The Process Edge: Creating Value Where It Counts - Hardcover

Keen, Peter G.W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875845886 ISBN 13: 9780875845883

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 1997

Synopsis

The Process Edge proves that business process improvement is not a fad. It addresses the recent backlash against process movements like reengineering by explaining why businesses can decline even as process reform is creating dramatic new efficiencies and savings. Companies that experience this paradox are investing in the wrong processes. The book presents an economic model for deciding which business processes are worth the investment and provides the tools for applying the model. It shows that process can be the key to competitive edge. Applying the principles of The Process Edge will help managers resolve the process paradox by measuring the genuine cost and economic value of process improvements and investing only in those that will help their companies thrive.

About this title

Review

Even a company that dramatically improves its efficiency and product quality can fail miserably. Peter G. W. Keen names this phenomenon the "process paradox," a modern industrial problem that he deconstructs and defeats in his book The Process Edge. The basis of business acumen is common sense, Keen reminds us, but it must be combined with a rigor that measures pure worth. Processes--not only in customer service and quality assurance, but in larger, abstract notions such as acquisition and cultural initiatives--need to be approached in this basic manner. Using a broad, multidisciplinary approach (Keen was an English literature major in college but has since taught management science at Stanford and MIT), he immerses the theory of business processes in an economic bath, refining previously overlooked processes and debunking "magical" ones. Methods that businesses institute, after proving advantageous, can still build in value, and then must be incorporated into the entire business strategy. Keen substantiates his points with real-life cases and examples, from Dell and IBM to Wal-Mart and Boeing. Managers who wish to examine their businesses holistically and within sound theory will appreciate The Process Edge, but it will prove most valuable to managers who need to enact change now.

About the Author

Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0875845886
• ISBN 13: 9780875845883
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208