this book is on sale for .01 of a cent. That is less then a penny. meaning, that you could by ten of these books for a penny.

This book is a must read if you have read REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION, plan to do any reengineering, or are considering making any useful change in your organization. Although ostensibly about how to do reengineering better, this book is really about making successful change. I found it to be a helpful and accurate perspective on organizational change, and far superior to REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION. That book promised too much, as sometimes happens with books that are heavily rewritten by others (one business book writer pointed out that 9 out of 10 best selling business books are ghost written by one of two people in the last 10 years, and that REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION was one of them). If you are thinking of reading REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION, I recommend that you read REENGINEERING MANAGEMENT instead. This book deals with people, while REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION seems at times to be dealing with a broken pocket watch instead. If you are in a change project, I recommend that you pull this book out weekly and check to see if you are following its principles.

James Champy explains very easily why many worlwide companies fail in their business ventures, some companies fail eventhough they had excellent and hard working "OPERATIONAL" managers, but they were not very good ADMINISTRATIVE (strategic) managers. This book should be a required MBA textbook , because it mentions the essential fundamentals of management, and it explains why managers fail when they re-design the work of their co-workers, BUT they do NOT re-design their own administrative work. This book also mentions the real job of the manager as a trainer , leader and strategic planner, trying to anticipate the moves of the world economy in order to be prepare and to have his people (co-associates) ready for the tremendous changes in the world economy. Most of the MBA's should read this book to avoid making too many mistakes (by thinking that they already know it all), this book will be quite an eyeopener for everybody (junior and senior management).. We must movilize, empower, define , measure , communcate and ACT to modify our business style and our personalities to be able to be more FLEXIBLE to roll with the punches. We must also form strategic alliances with our co-associates (co-workers), customers, clients, suppliers and all our friends to be able to succeed in this turbulent times, good luck and see you at the top

It is a great book for those who have not read any of the Champy/Hammer reengineering books, but would like to understand the reengineering foundation. However, those, who have and practice reengineering or 'the art of agility' in corporate America - will be disappointed. The book provides no new solutions to the present chaos in global business. The book does not even identify the systemic problems plaguing corporate America. Forget about connecting the dots, the book cannot even show you the dots. Everyone knows to create harmony or to be good to your customer. It is easy to name companies who are doing well and highlight some general processes even though the same company might file for chapter 11 a few months down the road. The problem is systemic like cancer that pervades the business community as evidenced from great companies like Xerox, Polaroid, Global Crossing, K-Mart, Stage Stores, Worldcom and so on. The book does not identify the problem nor prescribes the life style changing solution. The book does not even complain that the people who work in information technology department have no clue about "information" let alone know how to use them. Everyone in the IT department is an expert in the specific silo based hardware or software tools - but not in the "information". The companies never ask for it and hence never get it. So...nothing new here. The book talks great things about SciQuest. I too had dealings with that company. My impressions were along the line of "Information? - what is that?" Just a simple check of their publicly available financials would tell a different story...

What Mr.Champy has written, I have experienced. Most of us in technology and related industry have participated in the client-server boom, where all corporations were breaking the inter-department barriers and "re-engineering" their corporations.

I worked on $$ million dollar project for an Insurance company and yes, we drastically reduced their policy-writing and claim-processing time. Thanks to Mr. Champy and Mr. Collins. The company achieved huge tangible ROI.

I don't doubt even for a moment when Mr.Champy claims that the "X-engineering" revolution will be much bigger than the "reengineering revolution". The technology is ready and almost mature - internet, application servers, XML standards. The business problem is obvious - break down the corporate boundaries to achieve efficiency. Dell is the poster-boy. Current economic climate is creating a momentary damper.

The only gripe I have the book is that it didn't include a chapter on technologies that make X-engineering happen. This probably would have completed the picture for the IT manager.

I had written my thoughts prior to reading the book.
Uncanny resemblance to Mr. Champy's thought-process.

Want to add the next kicker to your business model? Then seriously consider X-Engineering your Corporation. Champy gives solid examples from both high technology 'giants' such as Dell, Cisco and Solectron and more traditional companies in healthcare, financial services and publishing in a good balance that demonstrate how taking a different perspective on your corporation's processes can deliver real results. Extend your processes out to your customers, your suppliers and even your competition to achieve customer informed value propositions that balance between product/service push and market pull. Operate only those processes which are really core to you as internal 'secrets'. Champy gives advice on how companies can stage their X-engineering efforts and gives guidance on common pitfalls.

This book is a good, fast read, sure to excite any executive's mind who wants to position their company to have a sustained advantage and achieve a new platform from which to have options to grow their business.

What ever your feelings on reengineering (dramatic process improvement or excuse for downsizing payroll) Hammer and Champy reinvigorate the topic for the new millenium in this clear revision. Learning from their mistakes (they move process to the front instead of radical in their four word description), they reintroduce the goal of making major gains in reducing wasted work and time. Their case studies read as a list of comeback stars in corporate America and show that great strides can be made and do pay off. Just as Six Sigma is trying to reengineer TQM for a new economic reality, this book once again brings process improvement to the forefront of business management conciousness.

