If we have had a formula for growth it has been; start with the best; learn from the best, expand slowly and solidify our position; then horizontally diversify our expertise.
Mark McCormick, business person
All companies, even global corporations, have discovered they can’t be all things to all people. As companies attempted to please different customers with a large variety of products, problems arose. Resources were spread too thin so a company could only do certain things moderately well. The wise decision was to focus and develop ‘world class’, core process competencies. There’s a good business reason for this.
Process orientation involves a change of mindset, a change in how we perceive and approach our work. A process orientation is a paradigm shift away from the functional and hierarchal to a horizontal model of business. A process orientation involves these interrelated factors:
- Structure. A core process is smooth, balanced, structured, seamless, value adding, replicable, efficient, effective, and economic. The process has a beginning and an end. It consists of a number of value-adding steps, each of which has a customer and a supplier.
- Layout. A process orientation is a horizontal, end-to-end view of work. A process may cut across an organization into the supplier base and even to the final customer. A process can span different functions, plants, and departments throughout the organization. Process orientation seems to work well in matrixed organizations.
- Accountability. A project team or self-managed individual is responsible for a process step or even for the entire process from beginning to end. In process language, this accountability is called process ownership.
Life Lesson Earned: The closer an employee or consultant can align with a company’s core process, the easier it is to demonstrate long term value.