Strategy Alignment - Discussion Question - Business Process Management

Using BPM to change a process (or processes) or to development new processes must first begin with a comprehensive understanding of the organization's strategy. If the proposed new process does not align with the organization's strategy, the entire modeling process may be doomed to failure.

Different business strategies require different approaches, which means the business processes must be aligned to accomplish the goals set by the strategy. A business process may appear to be working well, but if it does not support the strategy of the company; it will have a negative impact on the business.

For this Discussion, give an example in which a process, although itself not broken, does not match a company's strategy. Then describe the problems that arise because of this. Chapter 13 has a discussion of various business strategies, and Table 13.2 shows the characteristics of various strategies. You will also find a lot of information on various business strategies through your own research. Your examples can come from this research or your observations, but your arguments must be well supported using sources.

Please note that the point here is to explore a fit between strategy and process; you are not trying to identify bad or broken processes. Rather, you are looking for processes that are fine in and of themselves but that do not fit what the company is trying to accomplish and hence are an obstacle. Giving examples of process that are clearly broken will not satisfy this question.

Use the following template:

1. Briefly describe a company and its business strategy (must be one of the three strategies from Figure 13.19 or one specified in the Seminar).

2. Briefly identify a business process used by the company that does not match the company's strategy.

3. Explain how this causes problems.

4. Why/how do you think this mismatch has occurred and continues to take place?