
CRITICAL BUSINESS THINKING
Instructor Note: There are few right or wrong answers in the business world.
There are really only efficient and inefficient, and effective and ineffective
business decisions. If there were always right answers businesses would never
fail. These questions were created to challenge your students to apply the
materials they have learned to real business situations. For this reason, the
authors cannot provide you with one version of a correct answer. When grading
your students’ answers, be sure to focus on their justification or support for their
specific answers. A good way to grade these questions is to compare your
student’s answers against each other.
1. MODELING A BUSINESS PROCESS
Project Purpose: To revamp a process
Potential Solution: Student answers to this question will vary depending on
the process they have chosen to #x. Review the chapter for an example of an
improved burger ordering process. Students can choose any process from
2. REVAMPING ACCOUNTS
Project Purpose: To revamp an accounting department using BPM.
Potential Solution: A key advantage of technology is its ability to improve
business processes. Working faster and smarter has become a necessity for
companies. Initial emphasis was given to areas such as production, accounting,
procurement, and logistics. The next big areas to discover technology’s value
in business process were sales and marketing automation, customer
relationship management, and supplier relationship management. Some of
these processes involve several departments of the company and some are the
result of real-time interaction of the company with its suppliers, customers, and
other business partners. The latest area to discover the power of technology in
automating and reengineering business process is business process
management. Business process management (BPM) integrates all of an
organization’s business process to make individual processes more efficient.
BPM can be used to solve a single glitch or to create one unifying system to
consolidate a myriad of processes.