Complexity is insidiously expensive.
When production and service cycles take forever, and costs are high, chances are that most of your processes are mired in complexity. Since Victorian times, companies have felt compelled to offer consumers whatever they want, creating a myriad of choice with goods and services each having their own process and production lines.
In turn these processes are supported by complex systems and require specific skills for bespoke services and products. How often do you hear the recital “oh we’re very different around here. What we are do is unique in the industry.”
And it probably is to the detriment of the very people you are trying to please – the customer.
Consider a few of the not so hidden costs of complexity:
1. Customer inconvenience – Your customers have to negotiate your complex system and its mind-numbing array of alternatives.
Q. Just how many Moments of Truth are there?
2. Unwieldy sales processes – The sales systems needed to support complex product lines soon grow too cumbersome, whether they require filling out complicated order forms, getting indecipherable invoices or navigating endless voice mail paths.
Q. How many rules exist to ‘guide and direct’ and are not out of date slowing things to crawl?
Q. How many handoffs occur in your processes between people, systems and services?
Eradicating those Moments of Truth, Rules and Breakpoints can change everything.
3. Impact on management – Eventually, even your managers will find numerous products and processes too much to track.
Q. How much money have you spent training people to deal with this complexity?
Remove the complexity and legacy approaches geared to streamlining processes may not be required!
4. As an absolute, the greater an organization’s complexity, the less focused its management.
Q. Where does all that management time get directed? Fire fighting and fixing problems caused by the nightmare of complexity.
Refocus management time to helping align processes for successful outcomes.
You do not have to live with complexity. We have a phrase “Fix the Cause, Remove the Effect” – perhaps that can be your guide also?
Outside-In BPM – utilize ground breaking techniques created by the market leaders who have redefined their markets and continue to outplay the competition in every aspect of the game.
You can review the CEMMethod(TM) and the training approach at www.bp2010.com
Steve,
You make a good case and more companies should take heed. In addition to eliminating unnecessary steps it is important to consider whether interactions cause friction and whether they add value. Friction and value not being the ends of a continuum.
Another point of consideration that might be what you were getting at in a cumbersome sales process, is to reduce the interaction friction between internal silos. This increase productivity but also produces better alignment with delivering a great customer experience.
John
John I. Todor, Ph.D.