The book “Die Wertschöpfungsmaschine” (a suitable English title would be “The Value Creation Machine”) deals with the question of how value creation can be optimally organized. The authors see process and organizational structures that do not fit the strategy as the biggest obstacle for companies to give their best.

Without grey theories the book introduces into a new, but already often used approach, how one tailors processes and organization to the business strategy. The focus is on the roles and responsibilities in the company from the perspective of value creation. The arguments are conclusive, comprehensible and very practical on the basis of numerous case studies from industry and service sectors.

The key idea is the focus on the internal and external interfaces to customers and suppliers. Processes and organizational units should be controlled consistently by means of simple client-supplier relationships. The simpler and clearer the interfaces are, the more value can be increased for the customer, operational complexity reduced, idle times and expensive overhead structures for planning, coordination and monitoring eliminated. In addition, the matrix organization can be avoided.

Originally, the “value creation machine” was developed at Graz University of Technology in the 1990s and first published as a book in 2004. If one compares the first publication with the one now available, it is easy to see how it has been further developed and extended to include important subject areas such as “innovation management”, “process cost management” and “digitisation”. The service character of many businesses has also been massively expanded.