How Process Enterprise Really Work

Case 1: How process enterprises really work

The article “How process enterprises really work” explains the necessity of moving from traditional business structures to process enterprises. The authors mention success stories of companies like IBM, Duke Power, Texas Instruments and Owens Corning and explain how the companies have benefited by redesigning their organizations around their core processes. But only integrating activities within the core processes is not enough as seen in the case of Texas instruments calculator business. The management structure has to change to support the integrated processes. Process owners and Unit Managers need to work in coordination to make process enterprise model a success. Standardizing all the processes might not work for all the organizations. An organization should take into account the process diversity required for serving different types of customers and keeping them satisfied. There are certain challenges in shifting from a traditional business to a process enterprise, but the long term benefits makes the change worth the effort. The authors suggest a new approach to leadership, performance measurement, compensation, infrastructure, facilities, training and career path for changing a company from a traditionally run organization to a process enterprise. While transitioning from a traditional organization to a process enterprise the organization should also ensure that the new processes can be re-designed in future based on customer demands and market changes. No two businesses can have the same process-based organization design. However, main characteristics of the process-based organization can be applied in any company. Our learning from the case study is that organizations should standardize as many processes as possible without losing their ability to meet the diverse customer demands in order to reap long-term...