In the first two articles in this four part theme we reviewed '
Understand and applying Process diagnostics' and the '
Successful Customer Outcome' map.
We now move our attention to the third way we can rethink process forever
Reframing process for an Outside-In world
A fundamental principle of Outside-In is the understanding of where your process starts and ends.
In the 20th century many techniques and approaches developed to better
understand and create processes. In its earliest form pioneering work
undertaken by the United States Airforce created modelling approaches
based on the Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT) that
produced iDEF (Integrate DEFinition Methods). iDEF became recognised as a
global standard as a method designed to model the decisions, actions,
and activities of an organization or system[1]. iDEF as a method has
now reached iDEF14 [i] and embraces a wide range of process based
modelling ideas. Concurrent with the development of iDEF technology
providers created proprietary modelling approaches, and subsequently
developed into modelling language standards, used by many organisations
to represent their systems and ways of working. The convergence of
business process modelling and business process management (BPM) has now
produced a rich set of tools and techniques
able to model and ideally manage an organisation. In fact one of the
more accepted definitions of BPM (based on the British Journal of
Management[ii]): "Business process management (BPM) is a management
approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organisation with the
wants and needs of clients. It is a holistic management approach"
Until a few years ago process management approaches looked within the
boundaries of the organisation and the combination of modelling and
management approaches were adequate to understand the enterprise. The
impact of process management in improving organisation performance has
been profound however we now face a different reality driven by the
customer.
As a consequence both disciplines now present a series of problems that include
(a) understanding the beginning and end of the process,
(b) the techniques used to model process are inadequate and focused on the wrong things
Strangely customer involvement in a process often appears as an
afterthought and the actual representation systems (left to right, top
to bottom) create an illusion that fosters the belief that “the
customer isn’t my job”.
Let’s deal with each in turn by example:
a. The beginning and end of process
To aid the discussion let’s look at two airlines, British Airways and
Southwest, and we’ll review how they ‘think’ about their business
through the eyes of process. If you sit down with British Airways
executives and asked the question “where does your process start and
end?” the response reflects the main source of revenue, seat sales.
So the answer “the process is from the ticket purchase to the
collecting the bags off the carousel” is no great surprise. In fact
that is the way we have mostly thought about process in that it starts
when it crosses into organisation, and finishes when it leaves. We
can easily model that, identify efficiency improvements, improve
throughput and optimise apparent value add.
As far as British Airways is concerned what you do outside of that
process is no concern of theirs, after all they are an airline and
that’s what they do. Now let’s change our perspective and visit Love
Field in Texas and meet the executive team of Southwest. Ask the guys
the same question “where does your process start and end?” and the
answer is a whole different viewpoint.
The process begins when the potential customer thinks of the need for a
flight, and only ends when they are back at home following the
journey. The scope of this process is defined by the phrase “the
customer experience is the process”. That’s an Outside-In perspective
and creates opportunities across the whole customer experience.
More than that it raises the prospect of additional revenue streams,
spreads the risk associated with a dependency on seat sales, reinforces
the customer relationship and develops an entirely different way of
doing business. So let’s ask another question of our friends at
Southwest “guys, what business are you in?”, and the answer changes
everything you ever thought about airlines forever “we’re in the
business of moving people”.
Downstream Southwest may well turn the industry further on its head as
they move from being the low cost airline to the ‘no cost airline’ and
give their seats free of charge. What would that do to your business
model if 95% of your revenues, as with British Airways, comes from
seat sales?
The business challenge for Southwest becomes one of controlling the
process to benefit and maximise the customer experience. That involves
partnering, sharing information and doing all necessary to make
customers lives easier, simpler and more successful.
Now how do you model that?
b. The techniques used to model process are inadequate and focused on the wrong things
We have reviewed the ultimate cause of work for all organisations is
the customer. Organisations exist to serve the customer though the
provision of products and services and in this way develops revenue that
goes to the profit and onward distribution to the stockholders.
In other organisations without the profit motivation, for instance the
public sector, then the effective delivery of services is measured by
citizens and stakeholders. Accordingly it stands to reason that
everything happening within the organisation should be organised and
aligned to deliver customer success and anything that isn’t is
potentially ‘dumb stuff’. The techniques we use to ‘capture’ process are
however not suitable to understanding the causes of work and focus
attention instead on the visible tasks and activities that are perceived
to create value for customers. In the context of the enlightened
customer[iii] this is at best misleading and at its worst actually part
of the broader problem. In Outside-In companies the focus has shifted
to understanding the causes of work, and then engineering those causes
to minimize negative effects.
Once more to go Outside-In we need a perspective shift and we can
achieve this by identifying those three causes of work and then set out
to reveal them and their negative impact.
How big is the size of the prize? Efficiency and productivity gains of
30% to 60% are common. Cost reduction of services by 50% is not
unusual.
Cause elimination is a seek and destroy mission. It’s the challenge to weed out the “dumb stuff” in our organizations.
By truly fixing the Causes of Work, rather than messing around with the
Effects (a bit like moving the chairs on the deck of the Titanic) we
will all find our customers and employees life simpler, easier and
more successful. Are you ready to challenge your assumptions and start
eliminating those causes of work? Fix the Cause, remove the effect.
[1]
http://www.idef.com/IDEF0.htm
[i]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEF
[ii] Understanding Business Process Management: implications for theory
and practice, British Journal of Management (2008) (Smart, P.A,
Maddern, H. & Maull, R. S.)
Join us on LinkedIn
http://bit.ly/joinbpgroup
Visit additional resources
www.oibpm.com
Become a Certified Process Professional
www.certifiedprocessprofessional.com 
