In the early 1990s, Jim Champy saw the writing on boardroom walls -- companies have to change the way they work if they want to be effective and profitable. No wonder, Champy's book, Reengineering the Corporation, became an immediate best-seller, being translated into 17 languages. Although the Internet didn't exist when Champy wrote this book, he says that the concept of work flowing horizontally inside a corporation and across the boundaries of a corporation hasn't changed.

In his book X-Engineering the  Corporation, Champy argues that companies have to go beyond their walls and think about how their processes, their systems, and their technology can connect across organizational boundaries to customers, suppliers, and partners. He says, "We see much inefficiency in those processes. About 40 cents of every healthcare dollar goes to settling healthcare claims. If you want to reduce that cost, you have to look at the processes between hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies."

According to Champy, the new version of the corporation will have much built-in transparency. He says, "Of course, companies will always have physical walls and various processes they'll own. The Internet has forced companies to become more transparent because of what their constituents expect and what regulations require for disclosure."

Champy says that the new corporation will change the CIO's role, providing a greater opportunity to change how work is done, both inside the corporation, and across its external boundaries. He says, "IT changes what a company does and what type of value it delivers to its customers. The new corporation, however, has to realize that IT is the great enabler of business process change."

Back in the late 1990s, Champy saw the need for the convergence of business and technology to form the overall corporate strategy, especially in companies where IT doesn't form the business's underpinning, such as in financial services or e-commerce. The good news, Champy says, is this convergence has finally happened. He says, "The strategic nature of IT always has been, and always will be, how the technology is used in combination with business processes to create a company's distinctiveness. That's why you have to tailor the IT strategy and the corporate strategy as one. Strategy is about developing distinctiveness in your marketplace by combining technology and how it changes your business. Distinctiveness is the engine that powers your business."

To write his  latest book, Outsmart--How to Do What Your Competitors Can't, Champy embarked on a journey to find out how companies have devised new ways to do things, and what we can learn from them. Using a filter of triple-digit growth, he came up with more than 1,000 companies. He selected nine companies to profile in Outsmart. He says, "Companies, such as Partsearch, that are innovating how to deliver a better customer experience use a combination of high-tech and high-touch. Of course, IT plays a role in this process."

In this podcast, Champy talks how about the new corporation will expand the CIO's role, what the CIO must do to identify and to create corporate innovation, and what a CEO should expect from a CIO.

Bio
James Champy is chairman of Perot Systems Corporation’s consulting practice and is also head of strategy for the company. He directs the company’s team of business and management consultants. Before joining Perot Systems, Champy was chairman and chief executive officer of CSC Index, the management consulting arm of Computer Sciences Corporation. He was one of the original founders of Index, a $200 million consulting practice that CSC acquired in 1988.

Champy co-authored Reengineering the  Corporation, which appeared on the New York Times' best-seller list for  more than a year. His follow-up books include Reengineering Management,  The Arc of Ambition, Fast Forward, X-Engineering the  Corporation, and his latest book, Outsmart-How to Do What Your  Competitors Can't.

Resources
CIO  Insight - Jim Champy on Corporate Darwinism
Forbes  - The Invisible $15 Billion Market
CIO  - Five Things Jim Champy Has Learned About Beating the Competition

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive  Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio  Producer
AlarmMusic.com Production Music  Library for Broadcast, Film, Video & Post Production