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Page 152 GO IT ALONE!
first we thought we were witnessing humility. Later, we wondered if these accomplished leaders weren’t patronizing us and shining us on. Finally, we concluded they were right. Companies that are fastest to market keep their business propositions simple. In fact, as we conducted further research, we discovered the biggest battle the leaders of fast-to-market companies have to fight is with their own people—those who would complicate the proposition given half the chance. As a new go-it-alone business, you are by definition the smallest fish in the pond (although I anticipate that you will ultimately outgrow the pond), and can’t afford to get caught in a morass of complexity. This doesn’t mean that the ASPs you use can’t handle complex tasks. In fact, it’s their ability to make complexity simple that may make them attractive. The acid test is really whether your business is simple to operate. Marketing guru Jack Trout makes a similar argument in a book he coauthored with Steve Rivkin, The Power of Simplicity : Our general education and most management training teach us to deal with every variable, seek out every option, and analyze every angle. This leads to maddening complexity. And the most clever among us produce the most complex proposals and recommendations. Unfortunately, when you start spinning out all kinds of different solutions, you’re on the road to total chaos. . . .Simplicity requires that you narrow the options and return to a single path.
It’s a law of nature that focus moves to chaos. Entropy naturally leads ordered businesses to become disordered. There
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GO IT ALONE! Copyright 2004 by Bruce Judson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
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