I have read this book first time when I did a course in Business Process Reengineering. It gave me a very good introduction to the subject, history of reengineering and how companies are affected by the three C's Customers, Competetion, Change. Then I have read Beyond Reengineering by the same author. There is no doubt , both are a must reading for every person/company who would like to survive working in today's competitive way of earning livelihood, doing business and keeping fit.

It may sound, the Middle Managers / Supervisors are the most vulnerable group who are targets for change from the operational role perspective, in a BPR exercise.

I came to know recently, that several BPR projects fail also due to lack of proper Knowledge Management in companies. Might be the authors would include effective knowledge management strategies in BPR projects in the future release of their books. Knowledge management in terms of managing tacit , explicit knowledge of a company is also important. When we are reengineering, we are also reengineering the knowledge(creation, (re)distribution, evaluation aspects of knowledge) of a company. Also aspects such as competetive intelligence is worth considering.

James Champy and Michael Hammer published a key book in 1990. It is called Reengineering the Corporation. They define reengineering as "fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvement in critical measures of performance". Allowing for the excesses of words such as dramatic improvement and fundamental rethinking - everyone wants to sell a book and get some consulting revenue! - what Champy and Hammer are reminding us is that the human relations movement in management is only one part, and that scientific management still has a role. Frederick W. Taylor, credited as being the originator of scientific management, may be used as a bogey-man to scare children but there was and is sense in what he said. The same goes for Champy and Hammer.
Their view is that any organisation needs to review its processes - indeed the very way that it works - to ensure that what is does is necessary and central to its needs, skills and concerns. Process engineering has a long and respectable history. There are ways to do things that are more effective than others. Processes in organisations do become cumbersome over time and many existing processes in any organisation are probably unnecessary. A UK based organisation, known as B&Q, once had a room set aside next to the CEO's office in which worked the Cut the .... committee. Their job was to review every system, process, report and control in the company to ensure that it was really necessary and really did add value. Systems and processes are like cupboards, basements and lofts. They can contain all sorts of unnecessary junk and garbage and need regular review. (They do not often get it!)
However, Champy and Hammer want to go well beyond the analysis and improvement of business processes. They want organisations to take a completely fresh look at what they want to achieve and how they achieve it. They argue for a blank sheet of paper as the start point. Such an approach would call into question everything that the organisation does now. Despite their critics - and there are very many indeed - most organisations spend too much energy on operations not central to their core activities. Most organisations have too much overhead. Champy and Hammer's fresh look at least motivates an organisation to examine everything and to hold nothing as a given.
Their critics are from the human relations movement side of management thinking. Henry Mintzberg calls reengineering, "just the same old notion that new systems will do the job". The truth may be that the relevance of more or less ml_topi_mngt_hrmv human relations movement and of more or less scientific management is situational. Some companies are more systems than others. In some companies, constant and daily repetition of quality is vital and such companies are like systems. McDonalds is the classic case. Stuart-Kotze has argued that organisations and leadership can have three orientations - Inspiration, People empowerment and System (he calls them task, people and system) - and that the relevance of each depends upon the organisation's situation.
Perhaps the main problem with reengineering has been that it is seized upon by the numbers people and used as a justification for staff reduction. Perhaps also every new idea, or re-statement of an old one as in the case of reengineering, is that they are taken to be the whole truth instead of part of it. New ideas are sold by academics and consultants as the total answer. Reeingineering is one of a series of such total answers from organisation and methods to participative management, to human asset accountancy, to MbO (Management by Objectives), to empowerment and TQM (Total Quality Management), all of which are highly respectable contributions to the art of management but none of which is the only answer.

Not a single insight. Not a single "aha". Go read something else.

Champy and Nohria have written a book that describes the traits and behavior that define some of the great leaders in world history and today. By pinpointing how each of these remarkable characters used a trait or actions in such a way that they became successful.

The Authors points out leadership qualities as a set of rules to live by. From "seize the moment" and "be prepared", to the issues of having a "higher purpose" and to "never violate" your values. And other insights into how important it is to "change" and "knowing when to leave". Each point is re-inforced with the real life example of well known individuals.

All of the people mentioned in the book are without a doubt ambitious, but such ambition itself is difficult to compare to oneself, because everyone has a different balance curve on their arc of ambition. As the authors point out, it's up to the individual to find their own balance between when to go for something and when to cut their losses.

Although I found it difficult to compare my own ambition to people like Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs or Michael Dell, the book offers pointers, if not solutions to what the leadership journey should be.

Mr. Champy and Mr. Nohria have managed to weave a path through history, business, science, psychology and pleasure with this book. Offering insights and theories into the characteristics of ambition allows readers to see that achievement is possible for anyone willing to make the commitment, while the stories behind each stage in the arc show that success is not merely a "magic moment" that is reserved for or inherited by a select few.

The Arc of Ambition is as entertaining to read as it is enlightening. The stories of other peoples' journeys take this well beyond Ambition 101 and integrate it into our everyday world. The book encourages each of us to carefully examine our dreams and ideas, and to consider the joy of creating something of value for the future.

This is a must read for everyone, from young people entering college to those of us coping with the daily frustrations of the business world. It offers a path to making a difference.