The Process Center of Excellence

A final post in a series addressing some of the lessons and take aways from experience in establishing Centers of Excellence.

Every organization knows they have a responsibility to optimize financial resources. I don’t know of a business that does not have a CFO or the equivalent and appropriate staff. Most also have acknowledged the importance of their information resources and have a CIO or CTO organization. Most also realize that they need to effectively manage their human resources and have established a Human Resources department.

With processes being perhaps the most critical resource an organization develops, I wonder why most are less enthusiastic about optimizing processes and appointing a chief process officer. This officer would lead a Process CoE that focuses on two critical activities within the business:

1. Optimize and Continuously Improve Existing Processes
2. Create New Capabilities

Some organizations have addressed the first of these using six sigma…