Steve Towers - Business Transformation & Successful Customer Outcomes

Steve completes an occasional newsletter for the BPM community.
His commentary focuses on recent news worthy articles, case studies and events.

Six Sigma, Architecture and Mike Hammer on Maturity
By Steve Towers
July 1, 2007

Sick Sigma takes a caning at Businessweek with a review of 3M's innovation crisis and other trials and tribulations
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yswrg2

Mike Hammer and assessing your processes - http://preview.tinyurl.com/24n7bj
Wouldn't it be great if banking was really as friendly, fast and simple as marketing campaigns make it look? Sadly, in the real world most of us find interactions with our banks extremely frustrating. Are banks really in touch with our requirements, or are their processes focused on their own agendas and what they think we ought to want?

The following week I am in the UK at
Process Excellence in Financial Services
London June 27-28,2007 - http://preview.tinyurl.com/2xlhdd

and in July the American Strategic Management Institute host
CRM Excellence 2007 - Arlington, Virginia July 9-10
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2v55ov

Already September and October see TEN business process conferences across all continents. BPM has never been bigger!

The ongoing unavailability of the BPMG website is frustrating for many of us - there's an update on that at
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dge4y

Meantime if you want to get the latest on (another) emergent BP Community then drop by
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2hca8y
- let us have your details and I will clue you in real soon.
You will not be spammed or otherwise have your details sold, given or copied ANYWHERE else.

One of the leading vendors in the space is Metastorm, here's an interview with their CEO Bob Farrell
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yv83ep

Mike Hammer and assessing your processes - http://preview.tinyurl.com/24n7bj
Wouldn't it be great if banking was really as friendly, fast and simple as marketing campaigns make it look? Sadly, in the real world most of us find interactions with our banks extremely frustrating. Are banks really in touch with our requirements, or are their processes focused on their own agendas and what they think we ought to want?

ebizQ OFFERS BPM TRAINING
Online program covers 8 modules and 32 hours material accredited by Online BPM Certification with the BPM Group. Link Here

LIMITATIONS OF BPEL According to this article, those considering SOA may have some tough choices when it comes to driving code at the process layer. Indeed, a report by the Burton Group describes both the limitations of BPEL, and the advantages of WS-CDL.

JUST GIVE ME A COUPLE OF MINUTES We generally don’t think of two minutes as much time. Really, what can you accomplish of any significance that quickly? But, let’s think about it…for a couple minutes. What can be accomplished in two minutes?
Link here for more.... (Howard Webb)

Gartner currently provide the BEST BPM conference experience
By Steve Towers
April 4, 2007

Terry Schurter and I attended and ran workshops at the San Diego and London events. By far in our humble opinion the best of the BPM conferences at the moment
- shame on you Shared Insights and Brainstorm Group. With depth and breadth they combine the best case studies, research and pragmatic insights.
There's always room for improvement so we'll be there in Florida in September to ensure they stay infront of the 'talking heads' marketeers. Of course do not forget
our very own BPM 15th Annual get together in Arlington, Texas (October 2-4). With representatives from more than 50 countries present it will truly be a global event!
Some recent items of note (and for DAILY updates jump to the BPMG's Live News Feed)

Gartner BPM Summit a True World Class BPM Event
Call to Arms Answered! Virgin Airlines Wins
Coaching Leadership Performance
New Chapter Launched – Perth, Western Australia
Customer Value: the Business Discipline of BPM

More than a decade ago Michael Hammer, reacting to the demise of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR - a management philosophy he created with the writing of ‘Reengineering the Corporation’ in the early 90’s) concluded with a play on Shakespeare “The fault is not in re-engineering, but in ourselves.” Blaming the implementers is the last refuge of scoundrels – and of bad generals and arrogant management consultants. I have done it. Sometimes I am not ashamed. Most often I am. Read the full expose...

Well last weeks Gartner event in San Diego was a huge success with over 1100 delegates enjoying the top speakers, analysts and Case Studies. Terry Schurter and I delivered a workshop on the Wednesday with the theme 'Outside-In'. We knew it met most folks expectations when 107 people asked for copies of the presentation! How are you 'Outside-In' initiatives progressing? - please do share your stories. Anyways we'll be providing some recent insights and case studies during March so in the meantime some of the 'shorty' items of interest include:

Next week Terry and I are delivering a workshop at Gartners Summit in San Diego. Also present is Jim Baird, Chair of Chapters for North America so if you’re coming do look us up – there’s a glass of wine (or juice) if you track us down ;-) You can still get discounted tickets from http://www.gartner.com/2_events/conferences/bpm3.jsp if you rush!

