California Management Review

Abstract

Based on discussions with managers from fifteen different reengineering projects, and supplemented by published evidence from eight other projects, the article discusses what distinguishes reengineering from other performance improvement alternatives, what conditions induce organizations to attempt it, and what factors managers have identified that either interfere with or enable the design and implementation of reengineering projects. Reengineering is difficult and risky, but it is the best option to pursue when organizations discover they must improve along a new strategic trajectory that they have not customarily considered critical.

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