The accepted definition of business is the “Activity of providing Goods and Services”

The generally accepted definition of business in on-line dictionaries is “the activity of providing goods and services”. If we start from this definition, we see that the business actually has two components:

1. “The activity of providing”, which is the action of business performance in the utilization of human and other capital
2. “The goods and services provided”, which are the outputs or business results produced from performance that can be counted and measured

So in order to manage the business, “the activity of providing” and “the goods and services provided” must be managed.

“Activity of providing” is the action of business performance in the utilization of capital invested in the business

“The activity of providing” is the business performance that utilizes capital. People perform using such business solutions as business processes, systems, knowledge, equipment, supplies, plans, tactics, and information. The people are human capital that are developed and paid by the business. People use business performance solutions provided by capital investments in the business. So, business performance utilizes human and other capital invested in the business.

The capital must be organized and managed as business performance solutions that can be utilized by people. The utilization of specific solutions to produce specific results can be explained through human knowledge solutions. The most important capital is human capital, but other capital must be managed properly to utilize capital available, to capture performance costs incurred in utilizing the capital, and to determine the returns on capital investments.

Capital utilized in the business includes all tangible and intangible assets. We need to break down the capital into specific business performance solutions that can be used to produce specific business results. Then we can know what capital we are developing and utilizing and the costs incurred. Intellectual, business, and management capital can be identified as specific business solutions, instead of being labeled as “intangible assets”.

“The Goods and Services provided” are examples of the economic output results produced that contain the value created by the business

“The goods and services provided” are examples of the economic outputs provided by the utilization of capital in business performance. Every time a person utilizes performance solutions and performs, the objective should be to produce an economic output of value to the business. These economic outputs are business results. A business result can be anything that management wants people to produce through business performance. All human capital in the business must produce results from their performance, so results can be defined across the complete business.

Results are specific identifiable outcomes that can be counted and measured in some way. Results include components, products, services, sales, revenues, etc in the main business line. Results include new or improved performance solutions developed that are implemented into the solution such as a new process, developed human capital, an approved strategy, a repaired machine, or a management report.

Every result in the business must have an internal or external customer that finds the result to be valuable and wants it produced. The value of the result should be greater than the performance cost to produce the result. If not, why is the result produced? Results must be organized and managed as a set of results to know the value created by the business. Results also embody the quality produced by the business. Results must be managed to manage quality in the business.

The business can be defined as “the utilization of capital in performance to produce value in results”

The objective of any business must be to produce results. Normally, there are strategic results that must be produced to make the business viable. In order to produce results the business must invest in humans, facilities, business processes and systems, management intelligence, and other capital. Specific items of capital, defined as business performance solutions are utilized to produce specific business results. Therefore, we can logically define the business as “the utilization of capital in performance to produce value in results”.

The Change Management Problem

Change Management is one of the top 10 business problems in the 20th century enterprise!

The conventional enterprise finds business change a mystery. They do not have a firm foundation for change since:

• Change is suppressed until the need for change is acute. Then change involves a major upheaval
• There is no systematic method to identify the benefits of change and properly plan charge
• Change is through ad-hoc projects with reassigned staff
• There is no defined responsibility to manage charge
• The entities that actually change are not managed, so the change to the individual entity is not managed
• Change is executed through contrived methods to change contrived entities like systems, processes, jobs, and functions
• Each contrived method is another overlay that increases the impact of change, since each method must be changed separately for any change
• There is no framework for people to understand their role and impact in charge, so change is often resisted

Since the enterprise finds business charge a mystery, most do not maintain a capability to manage change or development projects and turn by change over to vendors or consultants. This does not solve the problem, but it may increase the chance of success.

Since the conventional enterprise does not manage the utilization of capital, it is difficult to manage the change to the capital, particularly human capital. This produces adverse impact from change. Consultants are called in again to provide “Change Management Services”. These services address the impact of change, but do not install the enterprise capability to manage change. So the same problems arise at the next change.

Successful business change occurs because of the extra-ordinary efforts of those involved in change, to win the up-hill battle that all enterprises face with conventional methods.

The Change Management Solution

Only two entities actually change in business change: 1) results the enterprise produces and 2) performance solutions that define the capital employed to produce results. These two entities are not directly managed by the conventional enterprise. By managing results and performance, Result Performance Management takes the mystery out of business change. Every change is a change to a specific result or to a specific performance solution. Result Performance Management enables the enterprise to manage successful change by providing:

• A framework to plan and manage change through the result-performance strategy, result-performance structures, and investment analysis and planning methods
• Investment management result responsibility to manage all change over time
• Change within the requirements of the result-performance strategy
• Change as a natural evolution as each result or performance solution is changed
• Change to one integrated method, so that any charge automatically changes the organization, plans, reporting, etc.
• Professional change management as the routine for every solution changed
• Change to results to utilize new solutions to increase result value, as guided by the result-performance development method
• On-going roles and organization for result-performance development to eliminate ad-hoc assignments and properly involve users and developers
• A new management consulting model to employ consultants in partnership to assist result value-added success

Result Performance Management is fully supported method for business change that is designed to make every change project a success. Change management is built into the enterprise routine and eliminated as a problem or as a need for extra services.