What is the business process? This is a sequential chain of actions or operations that has a beginning, a certain number of steps, and leads (or should lead) to the planned result.
For example, the process of hiring employees is simplified like this:
- Posting information about vacancies
- Interview, testing of candidates
- Conclusion of a contract
It would seem why there is something to prescribe and regulate because everything is done by professionals.
However:
- If every HR specialist places ads anywhere, then many of them will be paid in vain, the target audience will not see these ads;
- If the testing of applicants is carried out by incompetent people (for example, the decision is made without taking into account the opinion of the foreman of the site to which the candidate is sent), the company will receive inadequate workers, etc.
Although the processes in the work of the enterprise have always been present, they began to be perceived as objects of management relatively recently.
Management Business Processes
Management processes include the main and supporting mechanisms: financial risk management, business planning, strategic management. E.g, an email marketing agency if follows the right business management processes, then it will see a good amount of growth.
A distinctive feature of these processes is a standardized form of object management using cyclical actions:
- Make a plan
- Identify the problem that has arisen
- Analyze, make a decision
- Control execution
- Develop an algorithm
These mechanisms are not important for the external client, but they are significant for the company’s management, since they allow it to grow and develop.
The differences between management flows are due to management objects:
- Business process “financial management” considers the object “money”
- “Personnel management” controls the “personnel” object, etc
Operational activities
The operational BP includes the basic activity of the organization, which provides the main income: purchases, production, sales.
Like any other processes, operational business processes can be considered at different levels, but the principle of their operation can be shown using an average example.
Let’s say we are introducing a new line of products. Then the project implementation in terms of operational business processes should look something like this.
- We define the goal of the project – it should be specific and aimed at meeting the needs of the client. For example: meet the demand for a given product in a given region by 70%.
- We assign a person responsible for the process, say, a sales director (for this project, for example, a production director will report to him).
- The business process manager appoints those responsible for the sub-processes and assigns the development of documentation as part of their activities.
- On the basis of the collected information, the stages of scheduling and criteria for monitoring individual units are developed (raw materials supply, warehouse turnover, technology improvement).
- We consistently monitor and record the results, making adjustments as needed.
With a properly built organization, the owner gets the opportunity not to participate in solving current problems, engaging in those areas of activity that cannot be transferred to subordinates.
Supporting PSUs
As the name implies, supporting business processes are the auxiliary streams of the company’s activities that serve the main nodes: technical support, accounting, repair departments, quality control department.
The main tasks of managing supporting BP are to develop standards for the functionality of positions, to determine the boundaries of responsibility of each staff unit, to establish a system for the effective exchange of information between higher and lower levels, between adjacent departments.
However, the management of any activity will not be efficient enough if the key business process of the company is not identified.
What is a “core process”?
It is customary to call the key processes that are aimed at solving the strategic tasks of the organization, that is, those that determine the main content of the business, form the basis of its competitive advantage.
Highlighting key processes serves as a starting point for perceiving the business as a single machine with specific goals and allows you to start developing the stages of systematization, which would otherwise turn into a waste of time for approvals, meetings and rewriting documentation.
