--- title: The Primacy of Process description: Organizations need to be fully committed to both continuous process management and continuous process improvement. Why is this so? In brief, it's the principle of the primacy of business process. Let's unpack that and see if I can convince you of its pre-eminence. image: https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/The%20Primacy%20of%20Process-1.png --- [![LeonardoUST_CMYK-1](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/LeonardoUST_CMYK-1.svg "LeonardoUST_CMYK-1")](https://www.leonardo.com.au/) [![Talk to Us](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/430417/7eb77b0e-c703-49d8-930c-a6d73a5e986f.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/430417/7eb77b0e-c703-49d8-930c-a6d73a5e986f) ![cross-icon](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/cross-icon.svg?t=1536031936288 "cross-icon") ![business-design](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/business-design.svg "business-design") ###### [Business Design](https://www.leonardo.com.au/business-design-consulting-advisory) ![process-automation](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/process-automation.svg "process-automation") ###### [Process Automation](https://www.leonardo.com.au/process-automation) ![data-integration](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/data-integration.svg "data-integration") ###### [Integration & API](https://www.leonardo.com.au/integration) ![platform-engineering](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hubfs/platform-engineering.svg "platform-engineering") ###### [Platform Engineering](https://www.leonardo.com.au/platform-engineering) ![Event_bg](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/3842749/hubfs/Backgrounds%20/Event_bg.jpg?width=2000&name=Event_bg.jpg "Event_bg") # The Leonardo Blog ## [The Primacy of Process](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/the-primacy-of-process) Written by [Roger Tregear](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/roger-tregear) On January 23, 2019 [** ](https://au.linkedin.com/in/rogertregear) [**](http://twitter.com/rogertregear) - [Automation (2)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/automation) - [bpm (3)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpm) - [BPM - Business Process Management (111)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpm-business-process-management) - [BPM/EA Technology (25)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/bpmea-technology) - [Business Innovation (5)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/business-innovation) - [CXM (1)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/cxm) - [EA - Enterprise Architecture (7)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/ea-enterprise-architecture) - [Intergration (12)](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/topic/intergration) - [**](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.leonardo.com.au%2Fthe-primacy-of-process) - [**](https://www.twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.leonardo.com.au%2Fthe-primacy-of-process) - [**](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.leonardo.com.au/the-primacy-of-process) [All Posts](https://blog.leonardo.com.au) # The Primacy of Process - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ![The Primacy of Process l Quote-3](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Primacy%20of%20Process%20l%20Quote-3.png?width=1024&name=The%20Primacy%20of%20Process%20l%20Quote-3.png)As we start this new year I want to revisit the basic premise of my involvement in [business process management](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/creating-sustainable-process-based-management) and [improvement](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/5-ways-to-foster-continuous-process-improvement-in-your-team) — to explain it to you, to reassess it for myself, and to seek your feedback. My working life revolves around the certainty that organizations need to be fully committed to both *continuous process management* and *continuous process improvement*. Why is this so? In brief, it's the principle of *the primacy of process*. Let's unpack that and see if I can convince you of its pre-eminence — and, yes, I appreciate that, as this paper is originally published in the [*Business Rules Journal*](http://www.brcommunity.com/), that may not be easy! Do you want a simple, but effective, practical, but well-grounded, explanation of the role of business processes in management? After many years working on this question in organizations of many sizes and types, in different national and organizational cultures, I believe I can help you with a simple, effective, practical, and well-grounded [meta-model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamodeling) of management. ## Cross-functional Value The idea of cross-functional value (i.e., products and services) creation, accumulation, and delivery is fundamental.  Value is produced through collaboration. A business process is a collection of activities that transforms one or more inputs into one or more outputs.  Many resources are involved in the management and execution of a process — materials, people, systems, infrastructure, information, technology, facilities, policies, rules, regulations — and these must also be seen to be integral to the process. [Business processes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process) are the only way any organization can deliver value to customers and other [external stakeholders](https://www.stakeholdermap.com/external-stakeholders.html). By themselves, separate functional areas of an organization — think of boxes on the organization chart — cannot deliver value to external parties. The further conclusion we must draw from this is that every organization executes its strategic intent via its business processes. Does that start to sound primal to you? ## The Direction of Effort If so much important activity is happening across the organization, how does that relate to the way we manage organizations? There are two important perspectives, and one of them is too often neglected. Clearly, most of the effort and activity of traditional management is 'vertical' in nature, i.e., it reflects the authorities shown in the organization chart — we manage down, and sometimes up.   ![](http://www.brcommunity.com/images/articles/b942-1.png)   This is important and necessary. The organization chart has a practical purpose. We all want to know where the authorities and delegations lie, and how decisions get made. Organizations will continue to create groups of people, of like skills or shared purpose, to get work done as well as possible. In which direction does the work get done? Mainly across the organization.   ![](http://www.brcommunity.com/images/articles/b942-2.png)   The way in which we create, accumulate, and deliver value is essentially 'horizontal' in nature.  People and their teams collaborate to deliver products and services. Each activity, from defining a need to delivering a solution, is done by a specialist group, but all with the same intent.  Individually their work is meaningless, unless collectively they deliver a valued product or service to a customer or other [stakeholder.](http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/stakeholder.html) So, we have well-developed vertical management methods, but the important work is happening across the organization.  