What BPM means to business leaders

Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach that organizations use to manage, improve and optimize their business processes. In uncertain economic times, BPM is especially vital as organizations look to eliminate waste and increase operational resilience.

BPM offers key benefits and advantages to business leaders in achieving and surpassing their business goals. However, deriving value from BPM is not without its challenges.

PEX Network spoke to Ekaterina “Katie” Curry, managing director and head of operations, multifamily/leasetrack at Millennial Specialty Insurance, about what BPM means to business leaders and why. Katie will be speaking on day one of All Access. Future of BPM, taking place February 6-7.

PEX Network: Why does BPM matter to business leaders?

Katie Curry: I think of the basic building blocks of BPM as knowing, measuring and improving processes. With that in mind, BPM is a powerful tool available to business leaders, but one that is frequently underutilized. It’s not glamorous, sexy or particularly trendy and doesn’t easily come to mind for business leaders who are more focused on growing the top line, optimizing expenses, reducing risk or other critical priorities.

PEX Network: What are the most significant advantages BPM can offer business leaders?

KC: BPM is an unsung hero that can actually help with many business priorities. It makes the invisible, visible through its use of KPIs, metrics and data to enable better decisions. It creates a culture of incremental improvement based on data. It measures and quantifies risk and it can even drive innovation, spurred by BPM data.

READ: 6 trends that will shape BPM in 2024

PEX Network: Why should every company/business unit focus on BPM and execution excellence?

KC: BPM can act as a key differentiator or superpower for businesses. In a competitive world, where many companies offer great products, have strong marketing and technology, the focus on executing with excellence can make or break a company. They say – culture eats strategy for breakfast. Without strong execution, vision is just hallucination (Einstein or Edison might have said that). Simply put, getting things done in the most efficient, lean, high quality and innovative way possible is a  necessary and important prerequisite to success.

My favorite use of BPM tools has been in extracting process metrics buried deeply in the work of “engine room” operational teams. These process metrics, or “juicy insights” as I like to call them, can be valuable insights not just internally for improving operations but for clients too. Businesses should consider packaging certain BPM insights and monetizing them by offering them to clients.

PEX Network: What factors are key to BPM-business leader alignment and buy-in?

KC: First you need to start with a clear vision, ROI and link to the business priorities. Questions to ask include: Why do we need to embark on a BPM journey? What is the business need? Who does this benefit? Are there quick wins? Without these answers, you cannot move forward with BPM projects.

The next important piece is communication, transparency and education. Frequent, clear and concise communication is needed. As a business leader, I have seen transformation and BPM practitioners who bury me with long detailed jargony presentations. Please stop. These won’t get you buy-in. Link projects to each leader’s priorities and involve leaders in decision making and guidance – that’s much more likely to get you buy-in. I’ve seen that solid governance structures with leader involvement drive buy-in faster too. One of my favorite tools for leader alignment is RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted and informed).

Finally, understand that getting full buy-in is sometimes impossible because of various competing priorities. If that’s the case in your organization, pick a couple of leaders who see the value of BPM and work to deliver value to their functional area. When they see improvements, they will become your champions with their peers.

READ: Future of BPM: Low-code/no-code technology

PEX Network: What are the biggest BPM challenges business leaders face?

KC: There are quite a few challenges, but they fall into three categories. The first and most important is getting buy-in and support from senior leadership. BPM is an investment, financially and in terms of time. Results are not immediate and require effort and time. Public companies, who are under the constant scrutiny of boards and shareholders, often don’t give BPM sufficient focus and time to bring results. Plus getting sales, marketing, operations, technology and other leaders all on the same page is a near impossible task for many companies.

The second category is the technology (infrastructure, integrations, modernization and tools) required for BPM to deliver value. Often, the ROI is not clear or fast enough to warrant all the technology required to implement the BPM tools.

The final category is around the pull and push of standardization versus flexibility. BPM works well with standardized documented processes, but in a culture of extreme personalization expected by clients, businesses have to find the right balance between putting the client at the center of the business but also extracting the value of standard one-size-fits-most processes.

Addressing these challenges requires strategic thinking, creativity, alignment at the top of organizations and commitment to ongoing improvement, but the challenges are worth solving.