Company Re-engineering

Re – engineering. Say the word, and you can almost hear the buzz. It’s one of those words that are somehow upbeat and menacing at the same time (“digital” had the same ring a few years ago). It seems to speak of a bright future that you’ll miss if you don’t move quickly even though you’re not sure what you’re supposed to do.

Given re-engineering’s glamour and mystery, it’s not surprising that the label has been applied to all sorts of business activities that could be better characterized in other ways. Some big companies, for example, like to say they have “reengineered” when all they’ve done is to fire some of their employees.

In fact, re-engineering has a reasonably simple and specific meaning–one that is applicable to small businesses as well as large. Like the man who was surprised to learn that he was speaking prose, many small firms may be surprised to learn that they’re re-engineering now, or have already done so–maybe more than once. Re-engineering is simply a new take on what many businesses have always had to do if they wanted to survive: put them through radical change.