newCFO » SIMPLICITY http://newcfo.com CFO 2.0 for a 2.0 business world Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:39:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The high cost of complexity http://newcfo.com/cfo/the-high-cost-of-complexity.html http://newcfo.com/cfo/the-high-cost-of-complexity.html#comments Fri, 01 Sep 2006 21:37:00 +0000 lorenzo http://newcfo.com/?p=69

Sure if you take something simple and you complicate it, it will make you look smarter in certain circles: it’s called bureaucracy & red tape. But . . . is there a cost associated with complexity? You bet your P&L that there is, it’s hidden away in such items as: training, development, temp staffing, overtime. If you really simplify and streamline, you will find that you’ll need less people on staff, therefore less furniture, therefore less office space. You will have a WOW! moment.

How to check the cost of complexity: outsource your operations. I am not talking about hiring contract workers or consultants in lieu of employees, I am talking about finding an outfit that will take over your operation on a pay-for-action basis, where the bulk of the cost is directly related to the number of tasks to be performed.

If you work with someone who has been in the business for a long time, they are masters at algorithmizing your business. Algorithmize: I just made this word up, signifying breaking down your operations in step-by-step procedures. If your operations are loosely based on principles, but relying on one-offs solutions on a continuous basis, with so many exceptions and “what ifs” that the related documentation fills heavy tomes, and the flow charts resembles more a Jackson Pollock painting than a Mondrian.

Start with your business model. Can you explain it to your mom by using only a marker and ONE cocktail napkin? Two is OK, but if you need three and your mom doesn’t get it, you are in trouble. What about your hierarchy? Do you have more chiefs than you have workers? Can the people in Customer Service explain to you in 30 seconds or less what it is that they do? It’s hard to let go of (bad) habits, it’s easy to make exceptions for the sake of “flexibility”.

Leadership decisions are the hardest to make, and the hardest decisions are the ones that will allow your company to reap the greatest benefits.

Make sure you have the vision to discern simplicity from stupidity, and that you have the change in you, that you believe in it, that the change is a natural extension of you, not an item to check off in your to-do list. Authenticity is one of the pillars of change.

Simplicity is a simple way to attain a competitive advantage.

]]> http://newcfo.com/cfo/the-high-cost-of-complexity.html/feed 0 What you really want vs. what you want to hear http://newcfo.com/cfo/what-you-really-want-vs-what-you-want-to-hear.html http://newcfo.com/cfo/what-you-really-want-vs-what-you-want-to-hear.html#comments Fri, 25 Aug 2006 22:37:18 +0000 lorenzo http://newcfo.com/?p=42

Consumers have always been an audience, while marketers and sellers have been the undisputed performers.

Has this ever happened to you?

Customer: “What colors do you have?”
Seller: “What color are you looking for?”
Customer: “Metallic Silver”
Seller: “We have it”.

Later in the buying process, the seller does not have a Metallic Silver product, but in one way or another tries to rescue the sale.  If a sale is based on lies and deceit, was there ever a sale?

Some of the techniques used by some sellers:

You didn’t say Metallic Silver
This is metallic Silver (pointing at something Red)
and the best of all: seller waste buyer’s time with excuses and procrastinations till the buyer has no more time to start a new process somewhere else.

So, next time you interact with someone, sellers, clients, prospects, employees, bosses and you walk away happy: did they tell you the facts, or what you wanted to hear?

By the way:  the check is in the mail

]]> http://newcfo.com/cfo/what-you-really-want-vs-what-you-want-to-hear.html/feed 0 How to attain a competitive advantage, easily and inexpensively: PART II http://newcfo.com/cfo/how-to-attain-a-competitive-advantage-easily-and-inexpensively-part-ii.html http://newcfo.com/cfo/how-to-attain-a-competitive-advantage-easily-and-inexpensively-part-ii.html#comments Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:14:37 +0000 admin http://newcfo.com/?p=13

DO WHAT YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO DO!
(and if you can’t do it, don’t say you can!)

It works only if you:

1) Etch this in stone
2) Assure that everyone, from the top down DOES IT.

]]> http://newcfo.com/cfo/how-to-attain-a-competitive-advantage-easily-and-inexpensively-part-ii.html/feed 0 How to attain a competitive advantage, easily and inexpensively: PART I http://newcfo.com/cfo/how-to-attain-a-competitive-advantage-easily-and-inexpensively-part-i.html http://newcfo.com/cfo/how-to-attain-a-competitive-advantage-easily-and-inexpensively-part-i.html#comments Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:06:36 +0000 admin http://newcfo.com/?p=5 Keep it simple:

Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage in a World of More, Better, Faster

Need I say more? (If I did it would violate this very same post).

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