Introduction

If you have been through a reengineering effort, you might have experienced something like the following: reported earnings were too low, because expenses were too high, again for another quarter. Stock analysts criticized the company, the stock price dropped, the board of directors called your company’s CEO to discuss the situation. Eventually a management consulting firm was called in to “reengineer” your company. This led to a bunch of meetings behind closed doors, and eventually a layoff, and a charge to earnings. If you have been at the company long enough, you might have been through this same ordeal several times over the years.

I remember the first time I went through a reengineering project at my employer’s company. I was puzzled by the whole affair. Our mission as an organization was to deliver our products and services to our customers as efficiently as possible, earning a fair return for our shareholders. We did this all day long, every day. Why were we paying outsiders, who were unfamiliar with our company, to come in and do the job we were supposed to be doing? Several decades of experience later, it now makes more sense to me why this was required.

This book asks three questions, over and over, about the work inside a company: what work is no longer needed at all, what work can be automated, and what work can be picked up by someone already doing something adjacent. Simple questions. Answering them honestly, for a real company, is most of what this book is actually about.