Having Good Processes and Following them is a Necessary but not a Sufficient Condition for an Organization to Succeed

The key concern of every organization is the same - achieve sustained success, not only this year, next year and in the decades to come but (if possible) forever.

Sustained success essentially depends on two levers - formulation of a sound and well-rounded strategy and its flawless execution.

The above two levers rest on the troika of people, processes and tools.

Organizations need all the three:

• Trained, experienced and motivated people 
• Adequate, appropriate and adaptive processes 
• Reliable, easy to use and well-integrated tools 

However, the perception that is commonly prevalent is that process is everything. It is generally thought that if an organization has great processes, it will be a great organization. 

This is nothing but a myth and far removed from reality. It ignores the fundamental aspects related to processes - they are dumb on their own.

A process takes life when "people" make use of it. This gets amplified if this usage is through "tools".

Consider the following example to understand what the above means. This example is related to the process of billing the items a customer has purchased at a grocery mart.

For the grocery mart employee at the billing counter the process can be captured in following key steps:

• Let a customer place the items on the billing counter 
• Pick the items one by one 
• Scan the items 
• Tell the amount to the customer 
• Collect payment 
• Generate invoice 
• Hand invoice to the customer 
• Let the customer gather the items and clear the billing counter 
• Move to the next customer 

Very simple process indeed. And interestingly, this process would be almost same from one grocery mart to another to yet another.

The big question now - is having a standard process like the above enough to ensure billing process gets executed smoothly, every time.

The answer is certainly not a "Yes". Why?

The people and tools aspect cannot be ignored and at the same time cannot be thought to work perfectly every time. And when these aspects do not work as expected, the conclusion is that the billing process is not smooth.

The above conclusion is not fundamentally a sound one.

The grocery mart employee at the billing counter needs to be trained, experienced and motivated to ensure she sticks to the defined process, every time.

In addition, the tools used while following the process need to be reliable, easy to use and well-integrated so that the grocery mart employee at the billing counter is able to stick to the defined process, every time.

It is important here to note that any "defined process" is dumb. What ultimately matters is the actual "deployed process" as against the "defined process".

It is essential that "defined process" should be adequate, appropriate and adaptive. However, that is not the end of the story.

Undoubtedly, having great processes is a necessary condition. This though is not a sufficient condition.

First, and foremost, "deployed process" should be exactly in line with the "defined process". Second, and more importantly, "people" and "tools" have a direct bearing on the "deployed process".

It is obvious, therefore, that having good processes and following them is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for an organization to succeed.