Simplicity – Page 6 – Grandpa Bob Encouraging Leadership

We Are All Mountain Climbers

Until you face a climb yourself, you can never fully understand what it takes.

There it is…Mount Everest from the air. Each year, about 150-200 climbers attempt to reach its summit, 29,029 feet above sea level. There are thousands of other mountain peaks in the world, but Everest is the highest, and most challenging. Of course, from this angle it looks pretty tame.

That’s the thing about mountains. Perspective is everything. Until you face a climb yourself, you can never fully understand what it takes. Watching others make the climb, or hearing their stories about what it was like, are no substitute for taking on the climb for yourself.

Look around you. If you look closely, you’ll see that each of us are climbing a mountain. Some mountains are short and easy, while others are as high or higher than our friend, Mr. Everest.

This is the point where I could wax on poetically about striving for the highest peaks in life, chasing ever higher summits, new vistas, and new challenges. Yes, do all of that. Don’t let anyone stop you…especially yourself.

No, I’m not going to talk about the standard, inspirational mountain stuff. Instead, I’m going to talk about weight.

When embarking on a climb, is it better to carry twenty pounds, fifty pounds, or one-hundred pounds of gear on your back? Obviously, all things being equal, less weight is better. Gravity is not your friend.

How much weight are you carrying on your climb? Only the essentials? Anything extra? Are you carrying baggage that won’t be used? Why? Carrying all that extra baggage isn’t helping you reach your summit.

What about your fellow climbers, especially those closest to you? How much extra baggage are they carrying? How much of it is yours?

The best strategy for extra baggage (and its unnecessary weight) is to avoid packing it in the first place.

Photo Credit: Alan Arora, who owes me some details on how he was able to be in the cockpit jump seat of an Airbus A319 at the perfect time to capture such a beautiful shot of Mount Everest.

The Last Mile

The telecommunication provider has a tremendous amount of control over everything in their network…except the last mile, where the end customer is.

The last mile describes the final leg of a telecommunications network. It’s the part that actually reaches the end customer. It’s often the most difficult and uncontrollable link in the network. This is where most of the bottlenecks occur. The simplest of networking processes can be complicated by the wiring and equipment in the customer’s home.

Telecommunication networks exist to serve end customers. Without the end customer, there’d be no one to pay the bill, or finance the network’s creation and maintenance. The telecommunication provider has a tremendous amount of control over everything in their network…except the last mile, where the end customer is.

The customer’s experience comes from the last mile. They don’t need to know or understand the engineering and infrastructure that goes into operating the massive network. They don’t care about the traditions and history of the telecommunications provider. They only care about the cost, speed, and ease of use they experience in their home.

The same is true for nearly any business. The last mile drives the story your customers will tell. How much attention are you paying to the last mile?

Becoming a Chief Simplicity Officer

Looking for ways to become more customer-focused?

Can you name the most important thing that Amazon and Google have in common?

If you said simplicity, give yourself a gold star. While they may have other things in common, the one thing that makes each a leader in their field is their simplicity. And these are anything but simple companies!

Imagine the operational complexity at Amazon as you click around their site, looking for a Kindle book to read on your next flight, an inflatable kayak for your upcoming vacation, or the Reynold’s aluminum food wrappers your youth group needs for this weekend’s snack bar.

You don’t need to worry about which vendor partner, or warehouse has the goods you’re purchasing. The server farms that power and deliver the website to your device never enter your mind. The patchwork quilt of state and federal laws that Amazon must navigate aren’t your concern. The logistics involved in instantaneously determining your price, shipping costs, and sales taxes are all handled by Amazon. All you have to do is select the items from an incredibly easy search bar, and make sure the price is competitive (however you define the word competitive).

Navigating Amazon’s online store is simple. The site even recommends accessories for your purchases. Do you need a paddle or life preserver to go with your kayak? Amazon has taken something incredibly complex and presented it to the customer in a simple way. Do you prefer to use Amazon from your mobile device? No problem, that’s simple too.

Google doesn’t say how many servers they have, but the number is thought to be well over a million, spread across the world in at least a dozen gigantic data centers. Google’s data centers continuously consume at least 260 million watts of electricity. How’s that for an electricity bill?

Google indexes over 20 billion web pages a day, and handles over 3 billion daily search queries. They serve up millions of YouTube videos every day to millions of viewers. Google provides millions of map queries and turn-by-turn directions to just about anywhere on the planet on a daily basis.

Want to do your search in German, Spanish, French, or any number of other languages? No problem, just enter your search in the language of your choice and the search returns what you’re looking for in that language.

I spent a few minutes Googling these factoids, but as a consumer of Google’s services, I never have to know any of it. Google works tirelessly to make sure their services are easy to consume. Google’s home page is a feat of simplicity. Enter the search you’re interested in, and it handles the rest.

How simple is your company? To put it more succinctly, how simple is your company from your customer’s perspective? How easy is it to access your services, to buy your products? How much expertise does your customer need in order to work with your company? How much of your company’s operational complexity gets exposed to your customer?

Customers have shown time and time again that they gravitate to the simplest solutions. I’ve highlighted only two companies as beacons of simplicity. I could have added Apple, McDonald’s, Geico, and countless others that have seen great success by making the complex simple for their customers.

Looking for ways to become more customer-focused? Focus on becoming their Chief Simplicity Officer.

Simplicity equals Success. Complicated equals Failure. It’s that simple.