By Richard Koch & Greg Lockwood
First published 2016 by Piatkus
ISBN 978-0-349-41184-2
‘Simplify: How the Best Businesses in the World Succeed’: a Book Review by Hugh Cautley
Remark: I normally make detailed notes of the books I read and then make a review like this. I have put the notes and assessment on my website for anyone who would like to read them. You can read them here, all comments are most welcome.
The basic idea behind the book ‘Simplify’ are two ‘principles’. They are valid for very different types of businesses from furniture (Ikea) to cars (Ford), from hamburger restaurants (McDonalds) to consultants (Boston Consulting) and seem to be fundamentally valid over decades. The two principles are
(1) Reduce the price dramatically, think 50% or better 90%, to address a dramatically bigger market or
(2) improve the proposition that it becomes, as the author Richard Koch puts it, a ‘joy to use’. While the book lists two authors, the phrase ‘The authors (Richard)….’was used so often that I will refer to just Mr. Koch.
These are powerful claims and the promise in the book of how to analyse a business to see its potential to simplify makes it an enticing proposition. I have read Koch before and found his style a refreshing change from some of the more dense books on similar topics. He basically delivers.
The book is well structured, split up in 4 parts and the 18 chapters each contain a summary of ’Key Points’ at the end, just in case your mind wandered during the read. He tells what he going to say, says it and then tells what he says. Fine, but what about the content?
The book starts with a 10 page preface. Read it! It is an excellent summary of the book. Skip to Part 4 says the author, if you are an impatient reader. A strange remark, a lot of the value of the book is in Part 2. It contains tests and a questionnaire that will help you decide if your business may benefit from these principles.
Part1 may be skipped if you are in a hurry as it is a listing of very well-known brands that, according to the author have been exponents of these principles. But it is worth a read, well written and covering Henry Ford to Uber. But sometimes the material on areas I am familiar with like Computers and Audio Equipment made me think about the relevance and validity of the others like Furniture and Ikea. The enthusiasm of the author to simplify meant Part 1 is a hard sell of the two principles rather than a candid appraisal of rather complex actions these companies carried out to be successful.
There are sections in the book that try to answer the question if Price simplifying pays. But did you really need someone to explain to you how successful IKEA, McDonalds et al. are? I suspect this section will be edited down to a few charts in a new edition, But don’t give up, keep reading.
The reality check is at the end of the book. Simplifying is not a panacea for all industries. Biotech, Oil & Gas, Defence etc. are all listed as industries where these principles do not seem to hold. In fact there are many industries that do not even adhere to simplicity and seem to do just fine, think luxury goods.
In short the two principles are indeed often true for some consumer facing businesses. The scale of success, rather than the success itself, seems to come from the ability to duplicate your business in new geographies. Uber did not remain in San Francisco or IKEA in Sweden, but could be duplicated, simply if you liked, world-wide. It was Ray Kroc who duplicated worldwide the self-serve standardised, ‘simple’ menu invented by Dick and Mack McDonald. Dick and Mack were not interested in going beyond San Bernardino. The already had a good life they said. But then the author gently chides Mr. Croc for not duplicating his simple hamburger business into other lines, e.g. chicken. It would seem that the complexity of the people running businesses rather than the business is the key factor.
‘Simplify’ does contain some useful practical advice, it comes with some nice anecdotal stories which I found pleasant. It does come with a lot of padding and some sections towards the end that need to be edited. It is also told with a simple conviction that a public speaker has and needs before an audience rather than the more in depth and thoughtful analysis that an author needs to convince a reader.
But be sure to get through the padding to the more critical elements at the end of the book. Then decide if simplification is something for your business. The ‘how to simplify’ is then really up to you and as the author says “the path is not easy” but “once you have chosen your strategy, flesh it out in detail and work out how to execute it brilliantly”. That’s it!
Cautley Consulting 