Business Process Management

The Role of Business Process Management
Have you heard the saying that “you can’t see the forest for the trees?” That is the case in many businesses today. The reality is that increasingly complex products, services and highly automated business operations have come to intervene between the human and the physical task. As a result, operators are separated from the processes they control.
Business leaders today are conditioned to see organizations in terms of its business functions such as Sales, Marketing and Finance. Many executives have specialized knowledge and tend to focus on a narrow field of expertise. Specialization often leads to tunnel vision. Managers have insufficient knowledge about what is happening in other areas of expertise and in the system as a whole. The more removed decision-makers are from front-line activities the greater is the potential danger to the system.

Business Process Management (BPM) represents a way to build structural integrity for the organization. If business functions are dots, then business structure is the connection between the dots. BPM leads to an understanding of the purpose behind business activities by recognizing processes from beginning to end through an analysis of the structure of the organization.

The mechanics of an organization refers to formal processes (operational tempo, time pressures, production quotas, incentive systems, schedules, etc.), procedures (performance standards, objectives, documentation, instructions about procedures, etc.) and oversight within the organization (organizational self-study, risk management, and the establishment and use of safety programs). Each organization should develop business mechanics appropriate to its anticipated outcome. If its business mechanics is misaligned with anticipated outcome, the business system is dysfunctional; for example claiming customer service as priority and demanding outrageous termination fees when customers are dissatisfied with the product or service.

Business Process Management is critical because business mechanics is impartial, just like railroad cars are impartial. The way you lay the tracks is the path the train will follow. Consequently, organizations will grow if BPM aligns the business mechanics with anticipated outcome. On the other hand, organizations will implode when the reality of their anticipated outcome is not aligned with business processes. The key to success of any organization lies in the design, maintenance and execution of its business processes. BPM is one way to ensure success in the implementation of its strategy!