{"id":28,"date":"2016-06-23T11:20:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T11:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/?p=28"},"modified":"2016-06-29T11:22:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T11:22:00","slug":"start-simple-with-business-simplification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/start-simple-with-business-simplification\/","title":{"rendered":"Start Simple with Business Simplification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Business simplification is increasingly  recognized as a strategic requirement for companies seeking to innovate and  succeed in today&rsquo;s complex business environment. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As your business grows, the bolted-together  systems and processes that worked when your company was smaller won&rsquo;t scale  sufficiently to support new customers, employees, product lines, and service  offerings. <\/li>\n<li>Equally important, there&rsquo;s a natural tendency  for companies to create more complex processes over time \u2013 for example, to  accommodate new customer demands or to work around disconnected systems. And as  they build up, these complex processes create inefficiencies, drive up costs,  and make your business less agile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But if barriers keep slowing down your  simplification efforts, you&rsquo;re not alone. As noted in a recent <a href=\"WhartonPaper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Knowledge@Wharton  paper<\/a>,  &ldquo;Business Simplification 2015: The Unmet Strategic Imperative,&rdquo; companies  battle everything from a resistant culture (often due to fear that  simplification will lead to lost jobs) to managers who lack the time to  implement new systems, processes, and policies. <\/p>\n<p>But sometimes simplification initiatives stall  because they fail to start simple. Sometimes the best way to get the ball  rolling is to focus on one or two processes \u2013 for example, a decision making  and an approval process \u2013 and <em>empowering  the people closest to those processes to simplify their daily work<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>The project should have clear-cut goals and  incentives tied to performance.<\/p>\n<p>For midsize  companies, suc\u00adcess in the current economy depends on the ability to optimize  operations, increase efficiency, cut costs, and build lasting relationships  with customers. For example, how do you make sure you&rsquo;re carrying just the  right type and amount of inventory? How do you make the most out of your  limited resources? How do you redefine your products and services so that you  can outlast your competitors? How do you attract new customers and retain your  existing ones? As this example illustrates, this approach to  simplification changes people and culture from the bottom up, paving the way  for acceptance of larger initiatives that require a more top-down,  technology-driven approach. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Such projects still need to have the support of  top management and be tied to strategic initiatives, of course \u2013 but the goal  is to build momentum around the goals and benefits of business simplification. <\/li>\n<li>People can experience first-hand that it&rsquo;s  really just adopting a simpler way of working that reflects proven business  practices. And they can realize the benefits directly, right away.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So where do you see opportunities to start  simple with simplification within your business?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Business simplification is increasingly recognized as a strategic requirement for companies seeking to innovate and succeed in today&rsquo;s complex business environment. As your business grows, the bolted-together systems and processes&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/start-simple-with-business-simplification\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GsDS-s","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v3it.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}