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Morning Column
The Thief of Time: Complexity
by John L. Mariotti
Time. Nobody has enough of it. Everyone wishes they could have more. It
flies by, and once gone, can never be recovered. It is the one truly
perishable resource. The workdays fill up and overflow. Other commitments
close in and personal time goes away. Those who suffer from this are truly
victims of the Thief of Time - complexity - which afflicts every person in
every organization.
Complexity adds to the list of unread e-mails, unheard voicemails,
interminable meetings and mountains of minutiae. It's time to apprehend
this Thief of Time, and stop its relentless damage. To stop it, you must
first understand how complexity strikes and where it comes from.
Much of the complexity accumulates due to the fact that we are part of the
information age. Another large source of complexity is the pursuit of high
growth in low growth markets. The continuous pressure for growth leads to
proliferation of customers, products, markets, and so forth. This
proliferation, while done with the best of intentions, leads to even greater
floods of information.
How can you stop complexity … this Thief of Time? The answer is deal with
the two places where the thief steals time and money.
Growth By Proliferation
First let's address how companies seeking growth drown themselves in
self-induced complexity. Most developed markets are growing slowly, and
companies commonly make the mistake of chasing growth at higher than market
growth rates by proliferating products, customers, markets, locations and
facilities. This problem grows because none of today's "accounting" systems
properly "account" for where and how complexity is "hiding," while it is
"stealing" time and money. Thieves are sneaky, and this one is no
exception. It hides in accounts where there is clutter such as variances,
allowances and deductions, obsolescence, administrative overhead, and so
forth.
At the end of the month, the quarter or the year, the time is gone forever,
and most of the profits are gone, too. The thief has struck again, yet nary
a trace of evidence remains as to what happened. What steps can you take?
Here are five guidelines …
1. Prioritize: Do what's most important, first. Choose what "not to do" and
make time for what must be done.
2. Focus: Focus on those tasks that make big differences. Devote the
resources to get them done.
3. Sort & Simplify: Sort products and customers, sales and profits in order
of descending annual value, and then simplify by cutting the losers at the
bottom that add cost but no profit. Increase attention to the winners at
the top; then either promote and cultivate - or demote and drop - what's
left in the middle.
4. Find It; Fix It; Use It or Lose It: Seek out complexity in all its usual
hiding places and either get rid of it, or restructure your processes to
turn complexity into a competitive advantage.
5. Keep the Thief Out: Devise new ways (and metrics) to track and detect
complexity when it is creeping back, as it certainly will.
Drowning in Data-Protecting What's Proprietary
This thief is so much more troubling now than in the past because of data
overload, drowning everyone in work, and inundating them with too much
information. Much of it was neither asked for, nor wanted and there's no
time to process or use it.
In the past, economists classified wealth in terms of exclusive rights to
land, labor and capital. Not any more. Now wealth is knowledge and
knowledge is derived from information; yet information cannot be easily
controlled, and seldom belongs exclusively to anyone. Because information
can be shared freely, the "wealth" that might be derived from it is lost
because so many have access to it.
How can the Thief of Time be stopped in this complex new information era?
How can the exclusivity of data and information be protected without adding
more complexity? First, maintain appropriate secrecy and privacy practices,
which can keep information out of the public domain and out of the hands of
competitors-at least temporarily. Use intellectual property laws to add
another layer of protection. Apply modern data security solutions to further
thwart the thief and eliminate two of the greatest sources of information
complexity; overuse/abuse of non-secure communications and illicit practices
such as spam, hacking, phishing, and social engineering.
Here's several more ways to thwart the thief, to manage the overuse/abuse,
to inhibit the illicit practices, and to protect your information's security
and exclusivity:
o Stop using the "reply to all" selection on e-mail. This cuts down the
flood of e-mail, and stops the embarrassing or damaging ones from going to
an unintended recipient. It also reduces the likelihood of confidential
information leaks by inadvertent e-mail distribution.
o Insist that voicemails begin with the topic, the intent and the action
desired. Then limit voicemail boxes to 20 seconds duration. People will
leave shorter messages after being cut off a few times.
o Clean out those mailboxes regularly-and avoid ill-advised e-mails and
voicemails on sensitive matters. Those can become "smoking guns" in legal
disputes.
Once these distractions - which act as the thief's "cover" - have been
addressed, then protecting valuable information comes next:
o Protect IT systems privacy and security using the best available tools:
encryption, firewalls, spam filters, backup systems, etc. Some hackers are
very creative, some "vandals" and some steal information for profit. Learn
the favorite tricks used in "phishing" and "social engineering" and alert
employees as to how these tricks are used. They steal both your precious
information and your precious time, while adding enormous complexity to your
workload.
o Develop a well-conceived Intellectual Property protection system and the
processes to support it. This includes what kind of information to keep
confidential and how to do that. It also includes training in appropriate
behaviors at trade shows and in public places, where overheard conversations
can result in critical information leaks.
There you have it; two straightforward approaches to deal with and apprehend
that Thief of Time-Complexity. One requires prioritization and focus, the
other is preventative and protective-a series of virtual locks that keep out
thieves and complexity.
Now it's up to you - and the management of your company - to keep the thief
out. The beauty of driving out complexity and safeguarding your information
is it frees you to devote your time to innovation; new products, improved
value and better customer service, which will make you more effective, and
your company more profitable. And in the game of business, profit is how
the score is kept …and winning is a lot more fun than chasing complexity and
its problems.
About the Author:
John L. Mariotti's new book "THE COMPLEXITY CRISIS-Why Too Many Products,
Markets & Customers Are Crippling Your Company -- And What To Do About It"
is available at www.amazon.com, www.800ceoread.com and most leading
bookstores. Mariotti, former President of Huffy Bicycles and Rubbermaid
Office Products Group, is President & CEO of The Enterprise Group and author
of eight books business books and hundreds of articles and columns. He
serves on several corporate boards, advises companies and does public
speaking. He can be reached at www.mariotti.net.
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