Archive for the 'Business Change Methods' forum

Managers may prevent beneficial business change that is against their vested interest

We all know stories about managers who resist change to protect their own power and authority. How do we prevent damage from vested interests in the enterprise? Is it just up to the Board and CEO to know what is going on? How does the Board or CEO find out? Whom does the CEO listen to? Is there a way to support those with change ideas that are widely considered as good and to counteract those widely considered as bad? Whose head is on the line if profits suffer because beneficial change is delayed? Is it the lower-level manager responsible or the CEO?

Good corporate management and governance requires more than one reporting line

20^th century management methods provide only one reporting line. Responsibility for performance includes responsibility for capital invested, responsibility for utilization of capital as solutions, and responsibility for output results produced. [more...].

Redefining BPM: Why Results and Performance Must Be Separated

The June 2008 issue of BPM Business Performance Management Magazine carries a lead article explaining the business organization and management breakthrough with Result-performance Management (R-pM). The article, “Redefining BPM: Why Results and Performance must Be Separated”, explains the superiority of R-pM over 20^th century management methods like BPM, be it business performance management or business process management. The article explains problems with 20^th century management and why R-pM as the only way to organize the business for 21^st Century Management to eliminate 20^th century management structures laid over the business.

20^th century definition of performance prevents business organization and management

One of the main problems of 20^th century management methods like business performance management (BPM) is the definition of performance to include both the utilization of capital in actions executed and results accomplished. Performance management methods and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) mix together capital utilized, performance at an ongoing level, and results produced as economic outputs in a time period. Business Performance Management (BPM) does not identify or manage results, capital, and performance as entities and sets of items to be managed. This prevents the business, which the article defines as “the utilization of capital of worth in performance to incur costs and produce value in results” from being managed.

Results and performance must be separated to organize and manage the business

Result-performance Management manages results separate from capital, and the utilization of capital in performance. [more...].

What is the definition of your business?

Have you organized your business? Do you manage your business day by day? What is the definition of the business that you have organized and that you manage? Most managers think that they are organizing and managing their business. But when asked they cannot define the business that they have organized and are managing. They usually define the enterprise, rather than the business, since they have actually organized and are managing the enterprise, and not the business.

It is important to have a clear definition of the enterprise business

It is important to have a precise definition of the enterprise business that is organized and managed. Otherwise, we will never know if we are organizing and managing the actual business. Today there are many conflicting definitions of the word business, none defining what is organized and managed to manage the business. [more...].

R-pM is the natural way to organize and manage a business

Result-performance Management (R-pM) is the natural way you organize and manage your personal business. Your personal business is “the utilization of your capital of worth in performance to incur costs to produce value in your results”.

You plan and produce results in the things you accomplish. You organize the capital you have available in your time, capabilities, residence, tools, equipment, money, plans, instructions, vehicles, information etc to be available to produce results. Your capital has worth in the time and money you invested and in the capability to create value in your future results. You utilize your capital as performance solutions to incur costs and produce value in results, such as a prepared meal, repaired item, arrived at destination, or a good time.

The value of the result must exceed performance costs in order for you to be happy with the result. Your own and your capital’s performance effectiveness produces result quality. Your own and your capital’s performance uncertainty introduces a risk that the result may not be produced, produced late, or not up to your standards. You use R-pM instinctively because R-pM is the only way to organize and manage your personal business or any other business.

At work, you must use contrived 20^th century management

You do not lay organization, account, process, system, administration, or other structures over your personal business. But, on your job, you no longer utilize capital as performance solutions to produce results naturally. [more...].

20^th century management used today cannot manage business risk as part of the business because the business is not organized or managed. 20^th century risk management is separate from the business and concentrates on areas of proven risk, but does not cover the normal risk that is present and should be managed in everything the enterprise does.

Risk is inherent in every business and must be managed as part of the business. But, risk can be managed as part of the business only by using Result-performance Management (R-pM) to organize and manage the actual business.

Risk tends to be managed by a risk management process

Most enterprises say they manage risk. Many have risk management functions or processes to prove it. Risk is managed by risk management structures laid over the business.

There are specialists and companies devoted to risk management. Many books have been written on risk management. But, do they point us in the right direction or tell us what we really should be doing to manage day-to-day risks we face in our businesses?

Risk is an inherent part of the business

We all face the risk that things we want done or to happen will not be done or happen as wanted. [more...]

All capital development should develop capital, plus business results for return on investment

Every business enterprise must produce output results that lead to goods and service results to create value. An expanding enterprise must produce new results of increasing value. The enterprise needs additional capital in order to produce new results as part of the business. The capital must be acquired or developed, implemented as specific performance solutions, and then utilized to produce improved or new results of increased value. The value added to new business results must justify the capital expenditure to acquire or develop needed solutions and provide the return on investment.

All capital development is really result and capital development to develop capital as performance solutions to be utilized to create additional value in output results produced by the business. The additional value of output results provides the return on the capital development investment. If the performance solutions utilized and the results produced by the business are not managed, result and capital development cannot be managed properly and the return on investment cannot be measured. Even physical capital development, like a new building, produces performance solutions to produce results, be it the enterprise office facility solution or a facility solution to produce lease or rental income results.

20^th century management does not organize or manage results or performance

20^th century management does not manage the enterprise business, defined as “the utilization of capital of worth in performance to incur costs and produce value in results”. The business has three components: 1. capital available as performance solutions, 2. results required, and 3. performance in the utilization of a specific solution to incur costs and produce value in a specific result.

20^th century management does not define specific results produced and performance solutions utilized to be managed as sets. Added result value cannot be managed to provide benefits and specific performance solutions developed cannot be managed to know costs. Capital development is a difficult exercise separate from the business context to develop performance or tangible assets to produce some estimated return on investment. Much capital development and performance solution implementations fail to create the added result value needed for the return on investment.

