ceased to work.
Watch and then ask yourself the question – how does my company motivate me?