BPM is about Cost Savings…
Or is
it?
From BPM.com – This week at AppianWorld…
One of the first
sessions was by CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives market place
who manages more than “$1 Quadrillion” in annual transaction volume…
CME runs its business on
BPM. To make this happen, the team sold
this idea to the senior leadership not as a cost-saving plan, but as growth
strategy.
When
cost justifying BPM [business process management] projects, it is common to
look for the cost savings. We know that
there is potential to increase revenues, but those numbers are not ‘hard’
numbers so we don’t spend a lot of time looking for the potential increase.
The CME approach
Using
a Football analogy, CME didn’t spend time coming up with a game plan to ‘not
lose’ the game. They came up with a game
plan to ‘win’ the game.
By
playing ‘not to lose’, companies will reduce their costs hoping that the
revenue will stay where it is and the result will be increased profits. This certainly can work and has for many
companies in the past.
I worked
for Silicon Graphics during their decline and their game plan was ‘not to lose’.
By
playing ‘to win’ the game, companies will develop a game plan [business plan]
that they believe will increase revenues.
They will positively embrace the plan and get their entire team on board
with the game plan. The will execute the
game plan to achieve their end goals.
Apple
is a good example of playing ‘to win’. I
am guessing that their game plan is to lead with cool technologies that place
them ahead of their competition.
Obviously, this is a risky strategy unless you are quite confident that
you can execute on your game plan.
Cutting
costs certainly makes sense, but winning the game is what will keep you in business
for a long time and is likely to increase profits.
What is your game plan?
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