What is a business process?

- A recipe for success. When done properly, that's what a business process is. It's a business recipe. A set of instructions that helps a company achieve some business objective. When you return something at the store, the steps the employee follows to take back the product and give you your money, that's a business process. Another example, the steps an employee follows to take a pizza order over the phone. Those are fairly simple business processes.

More complex processes might include the steps required to purchase new medical equipment for a hospital. Or the steps an office furniture company follows to manufacture their most popular desk. That's why a business process is like a good recipe. A business process is a series of steps that, when followed, can consistently produce an excellent output. And, again, like a recipe, where a chef probably never meets most of the people that use the recipe, the at-home cook has a chance to successfully produce a good meal.

In a business process, a new employee has a chance at success once they learn the documented business process. A recipe utilizes ingredients, utensils, dishes, and cooking equipment. Business process might use computers, machines, raw materials, or paper. Most big companies are made up of hundreds, if not thousands, of interconnected business processes. Knowing how to design, manage, and improve business processes gives you the power to both manage and to grow businesses.