The process of establishing a BPR paradigm

This paper describes a conceptual model of the process by which a “fad” makes the important transition to “paradigm”. It is a distinctive contribution to management theory whereby transferable principles are evaluated as a set of business paradigms. The heart of the transformation process is a generic systems model which provides the infrastructure linking the various sources of evidence. This includes horizontal market sector performance surveys; vertical in‐depth industrial case studies; influence diagram linking management actions to bottom‐line improvements; and consultancy rules of thumb. The approach is illustrated via application to the Total Cycle Time Compression paradigm.