After graduating, he taught computer science at M.I.T. Hammer earned his bachelor’s degree in math in 1968, a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1970, and a doctorate in computer science in 1973, all at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Michael Martin Hammer was born in Annapolis, Md., on April 13, 1948, the only child of Henry and Helen Hammer, who had arrived from Poland after surviving the Nazi concentration camps. Hammer told Time, saying that ideally, re-engineering should promote greater production and create more jobs.

“It is astonishing to me the extent to which the term re-engineering has been hijacked, misappropriated and misunderstood,” Dr. Champy were deeply concerned about the misuse of their premise. At the same time, it said, “those empowered to make the changes at lower levels must know they have the support of top management, or change won’t occur.”ĭr.

“Managers have to switch from supervisory roles to acting as facilitators, as enablers, and as people whose jobs are the development of people and their skills so that those people will be able to perform value-adding processes themselves,” the book said. “Reengineering the Corporation” promoted the idea of simplifying and reorganizing business departments by having the workers break down their activities into logical, bite-size pieces, then take a “clean sheet” approach to reassembling their work for greater efficiency and productivity. Hammer’s inclusion, in 1996, on Time magazine’s list of “America’s 25 Most Influential People.” Hammer wrote the book with James Champy after it was published by Harper Business in 1993, it was on The New York Times nonfiction paperback best-seller list for 41 weeks. The cause was complications of a brain hemorrhage, said Joseph Tischler, a family friend.ĭr. Michael Hammer, the co-author of a best-selling book, “Reengineering the Corporation,” which some business experts say significantly influenced the way many corporations have reorganized their workplaces by focusing on the expertise of their employees, died Wednesday in Boston.

Michael hammer and james champy