Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes – in Latin.

That’s what Bernard of Chartres – a French philosopher used to say. About 500 years before Isaac Newton (who is usually credited with this saying) wrote it in one of his letters.Bernard pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we can capitalize on the fruits of labors of our forerunners.

I’m not Isaac Newton – obviously. Not even Bernard of Chartres. However, Business Description Language (BDL) – the corporate management methodology that I have developed (and on which this book is based) does allow to see further, wider and deeper than its predecessors. But only because it used the fruits of labors of those before me.

‘Used’ in this context does not mean that it (with one limited exception) incorporates the previous tools or technologies. Or that it is some form of a ‘Grand Unification Theory’ for the previous methodologies. It does not and it is not.

BDL is a brand-new methodology for making a quantum leap in aggregate corporate performance; for conducting a comprehensive business analysis; performing a strategic corporate reengineering; developing and deploying kaizen – continuous improvement system; and for overall corporate- and knowledge management.

In this section, I will present a list of all corporate management and other methodologies that influenced BDL and this book. For each methodology, I will briefly mention how exactly it influenced BDL and which deficiency (or, better ‘imperfection’) of this methodology BDL fixed.

1.      ‘Classic’ reengineering (process-based). Michael Hammer and James Champy in their timeless bestseller “Reengineering a Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution” promised that a quantum leap in corporate performance could be obtained by reengineering corporate processes. This is where the idea for a quantum leap in BDL (and the title of this book) came from. Unfortunately for entrepreneurs, investors and managers (but fortunately for me), BPR (business processes reengineering) could deliver only local quantum leaps – in performance of individual business processes. BPR simply does not have the tools to deliver a quantum leap for the whole organization. But BDL does. Because it is object-oriented, not process-oriented.

2.      Object-oriented approach (OOA). First, it conquered the software engineering world – with C++, Visual Basic and other object-oriented programming languages. Next, it conquered the world of information systems – with another object-oriented language (UML). Now, BDL takes OOA one level up – to business systems engineering (or to simply business engineering).

3.      Business Engineering (BE). BE states that businesses and other organizations – government entities, NGO, etc., called socio-technical systems in BE – can and must be engineered as professionally as airplanes or industrial facilities, since the former are conceptually similar to the latter. Prior to the invention of BDL, BE was just a promise,   because there were simply no methodology, nor tools for creating a comprehensive and uniform blueprint for an organization and creating organization according to this blueprint. BDL provides these tools and thus delivers on the BE promise.

4.      Lean organization as the fundamental objective of business engineering. BDL takes the idea of a ‘simplified and minimalist approach to doing business’ (which is a definition of a lean organization) and applies it to the comprehensive system of corporate objects, processes, KPI, etc. Which must be both necessary and sufficient. No fat, just meat.

5.      Balanced Scorecards. Using a scorecard for measuring corporate performance is a great idea, obviously. Unfortunately, BSC allowed to measure only a very limited and incomplete aspect of corporate performance. BDL introduces three scorecards – Aggregate Performance Scorecard (APS); KPI Scorecard (KPIS) and Document Evaluation Scorecard (DES) which measure all aspects of corporate performance – and the performance of all corporate objects, processes and projects.

6.      Valuation. Or, more precisely, financial valuation models. For measuring and managing the financial (shareholders’) value of business entities. The ‘imperfection’ is that it has the methodology and tools for measuring value of a business entity. And to achieve your fundamental corporate management objective, you will need to measure financial value generated by corporate objects (products, brands, target markets, etc.), processes, projects, etc. Therefore, a whole lot of valuation models for these entities. BDL delivers these models.

7.      Comprehensive Business Analysis (CBA) procedure and questionnaire. Probably the best book on this issue is “Venture Capital Investing” by David Gladstone. The problem? Both the questionnaire and the procedure are not exactly well-structured. And the questionnaire is also incomplete, to boot.  And the procedure (often called ‘due diligence’ if CBA is performed by and for outsiders) is anything but uniform. BDL solves all of these problems by (a) offering a comprehensive questionnaire; (b) a uniform CBA procedure; (c) structuring CBA questions around corporate objects and processes and (d) including values of all KPI – not just financial – into the CBA. In addition, BDL offers the methodology and tools to calculate performance scores and Aggregate Performance Indices (API) for simple and composite objects, business processes, object portfolios (e.g. brands or products) and for your whole business system

8.      CRM. BDL takes the idea that you must have relationships – not just transactions – with your customers and takes it one leap further. It states that you must have harmonious relationships with all your corporate stakeholders – suppliers, partners, government entities, media, etc. ‘Harmonious’ means that your company must satisfy aggregate needs – financial, functional and emotional – of your stakeholders (a) to the maximum possible extent and (b) definitely better than your competition. Or, in other words, to create the maximum possible amount of aggregate value for the. The second half of ‘harmonious’, obviously, means that your stakeholders must generate the maximum possible amount of aggregate value for your company.

9.      Kaizen as the concept of ‘continuous improvement’. BDL takes this concept and applies it to the corporate structure and behavior to make sure that your company operates at its maximum productivity at all times

To this list of concepts, methodologies and tools, BDL added, obviously, itself – a radically new concept and, in fact, an invention. Plus a few other concepts that I will cover in this book – aggregate value (financial + functional + emotional); ‘happy company’ and ‘corporate happiness’ and the very important concept of ‘corporate cockpit’ – sort of a ‘Holy Grail’ for the information- and knowledge management industry.