Process maps in corporate structures — it's the perspective that counts

The bigger the company, the more complex its process map?

Regardless of the size of a company, there are many processes that every organization must take care of: personnel, purchasing, financial processes,... While certain processes in larger companies may need to be designed in more detail — due to specialization, process variants or the need to coordinate many employees — the overarching structure on the process map often remains astonishingly similar. The process map therefore does not necessarily become a part of the growing organization taller, but the underlying process substructure is lower.

Why the right perspective plays an important role in process maps for complex corporate structures can be explained using a specific example.

The right perspective or: How do you classify headquarters processes in a suitable way?

Imagine a company that operates 50 kiosks in major cities. Every kiosk has the same primary function: serving pedestrians and satisfying their hunger and thirst by selling suitable products. The sale and billing of goods in the kiosk is therefore simplified Key processes of kiosks.

In the background, there is a central office that carries out the following processes, among others:

• central procurement of goods
• Deploy IT systems
• Carry out accounting
• Ensuring funding
• Hiring staff
• ...

These processes are not visible to pedestrians in the kiosk. They do not immediately satisfy customer needs to “quench thirst” or “counteract hunger.” The pedestrian is simply confronted with the products provided in the kiosk, which he removes from the shelf, pays for at the cash register and then consumes. From the perspective of pedestrians and kiosks, these processes carried out by the headquarters are therefore Support processes. They do not satisfy hunger or thirst. However, they are necessary so that the individual kiosk can do this.

Let's now change our perspective: The head office was created precisely to procure goods centrally, to provide uniform IT for the kiosks and to carry out bookkeeping. The processes that the individual kiosk sees as supporting are therefore the core processes of the headquarters. These processes produce the headquarters's core service: 24/7 operational kiosks. You also make a significant contribution to the organization's added value, for example through good purchasing conditions with suppliers.

Tailor processes optimally to the needs of (end) customers

When creating the process map, it is therefore a fundamental question: Who is actually the customer of the head office? Is it the pedestrian or is it the kiosks? Depending on whose perspective you look at the process map, the classification of the processes can change. A process that is considered a core process from the perspective of one unit of the organization can be a support process for another unit.

It is therefore of great importance for managing directors, quality managers and management system managers to recognize these nuances and to take them into account when creating and interpreting process maps — especially in corporate structures. Because ultimately, the goal is to holistically transform the company's processes and structures optimally tailored to the needs of (end) customers. It is usually not just about classifying processes academically, but also about understanding the overall context of the organization's added value.

The larger the organization, the greater the risk of losing focus on the overall context. Because of all the internal provision of services, when creating a process map, you can quickly lose sight of who the end customer is and which processes are directly related to their order. But that is exactly what your core processes are. Or as a managing director aptly remarked to my ears: “Without pedestrians, no headquarters.”