Revised and updated for the new economy, this text describes how the radical redesign of a company's processes, organization and culture can achieve a quantum leap in performance. In the 1990s, reengineering was implemented in the back office, the factory and the warehouse. For the new century it is being applied to the front office and the revenue producing side of the business. "Business Week" dubbed the implementation of e-commerce, "e-engineering". The Internet demands new ways of working, and reengineering is the tool that can create them. The new wave of reengineering is breaking down the walls that separate corporations from each other. Processes do not stop at corporate doorsteps. Product development, planning and many other processes are really inter-enterprise in nature; entailing work by both customer and supplier. The Internet facilitates the reengineering of these inter-corporate processes by allowing information to be shared across corporate boundaries.

About the Author

Michael Hammer is the originator and leading exponent of the concept of reengineering and was named one of the four preeminent management gurus of the 1990s by Business Week. James Champy is chairman of Perot Systems consulting practice and is the leading authority on the implementation of business reengineering initiatives.

Reviews

Management consultants Hammer and Champy thoughtfully critique the management procedures of American business and offer a promising prescription in this invigorating study. ``It is no longer necessary or desirable for companies to organize their work around Adam Smith's division of labor,'' they state, arguing that task-oriented jobs are becoming obsolete as changes in customer bases, competition and the rate of change itself alter the marketplace. Post-industrial companies must be ``reengineered,'' which necessitates starting anew, going back to the beginning to invent a better way of accomplishing tasks. The process requires a leader with vision using information technologies, consulting closely with suppliers to reduce inventories, and empowering employees so that decision-making ``becomes part of the work.'' Hammer and Champy acknowledge that reengineering can be difficult to launch and to sustain; yet they provide clear, specific guidelines and excellent case studies. Their superb book should have strong appeal to managers and general readers alike. (May)

"May well be the best-written, most well-reasoned business book for the managerial masses since In Search of Excellence." Business Week "Reengineering is new, and it has to be done." Peter F. Drucker"