Tax-payers' commemoration day

Today is a remarkable day. From now on, the German taxpayers salaries stay in their own pockets. Until today, the income has been absorbed by the tax- and social security systems. This year, the tax payers are allowed to keep 47% of their income, which means that commemoration day this year occurs 5 days later than last year.

Feeling better

A couple of days ago, I had an interesting private discussion with some managers (no names and companies mentioned). We came to discuss about one of my favourite topics, Business Process Management

They were telling me that they had no real understanding of the business processes in their organization, but that some consultants were now doing a process analysis and mapping everything in visio files.

At that point I became a little irritated and told them that I consider it as management malpractice to be process-ignorant and that hiring consultants to paint visio-charts wouldn't make things better. Instead, they should aim for a holistic BPM approach and use a platform that is more than a painting tool. And if the consultant were not able to use other tools, the managers should ask themselves if they would trust a mechanic that would tell them that he doesn't know an allen key, but that those hexagon socket screw also could be removed with a cross recess screwdriver.

I don't know whether it had any effect, but at least I felt better afterwards.

What else is new?

The article on improving clinical trials by applying business process modeling,that I have been writing with my former Nycomed colleague Mathias Poensgen is finished and sent to a journal for review. I believe that publishing a rather management science oriented article is also something new for this kind of publication, so I am curious about the review.

Well, I am also very satisfied with my new job. Interesting people, and challenging high-profile projects. The first quarter brought projects in Germany, Italy, and Sweden. Especially the latter was making me feel like home, since I also had the chance to visit some old friends in Stockholm.

Back in black ...

Well, I mostly wear grey suites, but the post title is the name of an AC/DC song from 1980's album with the same name. After some pausing I will now reassume blogging. The major reason for the interruption was my recent job change back into consulting, that also elevated my work hours. Well, after knowing the way around in a new company, things tend to get a little easier again and so I think that I will find some more time for writing again.