Reengineering the Corporation

Name: Reengineering the Corporation
ISBN: 9787513949668

迈克尔·哈默 / 詹姆斯·钱匹 / 小草民主与建设出版社 · ChinaSep 2023

4.0

Word count: 133K words
Chapters: 34
ISBN: 9787513949668

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Summary

From the 1960s to the early 1990s—in just over 20 years—the West's economic growth rate fell by 60%, the average corporate lifespan shortened, and the commercial life of products and services shrank sharply. The root cause: the production and operating systems of the early industrial era, with their emphasis on the division of labor, could no longer keep pace with a changing world.

Reengineering the Corporation emerged in response, spending six months on the New York Times most influential nonfiction bestseller list, and was soon translated into more than 30 languages, sweeping the globe and guiding countless companies through transformation, while Michael Hammer joined the ranks of the world's most influential management thinkers. Business reengineering is the intellectual bible and practical handbook for companies confronting a radically changing world.

Since the 21st century, mobile internet, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other technological concepts have been profoundly transforming the world, and the business community has entered another historic period of transition. Grounded in this reality, Michael Hammer revised Reengineering the Corporation to help companies upgrade and iterate.

Editor's review

Reengineering the Corporation is the foundational work of reengineering theory. Hammer and Champy pointedly argued that the industrial-era organizational logic centered on the division of labor can no longer match a fast-changing market, and that companies must redesign work around processes rather than functions. The book's value lies not in universal templates but in a thinking framework for reexamining organizational efficiency: start from customer value, question why existing processes exist, and then use information technology as a lever for radical redesign. Its critique of the division of labor and its distilled principles of reengineering remain the basic language of organizational change discussions today. The 2023 revised edition extends the view to mobile internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and other technological contexts, connecting classic arguments with today's business transformation agenda. Read it alongside your own organization's reality and compare process pain points as you go, rather than reducing it to a tool for layoffs or flattening hierarchies. Suitable as an intellectual primer and review foundation for managers undertaking organizational change.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Mid- and senior-level managers facing low organizational efficiency or transformation pressure
Management consultants and organizational development practitioners needing a theoretical framework for process reengineering
Business school students and management researchers seeking to understand classic reengineering thought
Startup founders who need to redesign business processes during rapid expansion

Not a good fit for

Readers looking for concrete industry operation templates and step-by-step execution checklists
General readers focused only on personal time management rather than organization-level change
Practitioners hoping for detailed local Chinese enterprise case studies

Reading tips

Read the theoretical sections first to grasp the core principles of reengineering, then map your organization's key processes against them.
After each chapter, identify one existing process in your organization worth questioning and note its rationale and customer value.
Read with your team and hold discussions to turn the book's principles into a small-scale process improvement experiment.
Read the revised edition's chapters on new technology contexts separately, and consider how digital tools can support process redesign.

About the publisher

民主与建设出版社 China · Founded in 1994

Founded in 1994, Democracy and Construction Press organizes its publishing around economic management, the humanities and history, and united front culture, while also covering foreign literature and classic works. Among the 732 titles in the collection are translations of foreign classics such as The Brothers Karamazov and On War, fantasy literature such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Illustrated Collector's Edition, and modern literary masterpieces including Lao She's Four Generations Under One Roof and Camel Xiangzi · The Problem of Nothing, and Lu Xun's Call to Arms. Translators Geng Jizhi and Wang Jinhua, together with authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and Carl von Clausewitz, form the resource base for its combination of scholarly translation and general reading. As public information is limited, this description focuses on the publishing profile reflected in the titles held in the collection.

版权信息
序 21世纪的企业再造
第一章危机常在
第二章企业再造：改变之路
再造的正式定义
再造实践
第三章重新思考业务流程
第四章工作新世界
第五章再造之促进者——信息技术
学习归纳式思维
第六章谁来再造
再造领导者
流程负责人
再造团队
督导委员会
再造总顾问
第七章寻找再造的机会
选择需要再造的流程
理解流程
第八章重新设计流程的经验
第九章着手再造
改变的理由：医药公司
改变的理由：大众消费品公司
愿景：医药公司
愿景：大众消费品公司
第十章公司的经验：杜克能源
第十一章公司的经验：IBM
杰米·休伊特
第十二章公司的经验：迪尔
第十三章成功再造
后记
常见问题解答
致谢
出版后记

FAQ

Is this book suitable for general readers with no management experience?

