Conquering Complexity in Your Business: How Wal-Mart, Toyota, and Other Top Companies Are Breaking Through the Ceiling on Profits and Growth - Hardcover

Michael L. George; Stephen A. Wilson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071435085 ISBN 13: 9780071435086

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2004

Synopsis

Conquering the complexity in products and services can generate larger contributions to profits and growth than nearly any other business strategy

Here's a guarantee: Somewhere in your business, there is too much complexity. You may also be losing out by having too little complexity where it counts - in the products, services and options you offer to customers. Either way, the impact of complexity is enormous in terms of lost profit and missed growth opportunities.

Conquering Complexity in Your Business shows how to break through the ceiling on profits and growth by implementing the three rules for conquering complexity:

• Eliminating complexity that customers will not pay for
• Exploiting the complexity that customers will pay for
• Minimizing the costs of the complexity you offer

You'll find methods and tools you need to:

Identify the offering and process complexity in your business

Quantify the impact of that complexity

Decide which complexity you want to keep and which to eliminate

Select specific approaches to eliminate different kinds of complexity

This knowledge will significantly improve your ability to grow profit, revenue, and shareholder value.

About this title

From the Author:

Without question this book is about quantitatively defining the cost of complexity and removing its causes in a priority order. Data and equations are required to make the process quantitative; Newtons equations of motion met the same negative reaction from Goethe, but that did not detract from their universal application. The case study the reviewer referred to was one of the authors' company, and resulted in moving from a loss to an 18% pre-tax profit, and the devil is in the details. Executives and managers, having read the book, are therefore unlikely to "put it aside". The book is not about eliminating complexity, but about eliminating the cost of complexity. Complexity that creates shareholder value should in fact be increased. These views are reflected in the comments of CEO's (below) who have reviewed the book.

From the Back Cover:

"The winners and losers in the next decade...may well be separated by a single factor: those that conquer complexity and those that do not."

- Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson

Here's a guarantee: Somewhere in your business, there is too much complexity. It erodes profitability, impedes productivity, confuses customers, and adds non-recoverable costs that can kill you in the marketplace. But that's only half the equation: You may also be losing out by having too little of the complexity where it counts--in the products, services, and options you offer to customers. Customers call this value-added complexity "variety", "options", or "customization". Either way, as you'll discover in Conquering Complexity in Your Business, the impact of complexity is enormous in terms of lost profit and missed growth opportunities.

In this breakthrough book from Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson, you'll find out why the trick to outperforming your competition and staying ahead of the curve in today's highly customer-centric business environment is achieving the optimum levels of complexity in your products, services, and operations. Best of all, for the first time in print, you'll find powerful tools that will let you quantify and pinpoint complexity in your business. You'll also find strategies for conquering that complexity and dramatically increasing productivity, profits and market share.

Conquering Complexity in Your Business is packed with real-world practical advice and guidance from both a strategic and tactical perspective. With the help of fascinating and instructive in-depth case studies from Dell, Capital One, Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, Toyota, Scania, Lockheed Martin, Aldi, and other companies that have conquered complexity to become world leaders in their industries, the authors show you how to

• Strategically identify the offering and process complexity in your business
• Quantify the impact of that complexity
• Decide which complexity you want to keep to drive growth and which to eliminate to cut costs
• Select and implement specific operational approaches to eliminate different kinds of complexity
• Sustain an environment with just the right balance of complexity your company needs to maximize productivity and profits

Don't let complexity impose a ceiling on your profits and growth. Read Conquering Complexity in Your Business and learn how to serve your customers more effectively, dominate your competition, and delight your shareholders.

"This is an important book that should be read by every CEO. Conquering Complexity is not just about reducing costs; it's fundamentally about growing revenues and creating economic value by serving your customers more effectively."--Lou Giuliano, Chairman, President and CEO, ITT Industries

"Complexity creeps into organizations incrementally, and each additional decision is, by itself, almost always justifiable. But faced with a crisis, many companies, including American Airlines, have chosen a head-on approach to removing complexity--we simply could not afford to do otherwise."--Gerard J. Arpey, President and CEO, AMR Corporation and American Airlines

"As we tackle the most resistant issues in the company, it is clear that complexity is a key causal. The challenge is getting our arms around the cost of complexity. Being able to size the opportunity creates a compelling call to action."--Anne M. Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO, Xerox Corporation

"It is critical that the authors' study and analysis gets outs to a wider audience to explain how complexity occurs and more importantly, how to both attack it and prevent it."--Chris Cool, Vice President, Northrup-Grumman Corporation

Many managers and executives intuitively understand that the benefits from conquering complexity can be huge. But only a handful worldwide know to how to precisely measure, manage, and profit from complexity. Now, with Conquering Complexity in Your Business, a breakthrough book from complexity gurus Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson, all of that changes. Learn how to break through the ceiling on your company's profits and growth.

For more information about Conquering Complexity, please visit our website at www.georgegroup.com

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0071435085
• ISBN 13: 9780071435086
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352