ABSTRACT
To sum up the discussion thus far on the power of process, I have posited that all enterprises have a business model, explicit or implicit, that represents the way they deliver value to customers, for a profit. Processes provide the operating engine with a circulatory system that deploys the business model, and smart processes enrich the lifeblood of the company and allow its performance to soar, while lousy processes create bad blood and lethargic performance. Process design exposes disruptions to the flow of value to the customer, while creating people who are willing and able to countermeasure those disruptions as they occur, and fix them before they reach the customer. Broken processes hide problems, saddle people with unnecessary stress, and force them underground to create workarounds. Processes can only be healthy and drive performance improvement where there is an intense respect for the people living in the processes.
