Optimisation in transformation
Complexity reduction
Identify excessive complexity in the offering, the organisation and coordination, and refocus on what matters.
Growing market demands often lead to excessive internal complexity: special solutions, variants, interfaces and rounds of coordination multiply. Each individual decision may be justified, but taken together they tie up resources and slow the organisation down. Complexity reduction asks which complexity benefits the customer and which merely creates internal effort.
What you come away with
- Distinction between value-creating and avoidable complexity
- Focused range of services with segment-specific value propositions
- Simplified responsibilities, interfaces and decision paths
How we work
- 01
Identify complexity drivers
Make variants, special solutions, interfaces and rounds of coordination visible.
- 02
Check customer value
Use the outside-in perspective to clarify which variety customers actually value.
- 03
Set the focus
Decide on service packages, value propositions and management logic.
- 04
Simplify the organisation
Adjust responsibilities, interfaces and decision paths.
Looking at complexity from the outside in
We start with the customer. A customer segmentation from the outside-in perspective shows which expectations genuinely differ and where variety in the offering creates no additional value. Core competencies are then checked against these expectations. This makes it possible to distinguish necessary from avoidable complexity.
Focusing the offering and its management
The analysis produces clearly described service packages and value propositions for the individual segments. Sales, service delivery and management are aligned with this logic. In a documented project for an owner-managed chemical company, this approach led to six customer segments based on two fundamental strategies and to a concentration on three service packages.
Complexity is justified when it creates value for customers. Everything else ties up resources.
Reducing coordination effort within the organisation
Complexity also arises within the organisation itself: in unclear responsibilities, too many interfaces and decision paths with many participants. With those responsible, we clarify which coordination is needed for good decisions and which arises from habit or the wish to cover oneself. Responsibilities and decision rights are framed so that less coordination is required.
Book an initial callWhy special solutions become expensive
transformis describes a pattern from practice: over many years, an organisation develops its systems in a strongly market-driven way and tries to resolve every customer request at short notice. Market complexity thus turns into excessive internal complexity. Every additional unit of revenue from special solutions creates high opportunity costs in future. What matters then is not the next customer requirement but a structure that makes future opportunities possible.
Complexity is not just a cost issue
Organisations reduce complexity in order to remain able to act. To do so, they develop their own frameworks for observation and evaluation. It becomes problematic when simplification turns into trivialisation and conflicting goals such as efficiency and innovation are played off against each other instead of being worked through. We therefore make sure that complexity reduction strengthens the ability to decide rather than merely reducing variety.
Read more
Deliverables: Distinction between value-creating and avoidable complexity; Focused range of services with segment-specific value propositions; Simplified responsibilities, interfaces and decision paths.
Complexity reduction does not mean cutting offerings or departments across the board. Decisions on portfolio and structure are taken by the company's management; technical planning of variants and product data is carried out with the relevant specialists.
Frequently asked questions
Where does excessive complexity typically arise?
In the offering through variants and special solutions, in the organisation through interfaces and unclear responsibilities, and in management through overlapping key figures and committees. These levels often reinforce one another.
Does the portfolio have to be reduced?
Not necessarily. It is often enough to bundle offerings more clearly, separate standard services from special services and align management with customer segments. Whether individual offerings are dropped is decided by the company's management on the basis of the analysis.
How is complexity reduction related to customer segmentation?
A segmentation from the outside-in perspective shows which differences in customer expectations actually exist. From this one can derive where variety is necessary and where a shared service package is sufficient.
Prefer to talk directly?
What decision are you facing? Together, we clarify your situation, the people involved and the right next step.
Jan-Niclas Bockard
Director | Chief Operating Officer (COO) | Head of corporate strategy competence team
Your initial call
Let’s talk about your situation and what you want to develop in your organisation.
- Your situation
- What brings you to us
- Possible next steps