Companies rarely achieve radical performance improvements when they invest in information technology. Most companies use computers to speed up, not break away from, business processes and rules that are decades, if not centuries, out of date. But the power of computers can be released by "reengineering" work: abandoning old ways of working and creating entirely new ones.

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Summary: Intro into the essence and principles of reengineering
Comment: Michael Hammer is Founder and President of Hammer and Company, an management education firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This legendary article was published in the July-August 1990 edition of the Harvard Business Review.

Instead of paving the cow paths, we should "reengineer" our businesses: "use the power of modern information technology to radically redesign our business processes in order to achieve dramatic improvements in their performance." In short, reengineering takes a very, very bold approach. The author discusses the positive results of reengineering at Ford Motor Company and Mutual Benefit Life Insurance as an introduction. Hammer then continues with the notion behind reengineering, which is "the notion of discontinuous thinking". It means challenging old/existing assumptions and rules, and creating new business processes. "Reengineering requires looking at the fundamental processes of the business from a cross-functional perspective", whereby information technology should be used proactively. Then, seven very useful principles are described in detail that can help jump start reengineering efforts. Each is very simple and there are useful examples for each principle. Eventually, he gives some words of warning: "... reengineering is a tremendous effort that mandates change in many areas of the organization." However, the massive improvements possible through this process should stay at the back of the minds of the managers throughout the reengineering effort.

Yes, this is a monumental article. It describes the essence and principles behind reengineering. And to be honest, these are pretty bold since reengineering is a very bold approach and feels somewhat unnatural - all existing rules and principles need to be scrapped and new ones introduced. Still, I believe that reengineering is still useful and is still being used very often. I do believe that some of the principles are based on Frederick Taylor's traditional 'scientific management'. Michael Hammer followed this article up with his influential bestseller 'Reengineering the Corporation' (1993), written together with James Champy. Highly recommended to people wanting to improve their businesses/organizations.

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