Joseph Cuschieri
From my experience I have found that as a business grows over time, it has a tendency of adding more people around tasks, building complexity around systems and processes which as a result, consume resources away from value adding tasks. Instead of consolidating and streamlining core activities, many businesses end up adding layers of complexity which (if unattended) lead to a general slowdown in decision making, sluggish performance levels, frustration for employees to navigate through such complexity and most importantly impacting the customer experience negatively. Furthermore, such complexity leads to waste of resources and time, impairing the agility of the organisation to remain competitive in an increasingly challenging business environment.
In order to address such challenges, the quest for Simplicity has to be inbuilt in the Company’s culture and way of doing things. It needs to be an integral part of an organisation’s strategy. In essence, simplicity in business is a collective effort by an organisation to maintain an ongoing focus in simplifying processes as the organisation grows. This of course requires leadership that sets the tone and belief that keeping things simple works, but also makes it a business goal for the organisation. As a company is made up of different people with different ideas, insights, talent, and values, the leader of that organisation should be capable of harnessing these differences into a simple and unified agenda which leads to clear and focused productivity.
There are some practical tips which one can consider in addressing complexity in their business environment which I am outlining here:
- Involve people across the whole organisation in identifying opportunities to simplify processes. This will create ownership across all layers of the organisation and the belief that simplicity is good for the business and can provide a competitive edge,
- Make sure that a member of your senior leadership team owns the organisation’s goal to simplify and needs to report on an ongoing basis (to the Board) the results achieved in that sphere,
- Focus on a few key projects at a time (not more than five) and set a reasonable timeframe. A good rule of thumb is to first focus on customer experience projects which improve customer delight and generate more revenue and ROI,
- Share the results of the simplicity programme across the whole organisation on an ongoing basis so that positive results are showcased – this will enhance the engagement of staff towards the concept of simplicity,
- Celebrate the positive results obtained through simplicity. If for example, the organisation improves its performance and starts achieving increased positive customer feedback, that should be celebrated.
Simple can be harder than complex. Achieving it takes discipline, vision, and leadership to look beyond the status quo and make a strategic effort to do things differently. Asking the question, “What if” should be hardcoded in the organisation’s DNA.
While it is true that today’s advanced technologies and data management systems help businesses simplify and identify complexity, it is not enough. The quest for simplicity is a much broader, strategic approach encompassing each and every facet of the company’s activities. Having this clear vision is a big step forward in achieving simplicity in business.
