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01 The Purpose

What is the idea behind ‘The Zen of Business’?


While working on various projects and assignments at work – which invariably have something or the other that has got to do with different business processes, their design, definition, management and improvement – I always come across situations where I feel it would have been nice to refer to something – either to validate my thoughts or to get a stimulus into finding some solution.

I usually get this reference by looking around, or through some of the books that I keep handy on the flights and travel. And believe me; the books may have nothing to do with management. They can be on diverse topics ranging from art to philosophy to religion to literary fiction. The last good breakthrough that I got was while reading Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’.

But I think it would be nice to have one repository where one can dig into. It is with this idea that I am proposing to start this blog. I hope that it will be entertaining and useful to others, like my earlier blogs that have been, although not on business and commerce, but on mythology and travel.

One crucial difference between this blog and the others is that I intend to make this blog more like a discussion forum, and hence it is not only I who would be posting on this blog. I am expecting that more people will participate and help in building this as a repository on business practices that help organizations achieve excellence.

The focus of this blog is intended to be what we call ‘operational excellence’. Now this is one fuzzy word and I intend to clear any confusion related to this word right away. There are usually three layers of decision making and business processes, usually shown as a pyramid:

1. The first one on the top is the Strategic realm. Typical decisions and discussion items here are about vision, mission, values, business plans, growth, profitability, acquisitions, organic vs inorganic growth, product lines, geographies etc. This is the smallest triangle one on the top. The reason why it is smallest is because only a handful of individuals in an organization are involved in these discussions and decision making processes.

2. The bottom layer is the Systems layer. This is about tools, technology, and infrastructure that is required to enable an organization to achieve the strategic vision. A lot of people are involved in this, and hence it is the largest piece of the pyramid. It is also at the bottom, since this is usually the first thing an individual gets to do in his/her career.

3. In between these two layers lies the realm of Processes. This is in the middle because it connects the two. It addresses the question – now that you have decided where you want to go (strategy) and you have all the necessary tools and aids in place (systems), how do you exactly plan to go about it? How do you ensure that what you do is clear to all, consistent, repeatable, controlled, planned, verified, and delivers the required results?

This middle layer is where the rubber meets the road. And this is the area where I have been working with a lot of organizations with. So although the posts on this blog will wander in different realms, sometimes talk strategy and on other times talk about systems and tools, I intend this blog to be strongly rooted in the middle layer – the realm of Processes.

Also, this layer of processes – which includes process design, process management and process improvement – is the key to execution. Many companies have great vision. A lot many have all the tools and resources. But only a select few succeed. It seems that difference is between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’. That is the importance of this layer. Hence the name ‘Zen of business’.

I would like to spend some time in detail on discussing why I believe this focus on processes is important, and thereby discuss what the overall message is that I intend to convey. But that is the subject of a latter post.

- Best
Shreekant
01-January-2010

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