Customer Reviews

Conquering Complexity in Your Business: How Wal-Mart, Toyota, and Other Top Companies Are Breaking Through the Ceiling on Profits and Growth

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I found Conquering Complexity provides an excellent framework and lays out a compelling business case for why and how you should focus on complexity.
This is the best guide out there in terms of a comprehensive approach to identify, quantify and attack complexity. The book is a very practical and pragmatic read with a wealth of real world examples and illustrations that reinforce concepts layed out in a logical sequence.
In researching a number of books though there are many that contain bits and pieces of concepts that relate to complexity, I have found that none of them tackle the concept of complexity as a discipline that must be mastered as Conquering Complexity does. I found it to be a refreshing, compelling book that you can follow step by step to create a complexity focus and agenda in your organization. There is tremendous power in purchasing the book for co-workers or Managers to help raise their complexity IQ and see what is possible. I continue to learn from the book as I refer back to it frequently. I would highly recommend it to anyone or any organization that is looking to continuously improve or to create greater value. I really found the sections on Product/Service proliferation to be right on, and a wealth of information. - Rodney

This is an amazingly revealing book about the dangers of complexity that is not consciously managed. And just what does managing comlexity entail? I the authors' words, it means

- Eliminating complexity that customers will not pay for
- Exploiting the complexity customers will pay for, and
- Minimizing the cost of the complexity you offer

In part 1 the case is made for conquering complexity in your business' portfolio (number of offerings) and processes (number of ways of doing the same thing). Part 2 develops the conceptual framework for measuring and managing complexity. In part 3, you are shown how to apply these concepts to the elimination, exploitation and reducing the costs of complexity.

Lastly, part 4 shows how to create an organisational culture that supports complexity management, conquer the complexity in your value chain and even apply the principles in mergers and acquisitions.

This book, like the others in the series by Mike George (Fast Innovation, Lean Six Sigma) is right on target. The examples clearly show how complexity clutters business operations, products and decision making, thus reducing economic performance and shareholder value. The rigor (and mathematics)used to support and analyze the assertions is insightful and reinforces what is intuitively obvious when you understand their thesis. This is an important book for executives that would proabably be much more widely embraced if not for the math involved. Pity, the Japanese and others will pay attention.

I really found the book to be a refreshing look at how to 'tie-off' the efforts of 6-sigma, as well as keeping the right prospective about complexity. In my mind, this approach is key for any company especially a high-tech operation, because complexity can quickly become a cancer within an organization killing off the positive efforts and results attained from one's approaches to 6-Sigma if not managed properly. Needless to say, this is a key message to the rest of my team as we continue to develop ourselves within the services part of our business.

The shipment was timely and the book arrived in good condition except for one issue. The shipping envelope was plastic and sticky on the inside. When I removed the book from the envelope it stuck to the dust jacket and damaged the jacket. I would recommend that books are wrapped in a protective covering before being placed in the sticky envelope.

I ordered this item used from one of the listed vendors (rather than new from Amazon). What I was sent was not the book itself, but the executive overview of the book (which only includes part I). The executive overview has a very similar cover, so perhaps it was an honest mistake on their part, but this is one time to be very careful that what you are ordering is properly represented by the vendor.

As the Six Sigma and Lean practice areas mature, the challenge is to discover new ways to apply these methods. Michael George proposes that an analysis that looks at complexity of a business is a way to identify areas of opportunity for improvement. The method is based on some patented equations that attempt to put numerical values on a company's complexity. When the complexity is calculated, and is found to be out of balance with the company's strategic direction, then action can be taken using Lean Six Sigma to reduce (or increase) complexity.

This book proposes methods that cross conventional organizational boundaries, so the mission and the methods must be adopted by senior people who can see the benefits of crossing the boundaries. To make a difference managing complexity, these senior people must have the people and power to calculate new business measures and deploy teams that may not align with current organizations and departments.

The method seems sound, although the case studies are few. Anecdotes fill in the gap between idea and practice, and the anecdotes seem forced or coincidental (for example, Wal-Mart and Toyota can be used to justify nearly every business improvement method, even if neither of these companies goes on record as having used the method).

As usual in the improvement business, it's a matter of cost versus benefits. It seems to be a low risk analysis method that can reveal a potentially high risk, but high reward, payback. Since the equations are patented, presumably the only way that one can actually try this method is to contact (and hire?) Mr. George's consulting company.

Businesses talk about reducing complexity but have trouble determining it and simplifying it.

The books provides a roadmap and technique that organizations can use to identify the bad compelxities that customers will not pay for. The book goes further and identifies possible solutions with a plethora of real life examples that make the theory easy to understand and apply

How are Wal-Mart, Toyota and other big businesses creating even more value in their already-large companies? In Conquering Complexity in Your Business: How Wal-Mart, Toyota, and Other Top Companies Are Breaking Through the Ceiling on Profits and Growth, co-authors Michael L. George and Steven A. Wilson maintain that in every business, there's too much complexity, which erodes profitability, confuses the customer, and adds costs. The solution: identify and eliminate this complexity where it doesn't count - and add it in, where it does. Chapters discuss adding value with complexity which attracts with `customization' and `variety', of identifying places where complexity doesn't belong, and for quantifying the costs of achievement and complexity in both products and services.

This book is very surprising in that the authors are seemingly 6 sigma experts and, yet, did not look for the root cause of the problem that they claim to have identified.
If poor shareholder value is a problem (is it really? this is never shown), then complexity is either the solution or the symptom (the authors edge their bets) but... what is the root cause? Poor corporate culture, stupid management? Greedy and unenvolved senior leadership? What?
By failing to probe for root causes the book remains very superficial and the solutions address symptoms,not root causes; a parallel would be for a doctor to keep prescribing headache medication to a brain cancer patient and never trying to find out what truly ails that patient.
Six sigma practitioners should have known better and looked for root causes to the problem.
The chapter on communication is particularly weak and comes across as an exercise of faux-science. The point is never clear: is it poor communication, too many decision layers (which may be unrelated to communication), poor information, what? The authors should have avoided a topic they know so little about (or should have learnt more about information theory).
THis book comes across as superficial and as a bit of a pamphlet