Creating Business Success Through Simplicity.

How simplifying strategy could be the key to managing the complexity of running a business in today's world.

I don't know about you, but my algorithms are flooded with content that espouse a huge range of 'solutions' to the problems of business from personal leadership style to using AI to magic everything into new levels of productivity. Granted, I have invited this flood in as an exec coach supporting businesses who are trying to create strategies fit for the world today, but frankly, it's exhausting and complex.

In a world where you probably can, at a fraction of the cost, the question is, should you?

All the myriad of possibilities, options, ideas and 'experts' often only serve to add complexity, anxiety and over-engineering into the managerial and leadership mix. Clearly, this is not a time to share 'one thing' to simplify your strategy and risk falling into the same one size fits all trap, but there are some questions we can ask of any business that might separate the wood from the trees.

Answering questions such as these, takes us out of the operational detail and back out there looking at the landscape, the overarching direction, the purpose and the values. With those foundations in place, then getting back to operational decision making becomes so much easier and aligned.

Perhaps these questions are useful for you to find more simplicity too:

• Does the vision for how your business fits into a future world still fit? Has the world you're trying to change, serve or support altered so much that your vision doesn't quite fit anymore?

• How clear are your values in the business? How well do you communicate them internally and externally? In a world that feels so polarised and complex, does your business stand tall and visible in the way it does things and the way it makes decisions?

• How recently has the business double checked what value the customers really need from you? Is it the same as even last year? What systems are in place to really understand what your people, sector, customers really want?

• Can you distil what your business does into a single sentence (not an aloof set of 3 words by the way)? How quickly can you articulate exactly what your business does that immediately impacts your ideal customer?

• Does the way you do business, the model, actually get your business to where you want it to be? If you allowed yourself the chance to 'play' with different options, is there a wild new model you might consider?

• What systems are in place for you to regularly ask these questions? How often do you ask 'why?' at least 5 times about the things your business does every day?

• Which customers, systems & processes create the biggest bottlenecks, frustrations and even barriers in your day to day business. Do you need them?

Perhaps the answer to some of these questions, provides enough pause for thought about the big, and often more simple, picture of your business at a time when complexity, digital prowess and sophistication is so on trend.

As fabulous as some of the opportunities are before us, we can't AI our way out of a muddled strategy and we certainly can't process our way out of an unclear vision or set of values.

These questions are at the heart of all my coaching and strategy sessions, workshop and trainings. In a world that is ever more complex, working on these fundamentals really does create the opportunity to simplify and navigate a path through this new world.

About the Author

Emily Whitehead is a business owner of nearly 25 years and has been running her own coaching consultancy for nearly 20. MBA writer and teacher, founder of Simply Club, exec coach and trainer with multiple business schools and national business support programmes, Emily has a wealth of real life and theoretical experience to share with business founders, owners and leaders. You can meet Emily over on LinkedIn too.