Organization 21C: Someday All Organizations Will Lead This Way

Chapter 6. From Reengineering to X-Engineering

James A. Champy

When Mike Hammer and I wrote Reengineering the Corporation in 1992, we argued that there were compelling forces that required companies to change. We called those forces the three Cs: customers, competition, and change itself. Today, those forces are still at work, more powerful than ever. In response, they require a sort of reengineering on steroids—the fundamental redesign of work, not just within the walls of a company, but now between a company and its customers, suppliers, and partners. I call this next generation of process change X-engineering. The X denotes the crossing of organizational boundaries.

Back in 1992, customers were already gaining the upper hand. They had more ...