The Superpower of the Knowledge Era: Process

Process is not new to business. In fact, process in the form of production lines was a critical driver of the growth of the industrial economy. In a factory, you could see the physical movement of raw material as it moved from the warehouse into a series of production lines with finished goods coming out the other end. The movement of goods, and the productivity of the machines and the output of the entire factory could be tracked. Accounting and operational systems made it possible to measure everything from the purchase of the land to build the factory down to the last widget being put onto a truck. It also, by the way, made it easier for bosses to identify the best way to do a task and mandate the work patterns of their workers.

Much of what is today views as “best practices” in management comes from the factories of the industrial era.

But today, a lot of process occurs inside of people’s heads, their computers and networks of computers spread across a building or across the globe. Read more