As BPM begins to expand beyond isolated projects to mainstream programs at the division or enterprise level, there is a need to engage a far greater number of business people in the...

Golfers Should be Adept at BPM

This article originally appeared in the members-only quarterly BPM Strategies Magazine.  Join today to receive your own copy.

Amateur golfers know how hard it is to get a consistent, repeatable, powerful golf swing. In golf, as in BPM, there’s no shortage of advice. Many experts agree that the essence of a consistent, repeatable, powerful golf swing has much to do with weight transfer, shoulder turn, swinging on plane, follow through, and balance. The same principles apply to BPM. So let’s explore why golfers should be adept at BPM.

Most amateurs don't realize the importance of weight shift in the golf swing. In a balanced setup stance, the golfer's weight needs to shift to create power and distance. This is accomplished by a full shoulder turn. In BPM, it’s important to shift the emphasis from departments to crossfunctional processes. In most organizations, the emphasis is on functions or departments. Plans are built by departments; budgets are set by departments; even recognition and rewards are defined by departmental considerations. To create increased value, it’s important to shift the weight of the organization towards the cross-functional processes that create value for customers and shareholders. How does an organization do that? See Table 1.

Table 1: Shifting the Weight of the Organization

The game of golf remains physically and mentally complex despite thousands of articles dealing with analysis of the performance. So does BPM. In spite of the compelling logic that customer and shareholder value is created by means of business processes, leaders at many companies continue to cling to a traditional, functional view of the business. Why? There are at least three possible reasons. Leaders don’t care. Leaders can’t focus. Leaders don't know how. If leaders really cared, focused and knew how, wouldn’t they measure what's important to customers in a disciplined way in addition to monitoring the traditional financial metrics such as revenues, earnings and cash flow?

Wouldn't they monitor and continuously improve the key value-creating processes? Wouldn't they assign accountability for the performance of the company’s major business processes? Of course leaders would do these things if they cared enough to invest the time and energy, were able to devote sufficient attention for sustainability, and knew how. It has much to do with transferring the weight of the organization, following through, and balance. That's why golfers should be adept at BPM.

Table 2: Follow Through and Balance in BPM

Andrew Spanyi is the managing director of Spanyi International Inc. and the director, education for the Association of BPM Professionals. He is the author of the recently released book More for Less: The Power of Process Management and the popular business novel Business Process Management is a Team Sport, Play It to Win! You can reach Andrew at andrew@spanyi.com.

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