Blue Oceans

I recently read a now classic book on strategy (Blue Ocean Strategy) and found it thought provoking. One of the concepts that really sticks with me centers on not over-engineering solutions. The premise is that if you continue to incrementally add features to a solution at some point the cost outweighs the benefit of doing so.

Companies often get into the mode of trying to keep up with the competition and tend to add features and services that end up adding complexity and cost without sufficient bottom line benefits. The desire to one-up competitors is part of most companies nature.

We are focusing on several large-scale business initiatives and simplicity is on our minds. We want to design and engineer the right solutions and guard against adding functions or services because it is easy to do so on paper. While it may seem simple and obvious to some, our focus is on the core of what customers want and need. This will serve as our guidepost. At the end of the day, customers want consistent, easy access to products and services regardless of their buying preference (online, in-store, or on the phone).

The Blue Ocean concepts are well worth keeping in mind when designing new solutions. In short, sometimes less is more.

Check out the book, it is a good read.