Rating: 
Summary: Myth and Reality
Review: This book is about re-engineering that aims at changing organizations in a radical way in the expectation that organizations will gain important advantages in terms of quality, service, efficiency and speed. The assumption of re-engineering is that all organizations are organized according to the principles of functional structure and this structure is the main reason of all problems faced by organizations. In this context, re-engineering is presented as a remedy to all problems of firms thanks to its techniques. According to the authors, organizations must be structured by processes. Firs of all, the important processes must be understood and must be recreated in order to meet customers need and wants efficiently and effectively. Some problems are assumed common for all organizations and believed that all organizations face same kind of problems, accordingly package solutions are offered. I think that firstly, an organization should understand its problem and after produce the solutions to carry out its problem. Without understanding the problem and its real roots correctly, solutions offered can not be permanent and are subject to recurrence. In this book, Information technology is accepted as a "GOD" who can solve all problems. This great management tool ! is presented as an antithesis to Total Quality Management. TQM is denounced because of its Japan origin. At the same time, Re-engineering opposes to Adam Smith and his narrow "division of labor" concept. By using IT, organizations can demolish the negative impacts of strict division of labor according to the authors. Authors decry the routine work performed by employees because of its alienation effect and so develop an emotional sense but does not care the products of re-engineering projects such as unemployment - a great contradiction - . Basically, this book is based on the experiences of authors in organizations they served as advisors.If you look at recent articles of Hammer, you can easily see that Hammer works to put re-engineering into the conventional structure of organizations and meanwhile emphasizes the human side of organizations. If you would like to read this book, read it. But you must be the devils advocate in order not to be entrapped by rhetoric.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent introduction to Reengineering principles
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to reengineering for professionals as well as students. It gives a general view of the main principles of reegineering and transmits very clearly the urgent need for process oriented organizations. It is vey easy to read and it also provides several examples to back each thought. The main defects are that it does not get into detail about how to implement reegineering in real life, and that the authors seem a little arrogant when comparing themselves to "Wealth of Nations". Still, it is really worth reading; every idea written in it makes sense.
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Summary: Reengineered Thinking!!
Review: This book is the simplest approach to a behemoth problem that most industries face.I read this book in the summer of 1997 when I was about to enter the final year of my Engineering.It was presented as a birthday gift by my father and he said that " I have seen you finish 700 page novels in 2-3 days time but here is a 250 odd, pages book that you won't be finishing before a month".And that's what exactly happened. I read the book in a month and took it back to my hostel.Incidentally, I was supposed to do a 1 yr. long project and I selected BPR as the field.I approached a host of companies with my team mates for granting us the oppurtunity to do the project.A lot of them just abhorred the idea that they should let open the doors of their mighty corporation to a host of college kids.But, ultimately I succeded in getting one of the top electric motors manufacturing companies to allow us to do the project. 1 year down the road my team came up with a splendid study of interesting facts about the business process of the company.We could discover flaws that even some of the big managers also couldn't.This was all possible due to the passion generated in me by the book.It helped me to explain the facts to the company managers, labourers, my team(which was virtually on the verge of break up, due to the long wait of 6 hours outside the Personnel Manager's office, when we first approached the company), my professors and also the examiner at last. Thus, this is one of those books that teaches you to think logically and use common sense.No technical knowledge is required to be business process re-designer, but it is important to know your system, have confidence and be a good investigator. I would have given 5 stars to the book but I feel a few more case studies could have done the trick.
Rating:
Summary: Just one idea
Review: This book simply feature one idea: to think, plan and organise on processes instead of on departments and tasks. This is another way to express the old saying: think about what the customer is interested in (the outcome of the process), not about your internal issues (as departments, task, hierarchy and so on. Since Drucker and even sooner this is not new. Even more ennoying is its presumptuous writting. They appoint themselves as overcomers of Adam Smith and his job division. The worst consequence is that many companies have used this book as the rational for downsizing. The beauty of the action has not been achieved (apart from some light improvements) but many workers were fired. In adition the authors became rich. At leat something good was reached (for themselves obviosly).
