Simplify

Here’s a powerful book that you may not want to miss, written by a serial entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, which looks at how to drastically increase the volume of your business by simplifying your product or service. For those who can change their offering, there can be a significant upside.

The authors carefully explain their methodology and process and show how other companies have successfully used a similar approach to great effect. A range of case studies adds great background knowledge, although many of the companies featured such as Ford, IKEA and Apple may not necessarily be strangers – yet perhaps elements of their history could be!

Humour and humility shine through this book along with a certain authenticity behind the authors’ philosophy and beliefs. It was a pleasant, engaging and relatively relaxing read that meant that bedtime came and went and this reviewer was still reading in the wee small hours! You did not want to put it down.

The philosophy is not just simplifying on price – although that can help – as product range, service proposition or network can also be streamlined and this can lead to much greater business volume and hopefully profit. It may not necessarily drag in millions or billions of dollars in new revenue, since not every company can be a giant in its field, yet a lot of the same advice can be scaled down to even a small-town micro-company.

The book keeps on giving and should you wish to dig even deeper there is a well-appointed section of reading references at the end.This certainly felt to be a credible, informative and helpful book that was quite hype-free, with its literary feet placed firmly on the ground. Many books tend to push the hype envelope or tie themselves in knots with various techniques, philosophies and frameworks. Here, just like the central goal, the authors keep things simple and in this book’s case it seemed to yield results.

Simplify, written by Richard Koch & Greg Lockwood and published by Entrepreneur Press. ISBN 9781599185996. YYYYY

Simplification of products, business process, and market approach leads to a long-term sustainable, profitable and dynamic organisation. Koch & Lockwood using case studies of IKEA, Ford Motors, BCG, Apple, Amazon, Google, McD, etc. helps drive the core fundamentals of the book. Simplification of a business model can hinge on a price or proposition simplification. Need is to make the service or product easy to use, simple, and better looking. Scale up quickly, control costs and consumer-centric solution-oriented approach for rethinking products will improve its demand, scalability, and broader appeal. Rethinking of products should be more useful, increase delight, and connect emotionally with customers. Koch & Lockwood also reasons why a success can, in fact, create roadblocks in future. Various traps like overhead (higher margin thresholds), protecting existing product turf, too many bells and whistle (complexity), lack of skills or inefficient use of skills, etc. leads to organisational atrophy and failure. Thus, the authors tell us that simplification is the ultimate sophistication.

I was initially very interested in reading this book in order to attempt to simplify my business practices, policies, and procedures. I appreciated learning the two types of simplification and reading examples about how these work. However, the book was actually quite complicated for something that is entitled "Simplify." While I consider myself business savvy, there were several times I had to reread information to try to understand what was written.

Valid and insightful concepts.
Simplify applies to identifying the next big thing and dominating the market share. The concepts has it's merit. The book also went on to cover some aspect where the theory does not apply.

Only 2 ways to simplify, through price or proposition but almost never both at the same time.

Beneficial for both business goals and personal, this book is loaded with principles as well as tactics written and formatted Simply. Easy to read and extract the many nuggets , the material also easy to comprehend and digest making the insights immediately acitonable.

The references for deeper study and application are equally valuable!

Another outstanding book from Richard Koch!!