In any Organization, the BPI initiative to be a success would need to be first understood and owned as well as sponsored by the leadership. The leadership here includes mainly the business unit leaders who become the main sponsors of the BPI program. It is important for the Leaders to understand why BPI is required to be implanted in the Organization, how it is going to help them and how to go about with implementation of the program. More importantly they own the program and they would need to make provisions for the required resources and budgets to ensure that the program is successful.
With the above understanding the BPI program should kick off with a Management meeting or workshop and an Executive Implementation Team comprising of the leadership and management should be formed. At this stage it is very important to run the entire management through a detailed presentation about BPI in terms of concept, methodology and the results. The management team needs to be oriented to manage and look at their business from a process point of view and not from an Organizational point of view.
Executive Implementation Team (EIT) team has a very important and larger role to play in the success of BPI program in the Organization. Some of the key responsibilities and functions of EIT may be listed down as under:
- EIT should own and develop the BPI model for the Organization with the help of BPI champion and the external consultants; for they know their business best and they have the vision to take the Organization forward too.
- BPI Program objectives, policy and directives should be drawn up by the EI Team.
- Implementation plan should be owned by the EI Team and the progress should be monitored by the EI Team through periodic review meetings headed by the team.
- EIT is best equipped to identify business critical processes and assist in simplification or improvement in the critical processes in line with the business requirements.
- EIT is best equipped to appreciate and anticipate roadblocks or obstacles and adapt methods to clear such obstructions to the implementation of BPI.
- EIT knows the resources in each of the business units and is thus in a position to choose and nominate the right process owners to initiate the BPI program.
It is the Business Unit heads and the senior management who are navigating the Organization in the direction envisaged. They are the ones who are in tune with the markets, are able to assess the future trends and outline the areas where the Organization needs to change in order to meet the external challenges as well as to improve the interface with the Customer. Therefore the EIT team comprising of the Business unit heads and senior management are in a position design and take the Organization to the next level keeping in line with the vision set using BPI initiatives. Once they taste the success of BPI program and the resultant benefits that accrue, then it becomes a habit with the management to use BPI as a tool to edge the Organization forward and strive to reach higher benchmark at all times.
