IS SIMPLICITY THE KEY?

Comments 2 by in Mergers & Acquisitions, Simplicity at Work, Strategy
January 23, 2015
IS SIMPLICITY THE KEY?

“’Think simple’ as my old master used to say – meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles.”  – Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright, of course, was right. But the irony of simplicity is that it’s hard to do because it requires forethought and planning. I have led many challenging projects that occurred across many locales simultaneously. The lesson I learned is that complicated situations with many parts and players need to be broken down to their essence for success.

Consider New Year’s resolutions. According to research, eight percent of people actually reach their New Year’s goals. Leadership experts, psychologists, and business consultants alike all agree that the enormous failure rate is attributable to a lack of a real action plan broken down into small steps, which makes goals more realistic and achievable.

Simplicity is so important it is incorporated into everything we do at Clear Focus Strategy.  With our proprietary 3-step SIMPLE© process we “Make Success SimpleTM” and help clients achieve simplicity, profits and joy.  Simplicity is in our DNA.

If you agree that simplicity is important, you want to know why it’s so difficult to accomplish. My experience, and much of the research on business, point to the following barriers:

  1. Too many tasks and processes, and information overload.
  2. Lack of an effective gatekeeper.
  3. Insufficient understanding of how to achieve simplicity through strategy and tools.

All three barriers are chronic in mergers and acquisitions.  When a deal starts, it typically includes too many players, from business owners to regulators. Each one unwittingly and needlessly adds to the level of complexity. The deal process, including the rush to get it done, often feels a lot like “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” at Disneyland. As you are propelled crazily towards the ride’s end, accumulated things get mixed up and fly out of the car, you get jerked around and then find yourself face to face with a giant toad.  Once the ride stops, you may be dizzy, out of sorts – and wondering why you got on it in the first place. Similarly, in the rush to complete a transaction, you sit at the end of an exciting but confusing ride wondering what happened to greater profits and a better company. Instead, you’re staring at a toad.

An effective gatekeeper, however, facilitates simplicity and success. If you think of your business as a castle, you, the queen or king, want to keep what is necessary, valuable and helpful inside the castle walls. You also want to keep the travelling marauders who disrupt your sense of security and success out. With the right guards armed with the right tools at the gate, the marauders are held at bay. At the same time they provide safe passage to those who enter your castle to support your estate. Every successful business today needs a gatekeeper because there are more marauders seeking to plunder your estate than ever before.

The third barrier to simplicity is simple; a lack of understanding on how to simplify.  There are lots of ways to achieve simplicity and we don’t learn them in school.  I like the Warren Buffett view that “The business schools reward difficult, complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.” He ought to know. At the very top of the mountain among legendary investors, Buffett has the longest track record for beating the market, and, he earned over $60 billion of his net worth after his 60th Birthday!

Here are a few strategies and tools to simplify.

  • Value priorities. If you understand your priorities (goals and values) and those of your business, you can measure every action or inaction against them.
  • Pare away what is not essential. Without that step, which can be painful at first, you cannot achieve your goals because you can’t see the forest for all the trees.
  • Take the “fire test”. If your building (your business) was on fire, think about what you would grab and what you would leave behind. Your answer reflects your priorities and values.
  • Take my “business sale” test. If your business will be sold to the highest bidder in one month, think about what you would need to do in the present to maximize the return.

The common denominator of both the fire and business sale tests is a time limit.  When you think about it, every day, like it or not, you get 24 hours in which to live, play, work, and connect with friends and family.  And no matter how rich or poor, successful or striving you are, you and every one else on this planet gets the same amount of time.  What you decide to do with this precious commodity will make the difference between success and failure. And it’s much easier to make good decisions when they have been made clear by your ability to simplify everything that is swirling around you.

Please share your thoughts about simplicity.  I know that 2015 can be your year to create simplicity in your business and your life.

Robin L. Moncrieff

CLEAR FOCUS STRATEGY
Founder and Lead Strategist
Copyright 2015 – All rights reserved

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