From Machine to Organism ...

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I just ran across an interesting blog post ( SAP missing the boat ? ) by Sam Lawrence, soon-to-be-ex CMO of Jive (enterprise social software).  It contains an eye-catching, and interesting graphic that sets into stark relief key elements of the massive transition we are all living through.

Approximately 20 years ago the re-engineering movement was jsust beginning to pick up steam, and it was in full bloom 15 years ago.  Ten years ago many larger organizations were somewhere in the middle of their multi-million dollar ERP implementations, pouring the 'electronic concrete' of large integrated ERP systems over their newly refined and streamlined business processes.  As Sam Lawrence puts it:

 

The Old Brain

20 years ago, the brain of an organization was at the process level. But now business process is a commodity. Core processes are like the lights on your car. You used to touch them but now they just happen all by themselves. ERP has now moved into being the circulatory system of organizations. 

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Twenty years ago the dominant metaphor for most sizeable organizations was an optimized machine.  You all know the basic shape:

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(Image courtesy of Infovark blog)

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As IT systems continued to integrate (a generality) and the Web began it's steady march to ubiquity thanks to the browser, we began hearing more and more of organic and biological metaphors for the ways organization (should / could) function.   Some of the leading organizational theorists began speaking and writing about learning organizations, living organizations, the nervous system of the organization, brains and bodies, gardens, cultivating and harvesting (and so on).

As we began to experience more and more often the flows of information within and between organizations ... first EDI and internal reporting, then more full-blown ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, and now continuous information flow ... the rigidities and deficiencies of the first generation of large-and-expensive ERP systems began to become more and more apparent (ref. the term 'electronic concrete' above).   The combined pain of the massively expensive and massively cumbersome implementation of such systems led to a phase wherein comments  along the lines of one CEO's ("If one more person suggests anything to do with ERP implementation, I'll throttle them" ) were increasingly common.  

That was then ... now, we are moving into the next phase.  I suggested earlier today that ERP implementations as we knew them may well be (or have been) a transitional phase, but I think Sam Lawrence puts it better ...

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SAP built a multi-billion dollar business building out a process factory. They own the core processes that run business. They will always be there.

But the process system is tapped. Information workers (I call them “social workers”) are now operating farther and father from the processes. 

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The next phase, I think, is full recognition that organizations in today's information-filled environment DO have an efficiency-engineered body and an awareness-and-response oriented nervous system and brain.  Maybe I can even stretch this metaphor further and suggest that organizations with Taylorism-derived industrial-era DNA have a 'limbic system' which resists the stretching, listening and concentration (yoga metaphor alert) required to move to a next level of flexibility and responsiveness.

More and more organizations will have to come to terms with the continuing and growing presence of the Web (tools, services and web-luterate younger generations (homo zappiens).  The interconnected tendrils and roots are like fast-growing vines that penetrate and surround the aging machine.

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For those organization willing to embark on or already engaged in seeking ways to learn and grow in effectiveness and responsiveness, perhaps they are on the way from evolving from 'machines' into organisms as suggested by the image Sam Lawrence uses to make th epoint that SAP faces an interesting challenge in the years ahead.

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The new brain now touches everyone at an organization. But not just them, it also reaches out and touches a company’s partners and customers. 

While SAP contemplates it’s circulatory system and uses it as the framework to push into extremities and other systems like CRM (sensory system) or SCM (digestive system), it’s hugely missing out on how to capture the new brain.

[ Snip ... ]

So, the $50 Billion question for SAP: Will you aggressively pursue a new growth strategy or stay the course?

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