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Part - III

The business case for change will remain the centerpiece that defines the project, and should be a living document that the reengineering team uses to demonstrate success. Financial pay back and real customer impact from major change initiatives are difficult to measure and more difficult to obtain; without a rigorous business case both are unlikely.

Proven Methodology

Not only should all the team members understand reengineering, they should also know how to go about it. In short, an approach is required that would meet the needs of the project and one that the team understands and supports.

Change Management

One of the most overlooked obstacles to successful project implementation is resistance from those whom implementers believe will benefit the most. Most projects underestimate the cultural impact of major process and structural change, and as a result do not achieve the full potential of their change effort.

Change is not an event, despite many attempts to call people together and have a meeting to make change happen. Change management is the discipline of managing change as a process, with due consideration that we are people, not programmable machines. It is about leadership with open, honest and frequent communication.

Line Ownership

In most of the cases, the senior management responds to the crisis in line operations with external consultants or their own staff. It's a rescue operation. Unfortunately the ability of external consultants to implement significant change in an organization is small. The chances are only slightly better for staff groups. Ultimately the solution and results come back to those accountable for day-to-day execution.

What this means is that the terms of engagement and accountability must be clear. The ownership must ultimately rest with the line operation, whether it is manufacturing, customer service, logistics, sales, etc.

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* Contributed by -
Prashant Vaidyanathan,
II Year, PGDBM,
IMT, Ghaziabad.