Next week I have some very exciting news for all so keep your eyes open for that (announcements being made at Gartner)

BPMG Review of 2006
By Steve Towers
December 31, 2006
As CEO and founder of the BPM Group this short review captures the advances through the year in BPM meadows.
BPM advances in 2006

Using BPM to clean-up your Project Management challenges
By Steve Towers
October 25, 2006

Excellent Conferences emerging
Were you lucky enough to attend one of the BPMG’s very popular Technology Showcases in the 90’s? Well in good Hollywood style we have reinvented and relaunched the full, richer multimedia expereince over four days with Bizchange – Bridging the Gap event in Texas in March.

Bizchange - Bridging the Gap is an Interactive Conference Event that immerses participants in an innovative and creative process with their peers, industry experts, and noted business leaders. For the low down and to reserve your place (numbers strictly mimited) visit http://www.bpmg.org/Bizchange_Conference.php

Okay, this is it, the short version of the BPM newsletter for those A1 personality types like me who never find time to read the newsletter in full.
Just click on the link that interests you.

Our TIP this week?
Useful snippet for online conference - ebizQ.net Launches SOA in Action!
SOA in Action is a comprehensive resource center with the real-world strategies and tools needed to Plan, Build, and Manage your SOA. Led by experts Joe McKendrick and Beth Gold-Bernstein, its articles, Webinars, podcasts, white papers and will provide all the SOA education you need -- and don't miss the free upcoming SOA in Action Virtual Conference, November 14-16, 2006. Click here http://www.ebizq.net/to/BPMGORGSIA

The Changing shape of Business Process Management
By Steve Towers
October 9, 2006

Headline thinking: :XSOL is a software company from New Zealand, crafting their code in a native backdrop so striking it was used for filming the powerful series of fantasy adventure movies of the Lord of the Rings. Being an enterprise software company from New Zealand is different – but being a software company from anyplace that unravels a human problem with a software product so that the software product paradigm engenders correct thinking and use of the tool is truly amazing. Has XSOL achieved this with their approach to modeling business processes?
READ MORE...

Additional Top Articles & News

Finding the Right BPM Approach - Mark Barnett

The Key to Customer Success - Erik Sorenson

What is the Value of BPM -webinar, Michael Melenovsky, Gartner

BPM Professional Qualification Program 2007 announced

Recommended book reads in Business Process Management
By Steve Towers
June 2007

As a speaker, writer and Coach I am occasionally asked “what do I read?”.
Well the list is extensive and for those wondering where the inspiration for the recent book “Customer Expectation Management - Success without Exception ”
(written with colleague Terry Schurter) comes from you can review the list below. If you have a good book do let me know and I will review!

All the Best, Steve

OK - here they are, all 50+ of them!

Abrahamson, Eric, Change Without Pain, Harvard Business School Press, 2004

Bensaou, M. and Michael Earl, “The Right Mind-Set for Managing Information Technology,” Harvard Business Review, September-October 1998.

Biral, Madan, FedEx Delivers, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005

Bono, Edward de, Six Thinking Hats, Penguin Books, 1999.

Bossidy, Larry and Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Crown Business, 2002.

Brache, Alan, How Organizations Work, Wiley, 2002

Brache, Alan, How Organizations Work, Wiley, 2002.

Bund, Barabara E., The Outside-In Corporation, McGraw-Hill, 2005

Chang, James F., Business Process Management Systems, Auerbach Publications, 2006

Christensen, Clayton M., and Scott D. Anthony and Erik A. Roth, Seeing What’s Next, Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Christensen, Clayton M., The Innovator’s Solution—Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth, Harvard Business School Press, 2003.

Collins, Jim, Good to Great, Harper Business, 2001

Cooper, Robert G., Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process from Idea to Launch, Perseus Books, 1993.

Davenport, Thomas H., “Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System,” Harvard Business Review, July - August 1998.

Davenport, Thomas H., Process Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, 1993.

Diamond, Jared, Collapse, Penguin Books, 2005

Drucker, Peter, Management Challenges of the 21st Century, Harper Business, 1999.

Feld, Charlie S., and Donna B. Stoddard, Getting IT Right, Harvard Business Review, February 2004.

Fingar, Peter, and Joseph Bellini, The Real-Time Enterprise: Competing on Time, Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2005.
Fingar, Peter, Extreme Competition, Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2006

Freiberg, Kevin, Nuts, Bard Press, 1996

Galbraith, Jay, Designing Organizations, Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Goldratt, Eliyahu M. and Cox, Jeff, The Goal (2nd ed.), Gower, 1993.

Graham, Douglas and Bachmann, Thomas T., Ideation—The Birth and Death of Ideas, Wiley, 2004.

Hamel, Gary, “Strategy as Revolution,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 1996.

Hamel, Gary, Leading the Revolution, Harvard Business School Press, 2000

Hammer, Michael and Steven Stanton, “How Process Enterprises Really Work,” Harvard Business Review, November - December 1999.

Hammer, Michael, “Process Management and the Future of Six Sigma,” Sloan Management Review, Winter 2002.

Hammer, Michael, “The Superefficient Company,” Harvard Business Review, September 2001.

Handy, Charles, the elephant and the flea, Arrow Books, 2002

Harmon, Paul, Business Process Change, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003

Herbold, Robert J., The Fiefdom Syndrome, Doubleday, 2004

Hock, Dee, One from Many, Berrett- Keoehler Publishers Inc., 2005

Joyce, William and Nitin Nohria and Bruce Robertson, What Really Works, Harper Business, 2003

Kaplan, Robert S. and David P. Norton, “Having Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map It,” Harvard Business Review, September-October 2000.

Kaplan, Robert S. and David P. Norton, “Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System,” Harvard Business Review, January- February 1996.

Kaplan, Robert S. and David P. Norton, The Balanced Scorecard, Harvard Business School Press, 1996

Kaplan, Robert S. and David P. Norton, The Strategy-Focused Organization, Harvard Business School Press, 2001.

Kotter, John, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” Harvard Business Review. March-April 1995.

Kotter, John, “What Leaders Really Do,” Harvard Business Review, Special Issue December 2001.

McCor.mack, Kevin P., and William C. Johnson with William T. Walker, Supply Chain Networks and Business Process Orientation; Advanced Strategies and Best Practices, CRC Press, 2000.

Porter, Michael, “Strategy and the Internet,” Harvard Business Review, March 2001.

Porter, Michael, “What is Strategy?” Harvard Business Review, November-December 1996

Rodin, Robert, Free, Perfect, and Now, Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Ross, Jeanne W. and Peter Weill, “Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldn’t Make,” Harvard Business Review, November 2002.

Rummler, Geary A. and Alan Brache, Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart, Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Schmitt, Bernd H., Customer Experience Management, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003

Smith, Howard and Peter Fingar, Business Process Management: The Third Wave, Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2003.

Spanyi, Andrew, Business Process Management is a Team Sport – Play It to Win!. Anclote Press, 2003

Treacy, Michael and Fred Wiersema, The Discipline of Market Leaders, Addison Wesley, 1995.

Treacy, Michael, Double-Digit Growth, Portfolio, 2003

Ulrich, Dave, Results Based Leadership, Harvard Business School Press, 1999

Customer Age Thinking
By Steve Towers
July 26, 2006

+++ THREE Articles +++

Customer Age Thinking - the changing face of Public Service http://www.bpmg.org/Zpost1661.php

Elevating the BPM Lexicon - http://www.bpmg.org/Zpost1655.php

Content and BPM Vendors swim amongst the Whales http://www.bpmg.org/Zpost1662.php

++ TWO Casestudies ++

Customer Success Story - Eniro http://www.bpmg.org/Zpost1656.php

Customer Success Story - Deutsche Post - http://www.bpmg.org/Zpost1667.php

++ TWO Press Relases ++
Global Awards for Excellence in BPM & Workflow http://www.bpmg.org/Zpost1666.php
Warwick, UK: Boston, MA – July, 25 2006
The BPM Group today announced that the Global Awards for Excellence in BPM & Workflow – in association with WfMC and WARIA
will be presented to winning entrants at the Process2006 Conference in London www.process2006.com

Queensland University of Technology and BPMG partner with BPM Roundtable http://www.bpmg.org/Zpost1649.php

Live Link to latest BPM News stories, articles and case studies
By Steve Towers