There was a popular survey some time ago that asked leaders in several mid-sized companies about their success. One of the main reasons that many were successful is they focused on simplicity in everything they did. The study concluded that simple, focused companies were more profitable.
The Pareto or 80/20 Principle can help us realize the power of keeping things simple.
Some popular statistics that relate to the Pareto Principle are below:
80% of beer is consumed by 20% of the beer drinkers
80% of classroom participation comes from 20% of the students
80% of traffic jams occur on 20% of roads
20% of your clothes will be worn 80% of the time
80% of sales are generated by 20% of the sales staff
80% of problems are generated by 20% of the employees
80% of problems come from 20% of the customer base
Now that we know this, how do we make things simpler? The answer is "simple". We need to analyze the data. We cannot guess where the problems are. We cannot just use emotion. As I have stated in previous posts, it is important to look at your business processes to eliminate waste and complexity.
Questions to ask yourself and your organization when seeking to simplify your business processes:
What are our processes?
Who are our customers?
What systems do we use? Do we have the right systems in place to support our business?
What services do we offer internally and externally? Are they still valuable today?
Look for the 20% that adds value and eliminate or redesign the rest. Keep in mind that we are looking to automate, minimize, isolate, reduce, redesign, or reallocate those things that are not helping us to achieve simplicity.
Keep it Simple!!!
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