Dr. Michael Hammer was one of the most forward business thinkers of his time before his untimely death at age 60 in 2008. He was a relentless champion for improving the performance of businesses and his teachings were centered around the use of processes. Every time you are stuck on hold for 10 minutes or getting bounced from department to department when you're trying to get a problem resolved with say your cable bill, you're experiencing the "process" of that company. His insight was that everything most of us had learnt about work and efficiency, specifically that you break work into tasks and get people to become good at performing tasks (the Frederick Taylor model) was wrong. Not only does that dehumanize the worker, it's not efficient and doesn't serve the interests of the person who matters most, the customer who pays all the bills.
Instead, what Dr. Hammer taught was that every organization has very few end-to-end processes that matter. Think of these (processes) beginning with the customer and crossing the boundaries of the various departments (functions) along the way. Then think of the design of the process being centered around the needs of the customer and not the internal departments and you get a sense of his message. Further, build your key metrics and organizational dashboard around the performance of these processes and you begin to have some real organizational alignment. If you then have the people who perform the work actually designing and improving the processes, well now you have a self sustaining engine that keeps improving.
He wasn't a six sigma or LEAN teacher; his focus was on developing high performance organizations that engaged and better utilized the people in the organization. he didn't see people as purely task performers in other words.
Dr Hammer taught how all organizations leverage the only structure they have, which is the functional organizational structure. They use this tool to solve all problems, reorganizing over and over to "solve" performance challenges. They never realize that until they are able to deploy the end-to-end processes that span the functional departments they are doomed to reorganizing with it's toll on both employees and customers. Leading such an organization required greater skills and alas these are not taught. Even the greatest MBA schools focus on teaching functional (accounting, finance, strategy etc.) skills. Teaching about operational excellence is simply not done, or if it is, it's only in the manufacturing context.
It was this shift in thinking that Dr. Hammer pushed for. When the impact of what he was saying finally hit me, I went through many emotions, one of which was why didn't I know this before. I finally understood why I struggled as a manager and how much I did not know about executing and leadership. This is why I respected and admired Dr. Hammer. Think of the courage it takes to scream into the wind, against an orthodoxy so entrenched that until the last job is outsourced overseas we will not learn. Acting on his teachings has been the most rewarding part of my career. He literally gave a new purpose to my work and I am truly grateful for the gift of the last 15 years. I got to (and still do) work to improve organizations and the feedback from people has been sustaining.
I got to know Dr. Hammer first through his book "beyond re-engineering". That book had a profound impact on me and I was astonished at the power of the message. It changed how my department worked, and got us recognition that I could only have dreamt about. Later, I got to attend his classes in Massachusetts, and discovered that he'd talk with students during the breaks ONLY if you answered his questions during the class. So, I started answering his questions and got to talk to him and know him. This led, later, to him taking an interest in my work (which was based on his principles but with a twist for IT) and later to Dick (Daniels, my manager) and I presenting our work at his conference, and that in turn led to recurring personal conversations with him and him taking an interest in my career.
He was brilliant and his knowledge was both broad and deep. He was eccentric and particular; once he got the point he didn't want to go on about it. so, one learnt to be clear and succinct with him. he had a low tolerance for self promoters and people with airs, a trait I greatly admired. He was not impressed by titles and people who used big words.
His was a voice that American companies desperately needed, if ever we're going to truly compete. Simply outsourcing is not a sustainable strategy either at the corporate level or as a national phenomenon. Knowing him and learning from him was one of the highlights of my professional and personal life.
RIP Dr. Hammer.
