Latest Thinking
Conquering Complexity
The Power of Process: Transcending Functional Silos to Enable Strategy Execution By Nick Reynolds and Stephen Wilson
In the first part of this two part article, we take a deeper dive into a process-based organization by allowing ourselves to fully comprehend what a process view is and why it matters. We suggest that by taking an end-to-end, holistic view of the core value creation processes, organizational leaders are in a better position to create business models that disrupt the market and create competitive advantage. By better understanding how the different elements of the enterprise work together to deliver value across functional and product lines, leaders can better identify where to resources to maximize the value delivered by the organization.
The Power of Process - Part 2: Using the Process Based View to Drive Step-Change Improvement in Cost and Service By John Petty and David Toth
In this second part of our two part article, we will describe how to create an enterprise-wide, value-focused process view, and how to leverage that to step-change improvements in cost and performance. By taking a Prime Value perspective and investing the time in developing your Prime Value Chain perspective, your Prime Metrics and codifying your Prime Value Agenda, a firm can be well on its way to executing process improvement that has strategic ramifications for the business. Furthermore, it can help prevent misapplication of resources to improvement that in the end, does not truly improve value delivery to the customer or shareholder. Ultimately, the most important aspect of the Prime Value perspective is a singular focus on value as defined by customers and shareholders. Properly focusing on its “energies, thoughts and capital,” the enterprise will achieve new levels of performance where it matters most.
'Smart Growth': Innovating to Meet the Needs of the Market Without Feeding the Beast of Complexity
The 2nd in a series of special reports from George Group and Knowledge @ Wharton.
As companies struggle to innovate in today’s competitive environment, they need to continually guard against adding to their “clutter” — the creeping impact of complexity on efficiency and cost-competitiveness. In this three-part special report, experts from Wharton and George Group Consulting discuss how management can approach this problem by thinking “ambidextrously” — that is, focusing on innovation and broad exploration while minimizing the impact of clutter on operational processes and costs.
To view the special report, click here.
Also, in the accompanying podcast (with transcript), Mike McCallister, CEO of Humana, discusses balancing innovation and complexity in the health care industry with Wharton management professor Michael Useem and Stephen Wilson, engagement director in George Group's Conquering Complexity practice.
To directly download the podcast, click here.
To view a transcript of the podcast, click here.
Product Variety Without Tears
By Dan Chow and Andrei Perumal, BI Review Magazine, May 1, 2006
Executives need to weigh the benefits of launching new products against the often hidden and unintended costs of complexity that are sure to arise.
How IT Drives Product Proliferation: Keeping Complexity at Bay
By Matt Reilly and Stephen Wilson, Insurance & Technology, April 5, 2006
Competitive pressures are driving the need for more product development. But the industry is plagued by complexity-related issues. Why IT may be part of the problem and why the solution may be less versus more.
Unraveling Complexity in Products and Services
The 1st in a series of special reports from George Group and Knowledge @ Wharton.
Walk into any grocery store, bank, or insurance agency, and you will see complexity at work: More products and services are available to consumers than ever before. But, as businesses increase their product and service portfolios in response to evolving customer demands or through mergers and acquisitions, they run the risk of adding too much complexity, which can tax existing resources and ultimately harm returns. In this special report, experts from George Group Consulting and Wharton offer insights on how complexity can create considerable problems for companies -- often while remaining difficult to spot -- as well as strategies for eliminating complexity or making it work to a company's advantage.
To view the special report, click here.
Survey Results
The Impact of Product and Service Complexity on Business report is based on a survey of 424 Knowledge@Wharton subscribers representing a broad range of industries.
To view the survey results, click here.
How Complexity and Clutter Can Take Over and Ruin your Business
By Dr. Eric Clemons, Knowledge@Wharton, Nov 2004
Dr. Eric Clemons, Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School interviews Stephen Wilson, co-author of Conquering Complexity in Your Business, and Matt Reilly, Vice President Client Services, about the concepts presented in the book and how they impact businesses today.
The Three Rules for Conquering Complexity
By Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson
What do Southwest Airlines, Capital One, Dell Computer, Wal-Mart, ALDI International, Scania Trucks and Toyota have in common? Each of these companies outperformed or is outperforming its competition, as reflected in their stock price. How did they do it? By conquering complexity. They realized that complexity of a product or service offering is often a larger drag on profits and growth than any other single factor in a business. PDF File Link
Removing the Ceiling on Profits and Growth
By Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson
Over the past two decades, George Group has helped many businesses create genuine economic value primarily through process improvement. But we often found that clients who restricted their efforts to Lean and/or Six Sigma would hit a ceiling in profit generation: though progress was significant, there was only so much they could accomplish through these process improvements. PDF File Link
Roadblocks to Simplification
By Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson
Announce that you are eliminating product or service lines as part of an effort to conquer complexity, and you're likely to hear objections. Overcoming these objections is not only a matter of having in-stock replies, but also knowing what kinds of additional questions to ask and what kind of data can add fact to opinion. PDF File Link
Lessons from Complexity: Keep or Cut Unprofitable Customers?
By Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson
Simplifying an offering portfolio is one way to maximize value; simplifying your customer portfolio is another. Many times, an unprofitable customer is one that simply buys an unprofitable product. But it is not always as simple as that: different customers who buy the same product can still differ in the cost to serve them or the value they place on your products, depending on a number of factors. PDF File Link
A Case Study in Conquering Complexity
By Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson
Back in the mid-1980s, International Power Machines (IPM) had reached a crisis. IPM designed and produced uninterruptible power supplies that protect critical computers and instrumentation from AC power failures. The IPM systems protected the computers of the NYSE, Depository Trust, Merrill-Lynch, to name but a few applications. PDF File Link |
