Control versus Speed; control systems don’t generate speed. In fact, we know from fast organizations the opposite to be true. Then one would think that less control would be fast, like in a start-up which has very low management overhead. This is not always the case either. The trick to acceleration is finding the balance between speed and control. Let me explain.
Process re-engineering is back. Hammer and Champy's book Re-Engineering the Corporation defined it in 1993--(then) a new movement to improve corporate efficiency through re-designing processes in order to optimize cost and time with the goal of improving the “customer’s experience.” All through the 1990’s corporations did this with great success. We applied it to, among other things, reducing new product development cycle time. But when prosperity returned, so did the bad practices, and re-engineering became passe.
