Professor Simon Collinson and Melvin Jay.

If you’d like to attend please contact Gethin Tasker gethin.tasker@simplicitypartnership.com

Telephone +44(0) 20 7042 8400

Date 14th June

Time 9.30 – 13.00

Location. The business centre, Green Park. 100 Longwater Ave, Reading.RG9 6GP.

We have a limited number of places available at a half day workshop run by The Henley Partnership part of Henley Business School (www.henley.com/hp)

This event is free but will requires a small amount of pre-work so please don’t apply for a place if you are unable to commit the necessary time or effort.

Event summary

We know that the competitive environment is becoming more complex, turbulent and unpredictable and that leaders have little or no control over the underlying trends, from globalisation to technological change. The most damaging kinds of complexity, however, come from within business organisations. This is where we can act and need to be doing more. As successful firms grow they add new products and services to their portfolios; enter new markets; engage in joint-ventures and acquisitions; add new business units and lines of management, profits also grow. There is a tipping point, however, when added complexity – a new line of products, one more acquisition, an extra layer of management – does not add proportionate value. At this event we will discuss the findings of two major studies on the impacts of complexity on firm performance to learn how to begin the process of identifying and removing costly complexity from your businesses.

Key learning outcomes for this event

This event aims to leave you with:

• A greater depth of knowledge of the causes and consequences of complexity in business.

• An understanding of the guiding principles of how to reduce complexity.

• A full review of the research study ‘The Global Simplicity Index’.

• Practical advice on how you can start a simplicity revolution in your business.

Event content and learning styles

Professor Simon Collinson and Melvin Jay will be sharing their research and findings from two major studies. The first led to the development of the Global Simplicity Index (GSI), correlating increased complexity with reduced profitability, which revealed that the largest 200 companies in the Forbes Global 500 are losing, on average, 10.2% of their annual profits or $1.2 billion per year each due to value-destructive complexity. The second study, a survey of managers in over 300 European firms, shows which kinds of complexity impact productivity the most.

The session will be a highly informative briefing session with opportunity for Q&A throughout.

Is this event for you?

Solving the complexity conundrum is at the heart of corporate competitive advantage in today’s business environment – so if you are a senior leader with serious intention to tackle complexity and make a lasting commitment to reducing it, attending this event will be an excellent starting point.

Pre-Work – what we would like you to do before we meet

We ask participants to do a little bit of homework before the workshop, to maximise the benefits on the day…

Please keep a short log of anything you see in your company that is too complex in your view. This may be a particular set of processes or management behaviours (emailing, meetings, reporting requirements etc.) or something as broad as the overall design of the organisation (layers of management, global structure, interface between functions etc.).

We will focus on a number of these at the workshop to show how simplification tools can help.

More information here.

If you’d like to attend please contact Gethin Tasker gethin.tasker@simplicitypartnership.com

Telephone +44(0) 20 7042 8400

We provide some rules/guidelines you MUST FOLLOW if you want to reduce the level of complexity caused by M&A activity

How M&A can increase complexity in the new organisation

Strategy

• Distraction of transaction and integration issues in addition to business as usual objectives.
• Addition of new organisation adds extra strategic initiatives and projects.
• Multiple visions and direction.

The Simplicity approach.

• Establish a clear, shared vision and direction for the new organisation.
• Map your strategy simply on one page and share this with the organisation – clear statements of where you play and how you win in the new organisation.

People / culture

• Conflicting cultures and ways of working.
• Multiple performance management and remuneration policies.

The Simplicity approach.

• Establish a set of simplicity principles (i.e. Standardisation, Prioritisation) that staff should adhere to as the two organisations are integrated.
• Create a single, concise set of KPIs, aligned with the strategy, which should feed directly into performance metrics and discussions.

Organisation

• Duplication of functional structures, roles and capabilities.
• Duplication of governance structures – new meetings, legacy reporting.
• Different or conflicting organisational structures (i.e. matrix versus flat).
• Lack of clarity as to who has accountability for different activities in the new organisation.

