A couple of months back I saw a small trader in the Ernakulam market place (kochi - India), who has started a new business there. He was so excited that he was able to acquire a breathing space in this part of the city to run a business. He feels elated that he has about 40 sq.ft at his disposal. A casual glance at his kiosk made me feel that his merchandise is not matching with the excitement he has. All sort of things are there. Children's toys, hangers, strings, torches, mosquito bats, battery, etc. In one glance I could view at least 20 items. The items are displayed in nauseatingly cluttered way.I just asked him how is the business? He said it is OK. On further interview it was found that he is not able to 'break even'. He was of the belief that one has to keep all the items a customer asks. It may be good to keep all the items under one roof, but the trader has only about 40 sq.ft.
When a walk-in customer come to the kiosk and asks for a particular product, often it seems that the item demanded by the customer is not available or that the available product does not suit the customer's choice. At the departure of the unsatisfied customer, the trader immediately updates his stock as per the required of the flown customer. Thus day by day the inventory increased but the sale dwindled. I felt sad at the plight of the trader and entered into a conversation with trader and suggested to specialize in one or two products / product clusters because of the paucity of space and also the confusion it creates in the minds of the customer. The trader seem to have got some flashes as result of this coversation and consoled me he will do the needful.
Last week when I saw him at his kiosk, he has somehow liquidated his earlier inventory and right now has lesser number of products. I again asked him how the business is? he said the sale is less but some customers are doing repeat buys from the kiosk. He looks very optimistic about his business. Now the kiosk looks more tidy. And intuitively one could understand that this shop sells perfumes and related products. There is a range of perfumery products available in the kiosk. It has a welcome look now.
Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert in their book "The breakthrough imperative" asserts simplicity as the one of the fundamental laws of business. This is beacuse human beings can't effectively focus on more than three or four things at once. The simplicity attribute must pervade the whole business; be it product issues, organisational issues or process issues. An organisation with too many products and options drives up costs and confuses its customers. Similarly, an organization with too many layers of management will probably be unable to take quick action, even when the need for action is obvious.
Great business persons always keep it simple.
All businesses inherently are simple and straight forward. Complexities arises when we deviate from our business or when we are ignorant of it. When there is joy, ease and lightness in what we do, we are minding our business. The moment we lose any one of these, take it that we are away from our business.The prospective customer must be able to do business with your organization as simple as possible. If it is not, the chances are that even the most loyal customer might one day leave you. Hence it is important to make the business dealings as simple as possible and as cheerful as possible.
Simplicity gets better results than complexity.
Driving simplicity in the organization:
When a walk-in customer come to the kiosk and asks for a particular product, often it seems that the item demanded by the customer is not available or that the available product does not suit the customer's choice. At the departure of the unsatisfied customer, the trader immediately updates his stock as per the required of the flown customer. Thus day by day the inventory increased but the sale dwindled. I felt sad at the plight of the trader and entered into a conversation with trader and suggested to specialize in one or two products / product clusters because of the paucity of space and also the confusion it creates in the minds of the customer. The trader seem to have got some flashes as result of this coversation and consoled me he will do the needful.
Last week when I saw him at his kiosk, he has somehow liquidated his earlier inventory and right now has lesser number of products. I again asked him how the business is? he said the sale is less but some customers are doing repeat buys from the kiosk. He looks very optimistic about his business. Now the kiosk looks more tidy. And intuitively one could understand that this shop sells perfumes and related products. There is a range of perfumery products available in the kiosk. It has a welcome look now.
Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert in their book "The breakthrough imperative" asserts simplicity as the one of the fundamental laws of business. This is beacuse human beings can't effectively focus on more than three or four things at once. The simplicity attribute must pervade the whole business; be it product issues, organisational issues or process issues. An organisation with too many products and options drives up costs and confuses its customers. Similarly, an organization with too many layers of management will probably be unable to take quick action, even when the need for action is obvious.
Great business persons always keep it simple.
All businesses inherently are simple and straight forward. Complexities arises when we deviate from our business or when we are ignorant of it. When there is joy, ease and lightness in what we do, we are minding our business. The moment we lose any one of these, take it that we are away from our business.The prospective customer must be able to do business with your organization as simple as possible. If it is not, the chances are that even the most loyal customer might one day leave you. Hence it is important to make the business dealings as simple as possible and as cheerful as possible.
Simplicity gets better results than complexity.
Driving simplicity in the organization:
- Study the customers' needs in detail
- Find three things the customer really cares about and do something about it intensely
- Develop products and services that would solve the needs of the customer
- Set no more than three to five critical imperatives for your organization, and communicate them so that everybody in the organization can remember, recite, and buy into what the company is trying to accomplish.
- Adapt your organizational structure, decision-making responsibilities, and critical business processes to ensure clarity, speed, and efficiency in meeting customer needs better than anybody else
Here is a site that tells more about simplicity in action http://rpc.blogrolling.com/redirect.php?r=16496b548dee948366e5c33591d13962&url=http://simplicityitk.blogspot.com
contributed by : Sasikanth Prabhu
