If author Jim Champy’s 1994 ‘Re-engineering the Corporation‘ was a manifesto for change in 1994, his series of new titles, starting with ‘Outsmart!‘, offers a glimpse into a new and promising future for business.
“Outsmarting the competition requires more than intelligence, experience and business sense,” he writes. “You also have to be quick, flexible and ready to adapt to the transforming world. The penalty for failure is Darwinian extinction, but the prize for success is survival, growth and rich rewards of a life spent in the brave new world of business.”
I ask him about re-engineering’s poor image and how it’s being revitalised to fit this brave new world.
You’re famous for re-engineering, but it now has negative connotations. Do you have any regrets about the book?
I have no regrets. People who see re-engineering as something negative don’t understand it. It’s misunderstood and mis-practised. It’s about making the company more capable again.
There are some very difficult to accept consequences of rearranging your work. Unless your company is growing, so that you can actually add people as it grows, there’s no question that it will downsize.
It’s associated with the 1990s recession and rash decision-making…
That’s the danger. It isn’t about the ‘bunker mentality’, it’s about reorganising your business so it’s more efficient.
There was a great quote from the last recession: ‘You can’t shrink yourself to greatness’.
People develop that bunker mentality, particularly in this type of economy. And it leads to a form of shrinking, where a company loses its capabilities and struggles to compete.
How do the case studies in ‘Outsmart!’ sit with re-engineering?
At Smith & Wesson, the president, Michael Golden, initially made some cutbacks, but because he got the company growing again, he was able to add staff.
I toured a Smith & Wesson plant and it was truly an inspiring experience.
All along the line, people were doing real re-engineering work — they were very engaged in perfecting the processes in order to produce more units every day. They were really proud of it.
Nobody there was fearful of losing their job, because they were getting more efficient and business was growing.
Next: Thriving in even the toughest markets.
For Jim Champy on ‘Outsmart!’, click here.
