Category Archives: Simplicity

Steve Jobs’ Biggest Management Lesson

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Stuart Cross

Given Steve Jobs’ announcement that he is stepping down as CEO of Apple (although he’s staying on as Chairman), I expect that there will be many stories written about his remarkable turnaround of the company that he returned to in … Continue reading →

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The Benefits Of ‘Failing To Plan’

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Stuart Cross

I met a client yesterday who was expressing his frustration with a piece of work that a major consultancy firm had carried out for his business (why he hadn’t worked with me, I don’t know!) that had clear recommendations and … Continue reading →

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Are You Creating Unhappy Customers By Offering Them Too Much Choice?

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Stuart Cross

I recently watched a great TED video by Harvard psychology professor, Dan Gilbert, on happiness, and one of the points that Gilbert made was that people are often happier and more satisfied when they are forced to accept a fait … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth, Simplicity | Leave a comment

Do You Pass The Simplicity Test?

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Stuart Cross

I have posted this before, but it bears repeating. After all the benefits of organizational simplicity and the eradication of unnecessary complexity can be the catalyst for new growth and far higher levels of performance. Simply score yourself from 0 … Continue reading →

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“More Organisations Die Of Indigestion Than Starvation”

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Stuart Cross

Dave Packard, co-founder of computer giant Hewlett Packard once provided this brilliant quote. Packard believed that business leaders try to do too much at once, lose focus and become irrelevant. I sincerely believe that most people and teams can achieve … Continue reading →

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The Secret Of The Chilean Mining Rescue Success

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Stuart Cross

There are many lessons we can take from the heroic recovery of all 33 Chilean miners last week. But one stuck with me more than any other: the clarity of the goal. The simple and uncompromising aim of recovering all … Continue reading →

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The Unbalanced Balanced Scorecard

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Stuart Cross

My big problem with the Balanced Scorecard approach to strategy and performance management is that is, well, too balanced. It makes everything of equal importance. In most Balanced Scorecard projects and reports I’ve seen, there is a general assumption that … Continue reading →

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Stop Trying To Be So Clever

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Stuart Cross

We spend so much time trying to find clever, sophisticated solutions to our problems that we can miss the simple, obvious ones. A new dual carriageway is being built close to our village (a remnant of the Labour party’s response … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Performance Improvement, Simplicity | 2 Comments

The Power Of Exploiting Your Constraints

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Stuart Cross

Far from inhibiting business success, constraints enable and accelerate it. Constraints are the limits and restrictions you place on your organistion and its activities. They are the choices you make about what is in and what is out of scope, … Continue reading →

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