How Process Enterprises Really Work
How Process Enterprises Really Work
How Process Enterprises Really Work
The article How process enterprises really work explains the necessity of moving
from traditional business structures to process enterprises. The authors mention success
stories of companies like IBM, Duke Power, Texas Instruments and Owens Corning and
explain how the companies have benefited by redesigning their organizations around their
core processes. But only integrating activities within the core processes is not enough as
seen in the case of Texas instruments calculator business. The management structure has
to change to support the integrated processes. Process owners and Unit Managers need to
work in coordination to make process enterprise model a success. Standardizing all the
processes might not work for all the organizations. An organization should take into account
the process diversity required for serving different types of customers and keeping them
satisfied. There are certain challenges in shifting from a traditional business to a process
enterprise, but the long term benefits makes the change worth the effort. The authors
suggest a new approach to leadership, performance measurement, compensation,
infrastructure, facilities, training and career path for changing a company from a
traditionally run organization to a process enterprise. While transitioning from a traditional
organization to a process enterprise the organization should also ensure that the new
processes can be re-designed in future based on customer demands and market changes.
No two businesses can have the same process-based organization design. However, main
characteristics of the process-based organization can be applied in any company. Our
learning from the case study is that organizations should standardize as many processes as
possible without losing their ability to meet the diverse customer demands in order to reap
long-term benefits
1: Some of the processes in JPMorgan Chase Treasury services are Liquidity solutions,
Foreign exchange payment solutions and Electronic payables
2: In Treasury services there are many applications that are used within each process for
different markets and regions. For e.g. there are almost ten applications for the foreign
exchange payment systems alone. The teams are defined based on the applications and are
scattered across different locations. All the applications can be integrated and migrated to
one system.
3: For most processes we would establish process standardization as it would enhance
operational efficiency and also streamline the process.
Pros: The turnaround time for each process will be reduced. The best practices from each
team can be taken and applied to the process as a whole. The team members will get a
chance to gain knowledge on other systems.
Cons: The employees may find the process monotonous over a period of time and may not
be motivated enough to work efficiently.
4: Measurement: The percentage of the clients requests being met without any errors
would be the ideal measurement.
Compensation: The compensation of the employees will be dependent on the
performance of the process as a whole rather than the business units. Incentives will be
given to the employees based on their contribution to the organization apart from their
daily duties (innovative ideas for increasing efficiency, mitigating risk, showing leadership
abilities, etc.)
Team 5
Facilities: Employees who are at different locations (cities, countries) but within the same
process will be given access to tele-presence and conferencing facilities to interact with
each and work in synchronization.
Training and Development: All the employees from each process will be trained on the
other markets and regions within the same process. They will be given an opportunity to
widen their portfolio.
Career paths: Employees will be given the chance to understand the end-to-end flow of
the process as a whole rather than just the region or market they were previously catering
to. The levels of hierarchy will be reduced.
Team 5