X-Engineering the Corporation

In Reengineering the Corporation, 1993, Michael Hammer, with coauthor, Champy, offered the advice that work would have to be reengineered in terms of processes, if businesses were to respond successfully to the mega changes wrought by globalization, rampant competition, and the growing demands of increasingly sophisticated customers. The result was a great wave of reengineering worldwide that achieved enormous efficiencies in every conceivable industry. There was also, however, a great wave of criticism because many believed that the efficiencies benefited shareholders at the expense of customers and employees. In fact the criticism was so harsh (in numerous instances) and so widespread that it has been said that the authors consequently distanced themselves from the concept they had created.Whether or not that is, indeed, the case, Champy does concede that shareholders cannot expect to continue to profit from the changes wrought by reengineering unless customers and employees, and suppliers and partners, benefit as well. He believes that our new connected, interdependent world requires it and that the technological revolution and the global economic realignment of the past five years demand that companies move to extend the advantages of reengineering beyond their enterprises. Calling this new challengeof connectedness and interdependency X-engineering (the X signifies the crossing of boundaries between organizations), Champy offers X-Engineering the Corporation. In it, he sets forth the theory and practice of this next-stage approach, providing detailed case histories of some of the companies that have had great success in applying X-engineering, and revealing an inspirational new vision of business in which information and products flow freely.X-engineering is defined as "the art and science of using technology-enabled processes to connect businesses with other businesses and companies with their customers to achieve dramatic improvements in efficiency and create value for everyone involved." Simply put, it is about using information technology to redesign processes that cross organizational boundaries in order to achieve breakthrough business performance. Champy demonstrates how X-engineering has emerged from the reality that competitors are better off becoming allies, detailing how collaboration and shared processes are saving companies billions, leading them to experience breakthrough innovations in the ways they operate, and allowing them to create new value for customers (with an emphasis on the latter).