When in doubt, simplify

See “Simplify or drown” (page 3, business)
By Jon Fernquest

When faced with complexity sometimes we create even more complexity.

In today’s Executive Agenda column a management consultant from the firm A. T. Kearney talks about simplifications that can make the telecommunications industry more competitive.

Most of us do not own telecommunications companies, so at first glance the article doesn’t seem relevant to our life and work. The ideas of simplification and eliminating redundancy are, however, also useful as a general strategy in business and work.

"Complex" and "simple" are antonyms (have the opposite meaning). Reread the article and look for places in the article where these two ideas are discussed (See answer key at end).

"Drowning in complexity" is used as a metaphor. A metaphor makes a comparison or analogy between two situations by mapping between them. If someone drowns, they sink under the water, cannot breath, and die. While you read underline the metaphor. In the metaphor what is the meaning of: 1. water, 2. sinking, 3. not breathing, and 4. dieing. Use your imagination. Several answers are possible. (See answer key at the end of the article).

Reread the article looking for all places where telecom technologies are mentioned (See answer key at end of article). How would the convergence of video, voice, and data in a network simplify business, work, and everyday life?

In this article you can see how a good writer expresses an old idea "simplification" in a new way using metaphor. How could you make the next piece of writing that you do at work or school more interesting using metaphor? Think of a subject. Think of a metaphor you could describe it with. For example, your mobile phone is not human, so it cannot be your friend. What if it was human?

Vocabulary (in discussion above)

at first glance - the first thing that you think when you read the article
eliminating redundancy - eliminating things that are unnecessary because they already exist
antonyms - the opposite meaning of a word
metaphor - a comparison between unrelated things. one thing is described as being a second thing that is very different, attributes from the second object can be used to fill in the description of the first (See Wikipedia:Metaphor)
analogy - a comparison between two different that shows their similarity (See Wikipedia:Analogy)

Vocabulary (in article)

hands on approach – practical, getting involved in the daily activities of a company
A. T. Kearney – a management consulting firm with a hands on approach (See Wikipedia:ATKearney)
exasperating – causing you to feel angry or frustrated
the tide – the daily rise and fall of the ocean
telecom carriers – companies that own the communication service, like AIS or TOT
the bottom line – a company’s profit or loss, the last line of a company’s profit and loss statement
incremental – a small change
a fundamental transformation – an important and big change
turn back the tide – reverse a negative change in the business
to start from scratch - do without making use of past work
a clean sheet approach – starting from scratch with a clean of paper
to demolish – to destroy completely
unwieldy – difficult ot use because it is too big (originally means difficult to carry or move because it is big and heavy)
convergence – coming together of separate things
duplicative – redundant, occurring more than once without need
manual intervention – when a human has to do something a computer normally does
well ahead of the game – doing a lot better job than others are doing
initiatives – actions to solve a problem
end-to-end – from the beginning to the end
consolidating – bringing together, joining, uniting to make stronger
replicating – doing it again in the same way (as it was done before)
ongoing – doing now, currently doing
scale back – reduce, scale down
head count – the number of workers or employees in a department or company
order cycle time – the time it takes to complete a whole order
legacy IT systems – an old computer system still used because the user does not want to replace or redesign it (See Wikipedia:Legacy_system)
ingrained – habits that are difficult to remove or change
streamlining – make more efficient by removing inefficient parts of a company or a business process
a silo – a system that cannot easily integrate with other systems (so there are multiple versions of the same data, violating the idea of a single version of the truth, From: it.csumb.edu/departments/data/glossary.html)
a bundle – things sold together as a set
front-line staff – employees who have direct contact with customers
a bold move – a bold action
dabbled – not doing seriously
embrace a new vision – start using a new long term plan to create the future world that you wish for (See Wikipedia:Vision_statement)

Answer key

1. Ways of expressing the ideas of "simple" and "complex" :

a. "the array of telecommunications options is nothing short of exasperating" [there are too many options to choose from]
b. "Amid the complexity telecom firms are are finding it tough to increase their revenues, keep costs down
and still provide customers with an uncomplicated offering"
c. "Telecom carriers are addressing the increased complexity with a host of new strategies..."
d. "It's clear that incremental simplification strategies aren't enough, it's time for a fundamental transformation..."
e. "...losing out to their less complex competitors"
f. "Simplifying an organization begins with determining customer needs"
g. "Simplification isn't simple; nor is it risk-free."
h. "The best products are simple and easy to use, yet differentiated to meet a variety of customer needs."
i. "...offering fewer products with easier-to-change options"
j. "...simplifying billing and support systems"
k. "...consolidating variations of the same process into a single best process..."
l. "For simplicity to work, employees must provide excellent customer service."
m. "Telecom firms have dabbled in some or all of simplification options discussed here..."
n. "It is time to embrace a bold new vision of a significantly simpler operating model"

2. The metaphor of "drowning in complexity" is found in three places in the article:

a. "simplify or drown"
b. "the telecommunications industry is swimming in a rising tide of complexity"
c. "Unless telecoms carriers can turn back the tide, they face the very real prospect of drowning in increasingly uncompetitive cost structures"

Here is one way of thinking about the metaphor. Other answers are possible:

i. water = complexity
ii. sinking = increasing complexity
iii. not breathing = business can no longer function and starts to lose money
iv. dieing = going out of business

3. Telecom technologies:

a. "...Dial up, cable, DSL Broadband, or Wifi..."
b. "POTS, the plain old telephone service
c. "...internet protocol (IP)-based ethernet services..."
d. "...an all-IP vision and master plan"
e. "IP-based next generation networks"
f. British Telecom's 21st Century Network
g. A network "designed for the convergence of video, voice,
and data."

Posted by Jon Fernquest at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)