Reengineering the Corporation: a Manifesto for Business Revolution
Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution
The novel, “Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution” is a very enlightening book, especially to a novice college undergrad like myself. The authors make the argument that traditional business organization is based on the specialization of tasks as laid out in Adam Smith's work, Wealth of Nations. Once initiated, the idea of division of labor did in fact increase productivity immensely. Division of labor worked so well because it fragmented the work to be done into separately contained specializations/jobs that could be taught to even the most ordinary of employees. This increased the capacity of firms to produce goods, and in the earlier times the customer was faced with little to no product options and would accept anything that was offered. This scarcity and lack of competition allowed companies to continue manufacturing large amounts of goods without too much consideration into much innovation.
Over time, competition from other countries ended this complacency. American companies began to lose their prior dominance and some of its business to more agile and innovated companies that were sprouting up. Hammer and Champy point to the Japanese growing competitiveness as a major source of losing dominance in the production front, also if this book were to be updated to accommodate today’s environment it would surely cover the growing competitiveness of Chinese and Indian companies. The authors cite that an enormous force has changed the world’s business climate and now customers have the upper hand instead of the businesses. Information comparison brought on by the computer age has made customers into comparative bargain finding shoppers. Customers now can tell suppliers what they want directly and even indirectly. Mature markets and replacement industries have made a new market environment that needs to be able to be more flexible. Trade
The novel, “Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution” is a very enlightening book, especially to a novice college undergrad like myself. The authors make the argument that traditional business organization is based on the specialization of tasks as laid out in Adam Smith's work, Wealth of Nations. Once initiated, the idea of division of labor did in fact increase productivity immensely. Division of labor worked so well because it fragmented the work to be done into separately contained specializations/jobs that could be taught to even the most ordinary of employees. This increased the capacity of firms to produce goods, and in the earlier times the customer was faced with little to no product options and would accept anything that was offered. This scarcity and lack of competition allowed companies to continue manufacturing large amounts of goods without too much consideration into much innovation.
Over time, competition from other countries ended this complacency. American companies began to lose their prior dominance and some of its business to more agile and innovated companies that were sprouting up. Hammer and Champy point to the Japanese growing competitiveness as a major source of losing dominance in the production front, also if this book were to be updated to accommodate today’s environment it would surely cover the growing competitiveness of Chinese and Indian companies. The authors cite that an enormous force has changed the world’s business climate and now customers have the upper hand instead of the businesses. Information comparison brought on by the computer age has made customers into comparative bargain finding shoppers. Customers now can tell suppliers what they want directly and even indirectly. Mature markets and replacement industries have made a new market environment that needs to be able to be more flexible. Trade