Beyond Reengineering: How the Process-Centered Organization is Changing Our Work and Our Lives Paperback – August 2, 1997

Sorry, but I'm not as impressed by Hammer as he is of himself. I work for a large Fortune 100 company as a Director of Business Process Reengineering, and I'm NOT convinced after reading this that Hammer has rolled up his sleeves and gotten dirty (we all think it but no one will admit to it out loud). Just read the chapter about process owners and his theory about managing the employee and it is clear he has littler or no experience working with front-line $20K/year employees that are found in our operations. Sure, if you're working with professionals making $50K+ his theories are more plausible.My boss swears by Hammer but when it comes to planning and performing the Redesign work she calls on my team to get it done. We aren't disciples of Hammer, but everyone on my team has read this book and in order to understand the terminology. Using the methodology found in this book will be of minimal use for planning and completing your BPR.

This book is heavily tied to its bestselling predecessor and therefore offers little excitement. Ofcourse, some new elements are added and forgotten subjects are drawn upon, but this book offers just more reengineering and doesn't go beyond the first book.Is this book not worth reading then? Absolutely not, you should actually read it. But not before completing the first book. Still thirsty after that one? Then get a refill with this one.

Important and timely read especially if you have read "Re-engineering the Corporation", "Re-engineering Management", it is interesting and somewhat disappointing given these books were written years ago, how the problems continue to exist today.

Hard to write an exciting review about business processing reengineering. Excellent reference book. I can't imagine anyone buying it for any other purpose.

Very dry read

Work culture in old civilizations was professional. We had specialists who teach, who rule or manage, who do the business, who get the food, who makes the wooden articles for daily use and this list is unending. All these processes are independent and all the workers are independent. They have to plan and manage all the activities they undertake. I don't have sufficient information but this is true in every civilization the world has seen before it emerged into a complex web for man. With organizations becoming diverse and complex the systems they establish for running the organizations need continuous change and they need to adopt new strategies and they have to change the work culture, management strategy etc. Michael Hammer, who defined Reengineering the organizatoin now came with a brilliant explanation of the consequences of reengineering and the strategies necessary to meet the consequences. The industrial revolution and scientific management saw division of work into different tasks and making people responsible for tasks and thus making them experts of individual tasks. We saw expert engineers, expert managers who are experts in their own area of work. The basic principle was, if each task is taken care of by involving experts for the task, the end will take care of itself. But with increase in market demands and competition in all industries, this principle stopped paying dividends. The quality was going down so also the productivity because over the years, the workers were working in the same limited domain and they don't have any way to express his abilities. The worker started feeling frustrated and disowning the activities he was doing. Now the world is in such a complex situation where we cannot apply the principles of scientific management. We need people who can think of entire process of a product or service being developed and reaching the ultimate customer or expected user. With evolution of technology and use of different tools for flow of information within the organization and across the organizations, the modern worker needed more than what a specialist required. The world started looking back to a situation of ancient economies where we had the artisans who can manage entire cycle of his activity. In current work, this situation was explained with great vision. Michele Hammer explained new strategies necessary for work, management, enterprise etc. and this book can be used as a practical guide for people at different levels. I was inspired by the thoughts relating to work and management because these thoughts are not only at conceptual strategies but also at the level of actual work and management.

Michael Hammer's newest book, Beyond Reengineering, is a work in progress because it provides observations of a revolution that's only just begun. The "natural aristocracy" among leaders--as Thomas Jefferson would call them--are moving already from a procedure-based culture to a process-based culture; from micro to macro; from a microscopic view to a telescopic view. Procedure-based task analysis is gone. Process-related performance technology has replaced it. A sequel to his earlier book, Beyond Reengineering calls for rethinking of our most basic assumptions: "the kinds of work that people do, the jobs they hold, the skills they need, the careers they follow, the roles managers play, the principles of strategy that enterprises follow." The shift has carried Hammer with it, moving (as do all revolutionary movements) from the revolution of ideals, in which his key word was "radical," to the organized reworking of the underpining society, in which the key word is "process." Michael Hammer is not prescriptive but descriptive, showing where we're headed and what we're doing to get there.

good training info

Unlike the Re engineering Revolution, This is dry read and elongated and unnecessary continuation of Micheal Hammer's original text "Re engineering the Corporation". I have expected lots of case studies and step by step process constructions done in Corporations which are geared by for 21st Century Circular making. I didn't find interesting case studies and cutting edge theories as mentioned in the "Re engineering the Corporation". This book is a typical example of "flop sequel of a earlier Block Buster movie". Its a very dry read and all my excitement on enhancing my imagination and excitement on re engineering has hit a road block.