Does that seem like a primal disconnect? ## The Primacy of Process If the reality that business processes are the only value pathways, and the way organizational strategy is operationalized, is accepted (as it must be), where does that lead? The inescapable conclusion is that the starting point for effective organizational management is to understand, manage, and optimize those business processes.  Without a proactive focus on business processes, organizational performance cannot be optimized, and strategy cannot be effectively executed. If value is created, accumulated, and delivered across the organization, are those value pathways defined and documented? Are those pathways understood? Do all staff understand their roles along those pathways? If value is created, accumulated, and delivered across the organization, what measurements of performance are made in that direction? What is the measured performance of cross-functional processes, and is there a documented target performance level? What are the performance gaps, and how should their resolution be prioritized? If value is created, accumulated, and delivered across the organization, who is in charge of that? The organization chart is silent on such cross-functional matters.  While it is true that the [CEO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_executive_officer) is responsible for everything, she already knew that, and it doesn't help. Can it be a good idea that the cross-functional path through which value is exchanged with customers is not proactively managed? Organizations must reimagine their operations as value creation and delivery flows. The management philosophy that facilitates that is process-based management. ## Convinced? Have I made my case for the primacy of process? Are you convinced that the critical element of organizational management is the effective operation of business processes? Of course, there are many other elements — IT systems, people, applications, services, rules, infrastructure, decisions, information, facilities, policies, regulations — but these all find their purpose in contributing to the management or execution of business processes. **Do you agree that the key artifact of management is the business process?** **[![New Call-to-action](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/430417/4419bd9c-e6e7-4114-aa59-a1c1609bfff0.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/430417/4419bd9c-e6e7-4114-aa59-a1c1609bfff0)** ![Roger Tregear](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hs-fs/hub/430417/file-1601910334.jpg) ###### Roger Tregear Roger is a Consulting Associate with Leonardo. He delivers consulting and education assignments around the world. This work has involved many industry sectors, diverse cultures, and organization types. Roger briefs executives, coach managers, and support project teams to develop process-based management. Several thousand people have attended Roger's training courses and seminars in many countries - and Roger frequently presents at international business conferences. Roger has been writing a column on BPTrends called Practical Process for over 10 years. This led to the 2013 book of the same name. In 2011, he co-authored Establishing the Office of Business Process Management. He contributed a chapter in The International Handbook on Business Process Management (2010, 2015). With Paul Harmon in 2016, Roger co-edited Questioning BPM?, a book discussing key BPM questions. 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The acquisition by UST will empower Leonardo to expand its market reach and enhance its service offerings for clients, combining Leonardo's in-depth process expertise with UST's technology leadership, digital transformation capabilities, and global credentials, and strengthening UST's position in the Australian market. - [Daniel Weatherhead](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/daniel-weatherhead) - 5 min read - Feb 21, 2024 9:00:00 AM ## [How to Present Business Process Models to Stakeholders](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/presenting-business-process-models-to-stakeholders) Has an audience member ever interrupted in the middle of a presentation about process analysis to ask, “Can you show us the process models in a simple PowerPoint slide?” – or, ”I don’t want to look at the green and purple boxes, just show me the flow!” Perhaps you then felt that you had wasted some of your efforts in modelling the process with too much detail or in the wrong way. Embarrassed and demoralised, you must have wondered how else could these models be presented. Well, you are not alone! This is a common dilemma when there is a need to present process models to a variety of audiences. There is both art and science in presenting the right level of process detail to the right group of stakeholders, especially if they are not familiar with the process modelling language. Effective presentation is even more critical in larger and complex end-to-end process improvement work and in new automated business model implementations. You may need to use multiple model types to describe the same business processes to various audiences. Hence, it is very important to understand who the stakeholders are and what they would like to see before your audience with them. This article proposes an approach to the effective presentation of business process models based on three key elements: understand, organise, and communicate. - [Daniel Weatherhead](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/daniel-weatherhead) - 7 min read - Oct 10, 2023 10:00:00 AM ## [What Are The Most Important Questions In Business Process Management?](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/what-are-the-most-important-questions-in-business-process-management) She who dies with the most answers wins. We seek the truth. We want to know the answers. Paul Harmon started me thinking recently when he invited members of the BPTrends Discussion group on LinkedIn to “describe the purpose of Business Process Management in 160 characters, including spaces and punctuation.” Not easy to do – have a go at it yourself. It felt like I was crafting The Ultimate BPM Answer, which, of course, begged The Ultimate BPM Question. That got me thinking that The Ultimate BPM Problem is that we have plenty of answers and not enough questions. So put all the answers aside for a moment and help me to work out what are the most important questions in Business Process Management? - [Roger Tregear](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/author/roger-tregear) - 6 min read - Jul 30, 2023 10:30:00 AM ### Subscribe to Email Updates [![LeonardoUST_CMYK](https://blog.leonardo.com.au/hs-fs/hubfs/LeonardoUST_CMYK.png?width=791&name=LeonardoUST_CMYK.png "LeonardoUST_CMYK")](https://www.leonardo.com.au) Leonardo drives continuous process improvement through technology and has worked with many leading enterprises in APAC to enhance the performance of their business processes through architecture and automation as well as integrating their applications, platforms and data to enable disruptive technologies. **What We Do** **Resources** ##### Company 2022 ©Incotrade Australia Pty Ltd trading as Leonardo Consulting  |  All rights reserved   |   ACN 066 273 256. |  [Privacy Statement](https://www.leonardo.com.au/privacy)  [**](http://www.facebook.com/leonardoconsultingAU) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/leonardo-consulting/) [**](http://www.twitter.com/leonardoBPM) [**](http://www.youtube.com/leonardoconsulting)