Customized processes vs standard processes

Question of reusing standard process libraries always arises in an organization starting its digital transformation. At first glance, ready process sets might look very attractive to borrow and avoid complex procedures of mapping your own processes. On another hand, blind implementation of standard process templates will effectively destroy all corporate culture and experience previously accumulated in an organization.

Boundaries of applicability for standard processes are easy to distinguish by scale. Elementary business operations in most cases already exist as established and proven best practices, which are senseless to re-discover. Sometimes, changing these ground bricks is even prohibited by government standards and compliance requirements. However, these standard bricks are absolutely insufficient to comprise a building of successful company.

To fuel continuous business growth company must combine standard business patterns common for the whole industry into unique combination, which will define its competitive advantage. Complex end-to-end processes always require careful crafting in unique business context. Bigger grows business model, more standard patterns it absorbs on micro-scale, but also more it diverts from any given standard template globally.