We’ve recently introduced two related frameworks to help today’s business leaders to succeed in today’s highly competitive and volatile economic environment:

–Measuring And Aligning Business Performance. In order to anticipate and adapt to the rapid changes organizations face, they must articulate and execute a performance-focused strategy that provides relative context (how’s business relative to the competition) and the “critical few” relevant metrics that indicate financial and operational health.

–Forrester’s Framework for Process-Driven Organizations. At the same time, as organizations face aggressive growth and customer expectations, a “graying workforce” that puts process knowledge at risk, and increased commoditization of products and services, they must adopt a process-driven strategy to differentiate themselves and innovate to compete.

The inevitable question in business leaders’ minds is — “So which should I be: process-driven or performance-driven?” Our take: both! Companies adopting a performance-driven strategy and a process-driven framework should not assess and adapt their strategies in isolation or choose one over the other. Process excellence methodologies such as Six Sigma, in fact, promote the use of measurements, which in turn are essential for managing business performance. Forrester sees both frameworks as complementary tools to help firms create predictable, measurable, value-added core processes that advance firms’ strategic objectives.

Paul Hamerman, Vice President
Business Process & Applications

Andy Salunga, Senior Analyst
Business Process & Applications