In Japanese corporate culture, there is often an issue where process management is undervalued. Many companies do not establish specialized roles such as process offices or process managers within their organizations, instead leaving the control of critical business processes to the field. As a result, unified process improvement across the organization becomes difficult, often leading to inefficient improvement activities.
Since 2019, I have been involved in promoting and proposing Process Mining at Celonis. However, I have witnessed firsthand the challenges of finding champions within client companies due to the lack of process offices or senior executives overseeing process management in Japanese companies. This awareness of the issue led me to undergo specialized training in process management at APQC (American Productivity & Quality Center) in Houston in 2023, becoming the first Japanese individual to obtain the Process Manager certification.
The frameworks, theories, and case studies introduced during the training were eye-opening, highlighting the high level of process management awareness in Western companies. For instance, while process changes in Japanese companies are often encouraged as on-site initiatives, Western companies do not allow changes to be made arbitrarily at the field level. Instead, roles like process offices and process managers govern and review such changes to ensure alignment with corporate strategy, resource plans, and various regulations before approval. Recently, incidents of “runaway operations” in the field have made headlines in Japan, but in Western companies, the structured management of processes reduces the likelihood of such issues, contributing to a more robust organizational design.
Let’s clarify the roles of the process office and the process manager:
The process office (or process excellence office) is a department that oversees organization-wide process improvement activities, prioritizes process improvement projects, allocates resources, measures outcomes, and supervises the overall improvement projects. This role is directly connected to the organization’s strategic goals, driving long-term improvements and efficiency.
On the other hand, a process manager is an individual who directly manages specific processes or sets of processes, handling daily operations, identifying issues, implementing solutions, and monitoring process performance. They ensure that processes align with organizational standards and requirements and propose process improvements when necessary.
The absence of these roles within Japanese companies leads to fragmented process improvement efforts, making it challenging to enhance efficiency and effectiveness organization-wide. The solution lies in establishing specialized roles like the process office and process managers within the organization. This enables consistent process improvement efforts across the organization, leading to sustainable improvements and efficient operations.
Strengthening process management is essential for Japanese companies to maintain competitiveness in the global market. How each company addresses these challenges will be closely linked to their growth strategies in the future.