The "New" Rules of the Corporation

From Greg Woodman:

This “rule book” is from a best selling book back a long long time ago in 1993! Why I pulled out this classic was purely to enlighten (people) that a book 11 years old is still somewhat an “aspire to” here in 2004. And I sense continuing schisms in philosophy. As we develop fully to our outsourcing model I am continually challenged on how to communicate my plans as it relates to people and roles and vendor partners. Certain people just do not get it, and continually challege these ideas. So with that in mind enjoy the basic tenants of the book “Reengineering the Corporation”…..a manifesto for Business Revolution…this book was all about processes and the cover said “Forget what you know about how business should work-most of it is wrong!” How are we doing 11 years later on the following……and if anything you can see why certain people do not fit into the following rules...

Old Rule: Information can appear only one place at one time
Disruptive technology: Shared databases
New Rule: Information can appear simultaneously in as many places as it is needed

Old Rule: Only experts can perform complex work
Disruptive technology: Expert systems
New Rule: A generalist can do the work of an expert

Old Rule: Businesses must choose between centralization and decentralization
Disruptive technology: Telecommunications networks
New Rule: Businesses can simultaneously reap the benefits of centralization and decentralization

Old Rule: Managers make all the decisions
Disruptive technology: Decision support tools (database access, modeling software)
New Rule: Decision-making is part of everyone’s job

Old Rule: Field personnel need offices where they can receive, store, retrieve, and transmit information
Disruptive technology: Wireless data communications and portable computers
New Rule: Field personnel can send and receive information wherever they are

Old Rule: The best contact with the buyer is personal contact
Disruptive technology: Interactive videodisc
New Rule: the best contact with a potential buyer is effective contact

Old Rule: You have to find out where things are
Disruptive technology: Automatic identification and tracking technology
New Rule: Things tell you where they are

Old Rule: Plans get revised periodically
Disruptive technology: High performance computing
New Rule: Plans get revised instantaneously