Rating: 
Summary: Good Summary of the Benefits of Fresh Thinking
Review: This book's subject is the popularized version of the business concept of management process design. Making that concept more accessible is a very useful contribution. The downside of this book is that many people have assumed that it teaches you everything you need to know to do management process design, or to reengineer key processes. That, alas, is not true. If you find the subject of process design or reengineering to be of interest, I suggest that you first read James Champy's excellent book, REEENGINEERING MANAGEMENT. That book is a good template for how to make any beneficial change in an organization, including reengineering. Then, if you want to get fired up to make major changes, use REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION as a way to create passion about the subject for yourself. But do remember, you may not even have all the processes you need, so reengineering is not the only answer. For example, what is the management process that your company uses to improve its stock market valuation? If you are like most, you do not even have an effective process for stock price enhancement. So be sure to see if you have processes where they will do you the most good.
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Summary: Process is still King
Review: This booked rocked the business world when first released circa 1994. It kicked off one of the largest monetary windfalls that the consulting industry has known in recent history. Many would argue that the revolution failed. Certainly there were more than a few (understatement) high profile failed projects to point to. But the same could be said about SAP, CRM, the Web, etc., etc. The reason for most of these failures has more to do with our inability, from an organizational perspective, to adequately handle complexity and chaos, than with the soundness of the underlying ideas and business premises. The consulting industry has often exploited these inabilities for its own gain, regardless of any value that was ultimately received by the customer. However distasteful that might have been for many project participants, we should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. These process centric ideas, brilliantly put forth in this effort, are important, and becoming more so every day. The web is all about either fundamentally changing and transforming existing business processes, or inventing processes previously unimagined, fueled by powerful enabling technologies. This book provides a solid foundation for process based thinking and is still a valuable read today.
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Summary: Even more relevant at the start of the new Millennium....
Review: This is a must read or re-read for consultants, business analysts and managers at all organizational levels. While the concepts are dated (early 1990's), this book is particularly relevant given the recent "dot-com" debacle. Reading this book in light of all that has occurred over the past year, Hammer and Champy remind us that technology is an "essential enabler." The authors provide valuable insight into the process of "re-engineering" that is particularly relevant given the emergence of eCommerce (whether business to business or business to consumer models). Placing the text in a more current context, the Internet and Internet Technology could be viewed as the "technology" component of any re-engineering effort. Lastly, the text is written in a "readable" style that is not littered with jargon that most of us would find both trite and pretentious. The authors write with conviction and based on real world experience that is well-documented.
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Summary: The forerunner to Six Sigma
Review: This is a thought stimulating book, and a true forerunner to the Six Sigma craze. The authors discuss breaking the rules, and I mean RADICALLY breaking them. Six Sigma (originally Motorola's internal TQM program) by contrast, repackages tools used for 50 years and presents them as a "breakthrough strategy". For anyone who is into Six Sigma now, the Hammer and Champy book is a must read. I believe your Six Sigma (or TQM or whatever) efforts return 5-fold after introducing the thinking from "Reengineering" into the endeavor.
Rating:
Summary: Very informative, truly revolutionary
Review: This was the first book on Reengineering that I read. When I read it in 1994, I had just started working for a small company that was struggling in almost all areas of operation. Even though the book does not give specific information, it provides the philosophical view of reengineering. I succesfully applied this philosophy, and achieved dramatic results. I have started a new job, and currently have a project to redesign the Accounts Payable Process. I will be reviewing the book again
Rating:
Summary: Change It, Don't Fix It
Review: This was the original "reengineering" book and rather than summarize the components of his process I will just name the one big "no no" that the current leadership of the U.S. Intelligence Community is passively pursuing...the most frequently committed error: "Try to fix a process instead of changing it."
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