VOCES BPM | Inspiring People

Interview: Mathias Kirchmer

1. What sparked your interest in Business Process Management (BPM), and how did you get started in this field?

I have always been interested in how organizations work and how they can be systematically improved. BPM offers exactly that: it provides the transparency needed to make fast, informed decisions and take the right actions. As a management discipline, BPM helps translate strategy into execution through people and technology, quickly and reliably. This alignment of people and digital technologies toward an organization’s strategic goals is one of the aspects that fascinates me most.

I’ve built my entire career around BPM, starting at a consulting firm specializing in processes. Although I changed companies three times, I always stayed in consulting, which allowed me to work with organizations around the globe. Initially, I focused on systematically improving operational processes using the right methods and tools. This laid the foundation for exploring how process management connects to strategy and how BPM enables strategy execution.

Over time, it became increasingly clear that BPM is now a true management discipline that needs to be established as such within organizations. This happens through the implementation of the “process of process management,” which includes an appropriate organizational structure and relevant BPM tools. Building a solid process management discipline within a company remains a key area of interest for me.

I’ve also maintained a strong relationship with academia, teaching value‑oriented process management and process‑driven digital transformation at Widener University and the University of Pennsylvania. I have published 11 books, numerous articles, and received a teaching fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. The strong academic foundation of BPM has been a major motivator in continuing to contribute to the field.

2. What lessons or experiences would you highlight as the most transformative in your BPM career?

Three key experiences have shaped my professional journey in BPM:

First of all, while working on operational process improvement initiatives, I was strongly influenced by Prof. Dr. August‑Wilhelm Scheer’s ARIS Architecture. It defines the various perspectives of a business process and how they relate to each other. This holistic way of approaching processes enables effective and sustainable improvements, and the supporting tools make this approach highly efficient.

Second, using BPM for strategy execution means identifying the 10–15% of high‑impact processes where sophisticated improvement and innovation efforts create the most value. The remaining 80%+ of routine processes can typically be improved using common industry practices, and here average performance is often sufficient. Identifying high‑impact processes through a process impact assessment and defining a related process transformation roadmap has had a major influence on my BPM work.

Finally, the systematic implementation of BPM as a discipline through the “process of process management” has shaped my career significantly. Building operational process management and governance capabilities with the right roles, methods, and tools is essential for embedding BPM in an organization. I developed a reference framework for this, published in books and white papers such as the BPM‑Discipline Framework.

3. What is your current role, and how do you apply process management in your daily work?

I currently lead the Americas subsidiary of international consulting firm Scheer IDS. In this role, I work directly with client executives to shape their process management journey. In typical engagements, we help organizations establish or enhance their process management capabilities while applying them immediately in high‑impact improvement initiatives. This enables clients to generate business value quickly while building long‑term process capabilities.

The process management journey often begins with small, focused engagements. Once people experience the impact of BPM, the journey continues for years – continuously strengthening BPM capabilities and rapidly generating value through real application.

The value‑oriented use of BPM tools such as process modeling, process mining, or enterprise architecture also plays an important role. These tools are leveraged within the context of the “process of managing processes.” As a result, the field of BPM is undergoing its own digital transformation.

4. What advice would you give to people who are new to BPM or leading their first process improvement initiatives?

A common issue I see is that many BPM professionals focus too heavily on methods and tools – on the “mechanics of process management.” For example, creating hundreds of process models can feel like progress, but the real question is how those models generate value for the organization. Successful process initiatives focus on business results and the value BPM delivers, which is why I advocate for value‑oriented BPM: once the desired impact is clear, the methods and tools align to ensure the “process of process management” delivers the expected value.

I also advise against launching long, isolated BPM capability‑building projects. The most successful process capabilities are built alongside concrete improvement initiatives, where the organization can directly experience the value generated by BPM.

Today, nearly every process improvement initiative involves digital technologies such as automation platforms, AI applications, or traditional systems like ERP. Successful BPM professionals understand the business impact of these technologies and design processes accordingly. Traditional approaches that focus only on people and organizational aspects are becoming less relevant.

5. What trends do you think will shape the future of BPM and its connection to digital transformation?

Digital transformation creates value through new or significantly improved business processes, using digital technologies where they best support business objectives. Organizations that understand the business potential of these technologies typically have strong process management capabilities. They undertake “Process‑Driven Digital Transformation,” which is inherently value‑oriented because business processes deliver value results. And it is data‑driven because BPM provides the necessary information – for example, through simulations or performance and compliance monitoring. For this reason, BPM is at the core of any digital transformation, aligning it with the organization’s business goals.

Process management provides the business context for a systematic, value‑driven use of AI. The transparency BPM creates helps identify where and how AI can improve overall process performance. This allows organizations to move beyond isolated AI pilots and instead apply AI systematically across business processes, maximizing its impact.

The role of BPM continues to evolve with agentic AI. Increasingly, business processes may not be fully predefined — instead, process instances may be generated autonomously by agents as needed. BPM helps define expected outcomes, for example through structured logical data models, and also sets the governance processes needed to manage and control these agents. As a result, BPM will shift its focus from operational processes toward management and governance processes. This represents the next generation of the “process of process management.”