The Simplicity approach.

• Set unbreakable principles for organisational design – spans of control, number of matrix or in-direct reports, maximum number of organisational design, etc.
• Identify your strategic processes and create simple RACIs to clarify accountabilities for key decisions.
• Audit your reporting to identify the reports being created, the reports you need, and eliminate the others.
• Identify the appropriate model for each function (acquirer model?, ‘best of both’?, complete transformation?).
• Maintain distributed power and authority as possible – managers use M&A as an excuse for decision inertia.

Product / service

• Increased size of product / service portfolio.
• Multiple or confused sales messages.
• Increased variety in pricing structures.
• Increase in number of suppliers and partners.

The Simplicity approach.

• Map your markets and the products / services that serve them and identify and eliminate overlapping products or over-served markets.

Process

• Duplicated or non-compatible IT systems.
• Un-integrated product / service portfolios create duplicated support or production processes.

The Simplicity approach.

• Identify and map your core processes.  Identify common or duplicated processes and use the simplest one, or create a new process that’s even simpler.

For more information on Simplicity’s approach to M&A contact Gethin.tasker@simplicitypartnership.com

Some of your leadership team may not believe that simplicity is a good thing or necessary. If this is the case you will need to align the leadership team and get everyone to agree that a simpler organisation is a great idea. We use the Simplicity Beliefs shown below to clarify what we mean by simplicity and to check that people believe in simplicity (or not!).

• Some things may never be completely simple but most things can be made simpler.
• Simple is different to simplistic. Most things can be made simpler without becoming simplistic.
• Complexity is fine as long as it does not reduce quality, speed or performance. Unfortunately it usually does.
• Everything can be made simpler and at the same time better, faster and safer. These concepts are not at odds.
• It’s difficult to make things simpler but the effort is always rewarded with better and more predictable results.
• Always try to reduce complexity first. In the unlikely event that complexity can’t be reduced, only then look for a way to manage it better.

Once everyone is in agreement that this is the right thing for your organisation and you know how good your leaders are at leading simplicity, the next step is to integrate ‘leading simplicity’ into your existing training, tools & approaches to get your leaders using the leadership lever to start the simplicity revolution from the top.

If your leaders are living the value of simplicity this will soon be copied as well, so your leaders need to model the simplicity behaviours.

For more information contact Gethin.tasker@simplicitypartnership.com

To read the Public Sector Complexity Review click here.

• What are the biggest sources of complexity in the Public Sector.
• What are the performance consequences of complexity.
• What can public sector leaders and managers actually do about complexity.
• Your copy of the report in full, The Public Sector Complexity Review.
• Presented by Professor Simon Collinson Head of International Business at Henley Business School.

“The government are committed to cutting the number of people in the public service, but they still want to maintain service standards.

This means that the public sector will have to make significant changes in the way work gets done. With significantly fewer people it will not be possible to maintain quality unless they reduce the number of things they do, improve their organisational structure and simplify the processes for getting work done.”

You are invited to attend The Public Sector Complexity Seminar, 8.30- 10.30am on Wednesday 18^th April at One Great George Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3AA

The seminar will provide an explanation of the findings from the Public Sector Complexity Review, followed by a learning forum where we will discuss the steps you can take to reduce complexity, including practical examples and case studies.

To register email Ashley Shakibai or call +44 (0)20 7042 8400

About The Public Sector Complexity Review

In March 2011, Warwick University and Simplicity launched the Global Simplicity Index. This is the first robust academic study to identify the true financial cost of complexity and the types of complexity that were most harmful to business success. The Global Simplicity Index focused on the 200 biggest companies in the world and identified that on average over 10% of profits were being lost to harmful complexity.

This study has now been extended to the public sector.

The results of the Public Sector Complexity Review are based on an on-line survey of several hundred public sector leaders and managers.

More about the Global Simplicity Index