The book centers on organization-level process reengineering, discussing the division of labor, organizational structure, and the role of information technology; readers without management practice will find it somewhat remote. If you are reading out of general interest in management ideas, focus on the theoretical overview; if you want to apply it directly at work, some team management or process participation experience is advisable first.

Is reengineering the same as layoffs and flattening hierarchies?

The book emphasizes redesigning work processes around customer value, not simply cutting staff or layers. Layoffs are merely the result of some companies implementing it poorly, not the theoretical claim. Focus on its core logic of questioning existing processes and reconstructing collaboration with information technology, and avoid reducing reengineering to organizational downsizing.

What is the difference between the 2023 revised edition and earlier versions?

According to the materials, the revised edition was updated by Hammer in light of current realities, bringing mobile internet, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other technological changes into view to help companies upgrade and iterate. The core reengineering ideas continue; the new content mainly responds to the 21st-century business transition, so readers can assess how the classic framework applies in today's technological environment.

After reading, how can I apply the book's methods to my own company?

Start with one process directly related to customer experience, ask why it is designed this way and which steps create no value, then try simplifying or merging them with existing technology. Evaluate the results after a small-scale trial, then expand gradually. The book offers thinking principles rather than fixed templates; implementation requires adapting to industry characteristics and organizational reality.

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About the author

迈克尔·哈默 Author

Michael Hammer is a well-known figure in the field of management, and his representative work Reengineering the Corporation has had a broad influence in management studies. Publicly available information about his nationality, dates of birth and death, educational background, and professional career is limited; the library holds only one of his works, classified under management. Reengineering the Corporation shows that Hammer focuses on the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes, emphasizing the transformation of how organizations operate around processes rather than making piecemeal adjustments within existing frameworks. This approach is aimed at managers and practitioners of organizational change, and its writing is direct and problem-oriented, stressing conceptual impact and action guidance. The book is often cited in discussions of corporate change in the 1990s, has had a lasting influence on topics such as process management and organizational restructuring, and remains a text frequently revisited when understanding the evolution of modern management thought.

詹姆斯·钱匹 Author

James Champy is a foreign author closely associated with the field of management, though publicly available information about him in Chinese is quite limited. What can currently be confirmed centers mainly on his representative work, Reengineering the Corporation. The book focuses on corporate management and organizational change, discussing how companies can reexamine and redesign their business processes to adapt to new operating environments; it is one of the more representative works in the wave of thinking on business process reengineering. Within the library's classification, this work is placed under management, indicating that his writing is aimed at business operators, managers, and readers interested in organizational change. Overall, Champy's writing centers on management issues and emphasizes systematic adjustments at the process and organizational levels rather than a list of isolated techniques; his views have had a certain influence on later discussions of business process optimization and organizational transformation. Because biographical information is limited, no further inferences are made here, and readers may understand his core ideas through Reengineering the Corporation.

小草 Author

Xiaocao is an author about whom little information is publicly available; no clear record exists of their nationality, dates of birth and death, or English name. The library currently holds three works by this author, spanning three distinct fields: management, art, and modern romance. The management title is Reengineering the Corporation, the art title is Fairy Tale Town: An Example Tutorial on Dreamlike Line-Art Illustration, and the modern romance novel is The Underdog's Comeback: The Top Disciple Under the CEO. Judging from this range of subjects, Xiaocao does not confine themselves to a single writing direction but moves across practical management, illustration instruction, and popular fiction, with readership accordingly covering working professionals, illustration learners, and romance readers. Because biographical information about the author is lacking, their writing style and creative approach cannot be systematically summarized; the existing works remain the main window into this author.