BUSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING
fancy words for simply planning to do things differently,
and then doing it.
Read on to found out why all business owners, managers and influencers within organisations need to know about it.
Ever wondered what this business process re-engineering (known as BPR) hype is all about?
It’s fancy speak for basically changing things up in your business - looking at why you do the things you do (identify), how you do things (processes) and thinking dynamically about a better way forward.
It’s also about aligning those all-important business strategies to what happens within your business every day, every month, every quarter and every year to hit the outcomes you want.
“The old adage – “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
In aligning to business goals, BPR focusses on determining what you should be doing more of as a business, like:
Better quality customer service;
Real-time data (to make clear decisions);
Being eco-friendly;
More end-user focussed marketing;
More leadership and training;
Partnering with other local business for a whole-of-business solution;
Supply chain management; etc.
And… it’s about determining what you should be doing less of as a business, for example:
Analysing if your business is in the right or wrong sector / industry / product / service / demographic;
Reducing or adding to products / portfolios;
Less meetings and less emails;
Less human intervention in processes that can be automated.
Again, BPR is a fancy word, but a simple and effective model.
In an ideal operating environment, leaders and executives should engage with their business strategies, risks and long-term objectives for 4 – 8 hours per week. In reality, this very rarely happens except in extremely large, well-funded multi-nationals.
The reality for most businesses is that the everyday aspects of running a business, managing people, customers, profit, logistics, etc takes over the energy needed to re-assess how things are done and why things are done.
This is what BPR does. A BPR process is usually executed best by an external person who has no bias towards current processes, objectives, people or software – and can ask some of the curly and uncomfortable questions. It doesn’t have to be a costly or lengthy project, depending upon the scope and size of an organisation.
IT & software play an important part in the change processes coming out of a BPR but introducing new software or making significant changes to IT infrastructure must be done sensibly – for example, investing a lot of money into off-the-shelf or custom software can be counter-productive. I’ve met many business owners that wished to implement something custom, and then rued the day when they spent lots of $$$ trying to get it. However, on the flip side, you might be paying wages to undertake a humdrum process that a simple piece of software can do for you – without the human error. Often people can be utilised elsewhere where there are greater business outcomes, and hence, profit.
Leading Change
You need a Change Leader or Champion to be successful in implementing a BPR. Commitment from the top down to the concept of shaking things up, looking at things with new eyes, being motivated to be creative and break down silos.
At HR Unplugged, as our name suggests, we are less into the fancy and more into the practical application of BPR as a very sensible and helpful model for all business. Especially now in this post-COVID 2020 reality.
Furthermore, as HR Unplugged comes from a whole-of-business commercial background with varying industry experience, we are not just about HR expertise - we have sound experience coupled with great insight into the realities of the business world, and how to create a dynamic organisational structure, workflow and processes that will suit your changing needs as a business.
Contact Mel now to chat about how we can help you with your BPR – there has never been a better time as we climb out of this pandemic!