It may make sense to offer 12 varieties of lattes, at least to the company that markets the offering. In most cases though, too many choices create complexity and frustrate the customer. Moreover, there are times when the offering flummoxes the company’s staff. Slimming and streamlining the offering is the way to go, says this author, who suggests 3 practical steps an organization can apply to simplify things.
It happens in companies too, where all the old stuff — legacy products or services – is very difficult to dump or wind down. We are deathly afraid of alienating the 3 percent of our customers who still use them. Gasp! What if they are upset and go to the competition? Worse yet, some of the rarely-bought or rarely-looked-at stuff on our offering menu is there because of our attempts to innovate were never finished. We liked an idea, rushed it through, and now that 1.0 version is enjoying marginal adoption. But we’ve moved on to the next good idea. Most 1.0 ideas don’t really work, but we launch them anyway.
Enter Lean
Reprint from Ivey Business Journal
[© Reprinted and used by permission of the Ivey Business School]