We have written this book for professionals, quasi- professionals, and technical workers laboring in all spheres of human endeavor, from law to medicine, from accounting to engineering, who are involved or are interested in taking part in
xxx Preface to the First Edition
managing their businesses. Most professionals, even those who do not care about management, can benefit from the book. Indeed, most do assume some level of management responsibility through such activities as the following:
• Giving instructions to quasi- professionals, technicians, or clerical workers, or coordinating the activities of service providers of all kinds
• Assuming a responsibility for practice development, their take- home income depending on how good they are at it
• Managing their own one- person business
• Managing what customers do (customers are very much a part of the service delivery process)
Processes play a vital role in all these activities. The notions, methods, and tools presented in this book offer the reader a perspective on her work that she most likely never envisaged and that could be a source of insights and a lever for innovation.
STyLE
For the professional or manager interested in learning more about how the process view applies to his own environment, we provide hands- on end- of-chapter exer-cises. One’s own organization and environment constitute the proving ground for the material presented in each chapter. The exercises are structured in such a way that the new theory added by each chapter can be immediately applied to work done in earlier chapters, giving the reader an opportunity to apply the theories she has just learned, and so transform knowledge into know- how. Thus, a global picture gradually emerges, as early chapters paint a broad- brush picture of the connection between strategy and processes and later chapters delve into the spe-cifics of designing and improving processes in a professional service environment.
We do not shy away from theory, but illustrate it abundantly with examples.
The case studies presented in the book fall into three categories: actual businesses (in those cases, the company is identified), personal situations to which the author was a party, and generic (thus fictitious) situations built from a composite of the author’s general experience. While we broadly assume throughout the book the context of a for- profit organization, much of the discussion is readily transfer-able to nonprofit organizations. Indeed, the latter also have customers to satisfy, employees to keep happy, and shareholders looking for the “biggest bang for the buck,” whatever the socially desirable “bang” (healthy population, low crime rate, socially healthy families, safe kids, and so on) may be. Such organizations, as illus-trated by the health and social services examples used extensively in this book, are also competing for funds with other service providers, and achieving superior performance is just as important to them as it is for private sector organizations.
We also draw on a broad spectrum of complex services such as legal, financial planning and management, consulting, and real estate services. We first illustrate complex notions with simple examples—often drawn from the personal sphere (processes occur in the home as well) or simple services (such as restaurants
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or airports)—before adapting them to the more intricate reality of professional services.
Professionals evolving in organizations of all sizes—ranging from the one- person firm to the huge professional bureaucracies that constitute large hospitals—
will discover that the process view of the organization is universal, and they can all benefit from it.
Senior executives who want to explore the potential of a process- based stra-tegic initiative in their organization will find it worthwhile to share the book with their associates and compare notes on the end- of-chapter exercises. While this is not a “cookbook,” it is detailed enough and specific enough to allow experimenta-tion to take place, as well as vetting of the principles and tools of process- based management in one’s own environment, and shaping of an operational change initiative. Of course, large organizations should use a consultant to guide them through such an undertaking. Having experienced the book, however, they will be in a better position to select suitable consultants and stay in the driver’s seat throughout the initiative.
nOTE
1. A term used loosely throughout the book to refer to the three categories of complex services, unless otherwise specified.
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T
he author has tested all the methodologies and techniques presented in this book. He cannot, however, claim them all to be his own. The content of this book has evolved over more than three decades of research, teach-ing, and consulting after obtaining a PhD in management science. It has been influenced—one way or another—by every business with which he interacted during those years as a consultant or researcher, by every executive that has attended an in- house seminar or executive MBA program (thousands, in more than 10 countries around the globe), and by every book and article that he has read during those years of practice. This is what we generally call experience. He cannot possibly give credit to all of them, nor name them all. However, he does most sincerely thank them all. The result is the author’s own paradigm, and any limitations or errors that it may contain are his alone.H1490_Harvey.indd 34 7/9/15 8:35 AM