ABSTRACT
We began our study by developing a short list of companies known to us in which top management was striving to develop a more process-based organization. All 12 companies were Fortune 500 global manufacturing firms headquartered in the United States, competing primarily in consumer products, healthcare, chemicals, and high-technology industries. All but one had implemented, or were in the process of implementing, an ERP system. Nine of the participants were corporate CIOs and three were direct reports to corporate CIOs. Two interviews were conducted on-site jointly by both authors, while the other ten interviews were conducted over the telephone by one of the two authors. Each interview lasted approximately one hour. To ensure a common framework and provide a consistent pattern of questions across the interviews, a one-page description of the study with the general questions of interest was provided to each participant in advance of the interview.
