How to make reengineering really work

Companies often squander their energies on attractive-looking projects that fail to produce bottom-line results

Eugene A. Hall, James Rosenthal, and Judy Wade

A study of reengineering projects in over 100 companies reveals how difficult these projects are to plan and implement and, more important, how often they fail to achieve real business-unit impact. The study identified two factors–breadth and depth – that are critical in translating short-term, narrow-focus process improvements into long-term profits. Successful projects at Banca di America e di Italia, Siemens Nixdorf Service, and AT&T demonstrate how companies can appropriately make their reengineering projects broader and deeper. Such efforts, however, if poorly managed, provoke organizational resistance. But such opposition can be overcome if committed managers approach reengineering as a painful but necessary disruption of the status quo.