BCG's Smart Simplicity concept eliminates unnecessary complicatedness from companies—by diagnosing problems and designing solutions.
Expanding regulations, new technologies, and rising customer expectations are just some of the complexities that organizations confront. Historically, companies have responded to such external requirements and challenges by increasing their internal complicatedness, which BCG defines as the number of procedures, vertical layers, interface structures, coordination bodies, decision approvals, and other add-ons.
Complicatedness results in many performance issues, such as high costs, slow decision-making, siloed thinking, a lack of innovation, and difficulty getting things done—all common concerns of CEOs today. While complexity is a fact of business life, complicatedness doesn’t have to be.
What Is Smart Simplicity?
Smart Simplicity helps organizations identify and resolve unnecessary complicatedness and deliver lasting, measurable change. How does a Smart Simplicity approach differ from traditional solutions? We take into consideration the drivers of behavior—the context that employees work within—and then shape this context to achieve the desired behaviors.
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A Holistic Framework for Smart Simplicity
Smart Start. We start by conducting our Complicatedness Survey to pinpoint symptoms of complicatedness across eight key dimensions and identify pain points that are hindering performance in your organization
Diagnosis. Using Smart Simplicity’s proven diagnostic tools, deep-dive employee interviews, and behavioral science, we identify the root causes of complicatedness and establish the link between context and behavior. We then determine how changes to the context will make new behaviors rational—and thereby improve performance.
Solution. Finally, we apply six simple rules for overcoming complexity, a set of Smart Simplicity strategies that are based on economics, game theory, and organizational sociology.
Implementation. To ensure that change is happening, we provide an implementation roadmap and embed Smart Simplicity thinking within the organization.
Six Simple Rules: How to Manage Complexity without Getting Complicated
BCG has applied the Smart Simplicity approach in various types of businesses—including banks, utilities, insurance agencies, retail chains, and manufacturers—and delivered a wide range of sustainable performance improvements. The scope of Smart Simplicity has further extended to address complex global challenges, including hunger, climate change, and urban mobility.
Using Smart Simplicity to Reduce Stunting in Rwanda
Preventing stunting is a complicated problem because it requires well-coordinated interventions delivered to children at scale. BCG’s Smart Simplicity approach helped develop the Stunting-Free Village model.
A large industrial company needed to tackle complexity and improve product quality. With smart simplicity, their purchasing department achieved a 20% reduction in costs while maintaining quality levels.
A telecom-system manufacturer needed to foster internal cooperation and speed up product innovation. Using our smart simplicity approach, they gained a 20% time-to-market advantage over competitors in 15 months.
Our Featured Insights on Smart Simplicity
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Smart Simplicity: Improved Performance, More Meaningful Work
BCG’s Peter Tollman says that organizations need new approaches to help them succeed in an age of increasing complexity.
The pandemic unleashed a global experiment in productivity and performance. Just as public health officials have much to learn from the crisis, so too do corporate executives.