R-pM manages result and capital development as part of the business for measured and managed return

The answer for all future result-capital development is Result-performance Management (R-pM) to organize the business for 21^st Century Management. R-pM manages performance solutions utilized and the business results produced to plan and manage the value added to results. R-pM provides 21^st century Result-performance Development to manage new performance solution development to produce new or improved results. R-pM manages each result-capital development project as part of the business with its own project business structure. R-pM manages implemented solution development and operating costs and the additional value-added to results to measure the actual return on investments. R-pM is the essential approach for any new result-capital development. It is all described in The R-pM Toolkit, your 21^st Century Management Manual

Result-capital development arises from the business requirements to improve results or produce new results

Result-performance Development is initiated by result symptoms in missing or deficient results. [more...].

Methods like Total Quality Management and ISO 9000 Standards did not provide the quality management needed

We have had structures like Total Quality Management (TQM) and the ISO quality system for ISO 9000 standards and certification, which were found lacking as a management method. We also reengineered our business process with BPR, specifically to help us manage performance quality. But, performance quality proved difficult to comprehend and manage. Six Sigma provides another structure for our final production quality. Now we have business process and performance management (BPM) to manage the quality of our processes and performance. Even with all this, we still have not found a way to manage quality as the business routine of everyone in the enterprise.

R-pM manages customer determined quality result by result

Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes the business by organizing results produced across the business as one-off results or as result chains and by organizing the capital utilized as performance solutions to produce each result. With an organized business, the company can manage quality as an attribute of results, not performance, and can manage real quality for any result, not just final results from production. Every result has a customer who is willing to pay a result value for a determined level of quality. Quality and value of each result must be acceptable to the customer. [more...].

The enterprise business is “the activity of producing goods and services”

The common definition of a business enterprise is “the activity of producing goods and services”. If the enterprise is to organize and manage the business, it must organize “the activity of producing goods and services”. Business activity is business performance and goods and services are business results. Performance is the utilization of enterprise capital to produce results. Therefore, to organize the business the enterprise must organize capital, performance, and results.

The enterprise must abolish all the outdated organization, strategy, process, account, performance management, information architectures, and other structures now laid over the business that create enormous overheads and prevent the business from being organized and managed.

R-pM organizes the business to simplify 21^st Century Management

Result-performance Management (R-pM) goes back to the basics to organize the business to utilize capital in performance to produce value in results. R-pM structures the results to be produced to create value and the capital in performance solutions available for deployment in as a business structure. The business is organized when specific performance solutions are deployed to produce specific results. The responsible organization unit is deployed as a business organization solution and the responsible manager is deployed as a human personnel solution to produce the specific result.< [more...].

The fundamental problem of 20^th century enterprise, the failure to organize the business

The generally-accepted definition of the enterprise business is “the activity of providing goods and services“. Therefore, the activity of providing goods and services must be organized in order to organize the business. However, 20^th century organization theories organize “the enterprise” into organization units, positions, functions, reporting relationships, etc. to produce a contrived “enterprise organization structure” that is laid over the business. The organization structure is the fatal error of 20^th century management. Once an organization structure is laid over the business, the business can never be managed.

The business must change continually, while the “enterprise organization structure” remains rigid. The rigid organization structure hampers business change, creates change management problems, and eventually creates pressure for reorganization to contrive a new “enterprise organization structure” that is aligned closer to the actual business. If the business was organized the organization would change with business change.

Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes the business for 21^st century management

Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes the activity of providing goods and services into a business result-performance structure. The business activity is organized into capital defined as specific performance solutions. The business goods and services are organized as specific results that are produced by utilizing specific performance solutions in business activity. The organized results to be produced across the business and the organized capital invested in performance solutions are combined to organize the business, by deploying specific solutions to be utilized to produce specific results to organize performance. The cost-effectiveness of each solution utilized is managed against the value-quality of the result produced. By organizing the business, instead of the enterprise, the business itself is used as one structure to integrate enterprise organization and management.

20^th century theories organize the enterprise and not the business, dooming the enterprise to problems

Many organization theories and methods were developed throughout the 20^th century promoting different ways to organize the enterprise. Organizing and reorganizing the enterprise became big business for management authors and consultants. The problem is that once the enterprise organization structure is implemented over the business, the enterprise is doomed to unsolvable 20^th century problems, for the following reasons: [more...]:

Alignment is one of the top 10 problems of 20^th century management!

Alignment covers many problems arising from conflicts between the actual business and overlaid structures

We keep hearing about alignment problems. Alignment problems are caused because the business is not organized. Alignment problems arise from actual business change in results produced and capital utilized as performance solutions, which remain undefined and unorganized. Instead, the enterprise is organized, planned, directed, controlled, and reported through separate and distinct structures laid over the business. With every business change, rigid overlaid structures go out of alignment with the business. Many solutions are available supposedly to enable alignment. Many books have proposed alignment solutions. However, in spite of all of these solutions and books, alignment problems remain. The alignment solutions attempt to align organization and management structures with each other with nothing to align against. “Alignments with the business” do not actually define the business to align against.

Result-performance Management solves the alignment problem by organizing and managing the business

The various alignment problems are eliminated by organizing the business. Result-performance Management organizes and manages the business through one integrated result-performance business structure, which aligns all deployed performance solutions with the output results they produce. With R-pM, there is only one business structure and no alignment problem. Structures laid over the business are removed. One business structure is used for all organization, planning, directing, control, and reporting.

The Alignment Problem

The conventional enterprise faces many unsolvable alignment problems

We have such well-known alignment problems, such as the following, because of rigid structures laid over the business: [more...]: