Reengineering the Corporation

A Manifesto for Business Revolution
(13500)

Reengineering means to disregard all the assumptions and traditions of the way business has always been done, and instead develop a new, process-centered business organization that achieves a quantum leap forward in performance.

To achieve reengineering success, a fresh perspective and approach is required. A clean sheet of paper is taken and, given what is currently known about customers and their preferences, a new organization is developed which will optimize the process of creating satisfied customers. Reengineering is the process by which the organization that exists today is retired and the optimal version of the new organization is constructed.

Reengineering is the opportunity to develop the rules by which business in the future will be conducted rather than being forced to operate by the rules imposed by someone else. As such, reengineering underpins every attempt to seize and maintain a true competitive advantage.

Business reengineering isn’t about fixing anything. Business reengineering means starting all over, starting from scratch.

–Michael Hammer & James Champy