Complexity is bad.
There are many types of complexities in business.
There is technical complexity.
There is conceptual complexity.
There is implementation complexity.
There is management complexity.
Just to name a few.
They’re bad because by being complex, it’s hard for you as the business owner to start a business that has them for company.
They’ll cost you a lot more money, time and effort than a simpler business that you can do.
And as with any business, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to overcome them all.
Complexity is bad.
But then again, if you’re looking at a business full of complexities that you would like to emulate but couldn’t because of all the hurdles you must go through - one thing start to come to mind.
Complexity is good.
It’s good because if you’ve gone out to overcome those hurdles from the beginning and you succeed, you will have few, to NO competitors.
Just like Boeing and Airbus - the world’s 2 main competitors for commercial airplanes.
Between the 2 of them, they get the lion’s share of all aircraft orders from around the word - totalling trillions of dollars.
Just like Intel and AMD - the world’s top 2 main competitors for computer chips.
And Search Engines, like Google and Yahoo.
Google’s algorithm is very complex and it gets more and more complex by the day.
Google’s quest to return very accurate search results to keep its users happy means that it’ll need to add all variables that will affect the accuracy of those results.
And there are hundreds of such variables, with many more being discovered and added all the time.
Even Yahoo isn’t quite close to Google in terms of the complexity of its search algorithm - thus you’ve seen how Google has slowly but surely pulled itself away from the pack.
Complexity is good in ensuring you get to protect your turf for a much longer period of time - sometimes for decades - before you need to share any customers with another competitor.
And if you constantly innovate and add even more value after having been successful with complexities in your business, you’ll be sitting on your throne literally forever.
Complexity is good.
Here’s the “business holy grail”:
Complexity in implementation and creation of a SIMPLE product that your Customer can easily understand, use and want is the best combination of all.
You’ll have lots of Customers and few to no competitors, for a long time to come.
Just like Walt Disney experienced with his hand-drawn animated full-length cartoon movies - before computers came along and made the process more accessible to his competitors.
But he was the king of animation for DECADES before Pixar Animation, Dreamworks and the others could even try to compete.
And what about IKEA - the furniture retailer?
Without knowing exactly what’s involved - you can SEE the sheer complexity of their operations and business in selling you flat-packed furniture with modern, functional designs that don’t cost you an arm and a leg to get.
Even thinking about being their possible competitor hurts.
Right?
Complexity is good.
Sen Ze
P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:
http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/complexity/complexity-is-bad.htm
Technorati Tags: business, business complexity, Airbus, Boeing, Intel, AMD, Yahoo, Google, Search Algorithm, business implementation, Walt Disney, cartoons, IKEA
