Customer Reviews

More for Less: The Power of Process Management

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To succeed in today's volatile and increasingly competitive global marketplace, a company must provide their customers with what Andrew Spanyi describes as "more for less". That is, more value, service, consistent delivery, accuracy, responsiveness, and quality for their purchasing dollar. At the same time the customer also demands less hassle, bureaucracy, and sales pressure in their purchasing process. Spanyi drew upon the 2004-2005 Mindset Study in writing "More For Less: The Power Of Process Management", to provide business managers with up-to-date information in support of shifting conventional but dysfunctional notions of strategy, leadership, growth, mergers and acquisitions, with an improved and effective organizational design for their corporate decision making, the role of technology in achieving and maintaining a competitive edge, the measuring of targeting goals, and an integrated approach as illustrated by such corporate examples as Caterpillar Inc. and the Xerox Corporation. Enhanced with the inclusion of appendices ('The Judicious Use of Reference Frameworks' and 'A Business Process Orientation Survey Instrument'), an extensive bibliography for further reading, and a "user friendly" index, "More For Less" is a welcome and instructive reference recommended to anyone who has a managerial responsibility for their company or corporation's bottom line.

Andrew did an excellent job with this book. It is very easy to read, but very depth in treating the subjects. I strongly reccommend it to top managers, consultants and students. It presents how and why to make the transition from functional approach to process approach in order to have a better understanding and control on the business. This is a vital concept, which if is well understood helps companies be flexible, focus on results and be able design results oriented actions. Presents the advantages of enabling technology in better managing business processes in order to have business running the technology and not viceversa. At the end some useful ideas on how to find and to define your business competitive advantage in order to stand up from the crowd and to gain repetitive orders and satisfied customers. The whole book is considering create customer value as ultimate business goal, business value coming as a consequence. Each chapter has a questions list to determine what is the status of your company in order to improve different business areas.

Top managers will find great ideas about how to restructure or to improve their business processes. How to share power and control in order to be more effective and efficient.

Consultants have a great chance to see connections between process management, project management, performance measurement and technology.

Students have a useful tool to better understand the big bicture and connection between it components. Each chapter has a refference list for furture reading.

This is a great book to give to any senior executive. It will provide them with a practical understanding of process management and what they need to do to change from a functional management model. Andrew backs up his description of effective process management with research results and quotes from senior executives that helps put it all in perspective.

As a process improvement professional, I found this book to be a common sense approach to process management. It provides the essentials that any business should focus on to be competitive in today's global marketplace. The title also makes a statement that is today's reality - More for Less. Organizations can no longer compete unless they use their resources more efficiently and this book tells you how to do it. Andrew Spanyi has clearly done it again with this book as he did with his first.

Andrew has a way with words that makes his books very accessible to all levels of reader. As with "Team Sport" Andrew is focusssing on the needs of business leaders to take control of their organizations and to lead from the front. Andrew provides many good examples of companies who have achieved great things through the power of process, he also identfies some of the key attributes that set them apart from their peers. Although it will be executives that will gain most from this book, business managers too would do well to read and learn what it takes for them to help their organizations propsper in the years ahead. Thanks Andrew

Spanyi's opening quote by Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton says it all: there is but one boss, your customers, and they don't need anybody's permission to fire you. As a result of global competition and a wired world, senior executives must change the way they think about business and learn to deliver More for Less. That requires a change in thinking at the very highests levels in a company. If you are not a CEO,CFO, COO or CMO but work for one, then this book should be on your gift list for your boss, because if the leaders in your company don't "get it" you just could be cleaning out your desk sooner than you might think. This book is a quick, but powerful, read for any business leader.