| Operational Leadership integrates and extends key concepts on leadership and process management and applies these to the improvement of operational performance. It presents a framework for action in an easy to read, actionable format. The importance of viewing operations in the context of a company’s key capabilities, or end-to-end processes, where collaboration across traditional organizational boundaries is essential, is emphasized. It’s an outstanding title that addresses an operational leadership mindset and paradigm which enables both breakthrough change and the discipline of continuous improvement in operations. |  |
| More for Less: The Power of Process Management is the definitive guide for business leaders who are determined to deliver more for less to their customers and shareholders. What do your customers really want? “More for less,” of course! They want more value, more service, more consistent delivery, more accuracy, and ever more responsiveness. They want less hassle, less bureaucracy, and less sales pressure. Unless you can provide your customers with “more for less,” you can be assured they will find someone else who can, and sooner rather than later. There’s no magic to providing more for less, but it does require a management mindset that’s different from the norm–and that’s precisely what this book is about. The findings from exclusive interviews with frontline executives went into the making of this book. More for Less is one of the best sources of contemporary thinking about business process management. |  |
| Business Process Management is a Team Sport: Play It to Win is a book with a compelling message about the resurgence of business process thinking for competitive advantage. It emphasizes customer centricity and cross-functional collaboration. In an easy-to-read, business novel format, the book outlines why and how thoughtful CEO’s and leadership teams can manage enterprise business processes as the means to transform their good companies into great ones. It outlines a robust framework needed by organizations to achieve strategic focus, organizational alignment and operating discipline. |  |
Selected Articles:
How to be a Transformational CFO? (2011)
Chief financial officers (CFOs) are particularly well suited to lead a major
transformational effort. Yet few do so successfully even though most have
a vested role in strategic planning and also determine what the organization
measures and monitors. This article explores the key values and practices. See: http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Public/SF/2011_12/12_2011_spanyi.pdf
Leading Business Transformation (2011)
Given the extensive reliance on IT, one might think that CIOs would lead business transformation efforts. Yet, they rarely do. On occasion, when CIOs do attempt to lead business transformation, they fail more often than not. Why is this? What are the obstacles that a transformation minded CIO must contend with, how to overcome these, and what are the best (or rare) practices they need to engage in? The article can be viewed at http://blog.cordys.com/
Process Excellence Success: More Art than Science
Success in process excellence is arguably more art than science. In working with organizations over the past two decades on major process improvement projects, I’ve observed that the majority of challenges have to do with factors such as lack of committed leadership, shifting priorities, inconsistent communication, lack of prompt action in removing obstacles to change and a failure to recognize and celebrate accomplishments. A rigorous methodology may help in mitigating these challenges, but the art of deploying process excellence is even more important.
Process Excellence Success – More Art than Science
Leading Process Change
Lack of committed leadership typically surfaces among the top few barriers in practically every survey on the obstacles in making major improvements to organizational performance. This article explores why leaders continue to struggle in this regard.
Taking Process Excellence to the Next Level (2011)
Many firms are actually quite good at improving performance on projects of small scope within traditional organizational boundaries, and yet many firms struggle in improving and sustaining improvements to large business processes such as order fulfillment and new product introduction.
Taking Process Excellence to the Next Level final
Lean at your Service
Examines what service organizations may need to do to optimize the use of lean principles in the service sector.
http://www.spanyi.com/lean-at-your-service.pdf
It’s Time to Change:
Strategic Finance Magazine, October 2006 – By Andrew Spanyi
Fulfilling the traditional role as their company’s chief accountant and technical expert is no longer enough for chief financial officers. To succeed in today’s business world, CFOs need to take a broader organizational view—beyond just the numbers—and become more involved in shaping and executing strategy and creating value.
Time to change strategic finance
Enabling Execution
Strategic Finance Magazine 2003
This article addresses systems thinking at the executive team level.