122 • 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS
Rethinking and overhauling your business processes can lead
to increases in revenue, reliability, cost effi ciency, and quality.
The idea
Michael Hammer and James Champy, who helped introduce
business process redesign (BPR), described it as “the analysis and
design of workfl ow and processes within and between organizations.”
When an organization is facing diffi culties or simply not operating
at maximum effi ciency, BPR can help it regain a competitive edge.
General Motors, one of the world’s largest car manufacturers,
underwent a three-year BPR program to consolidate its multiple
desktop systems into one effi cient system. Donald G. Hedeen,
director of desktops and deployment at GM and manager of the
upgrade program, stated that the BPR “laid the foundation for the
implementation of a common business communication strategy
across General Motors.” Although it was not cheap—technology
companies Lotus and Hewlett-Packard received their largest
non-governmental orders ever from GM during the process—it
yielded signifi cant benefi ts, with supposed savings of 10 percent to
25 percent on support costs, 3 percent to 5 percent on hardware,
and 40 percent to 60 percent on software licensing fees. GM also
gained heightened effi ciency by overcoming incompatibility issues
by using only one platform throughout the entire company.
Although BPR processes have yielded signifi cant results for leading
companies, including Procter & Gamble, Southwest Airlines, and
Dell, certain businesses have used the term BPR to explain and