Simplify

How the Best Businesses in the World Succeed

By: Richard Koch, Greg Lockwood

Narrated by: Roger Davis

For the past 40 years, Richard Koch has wanted to uncover the simple, elemental, elegant and parsimonious principles that are needed to create great new businesses. To qualify, a principle must be so overwhelmingly powerful that anyone can reliably use it towards extraordinary results. Is there any principle that can tell you how to do that consistently and with a high chance of success?

Working with venture capitalist Greg Lockwood, his coauthor on Superconnect, and supported by research from the elite firm of OC&C Strategy Consultants, Koch has the answer.

The principle Koch and Lockwood have discovered behind extraordinarily successful businesses is simplifying. Some simplify on price - take Ryanair's budget flights, which still take you from A to B but so cheaply that nearly everyone can afford them, multiplying the size of their market - and some simplify on proposition, such as Apple's decision to cut down on the number of their product lines and focus on perfecting only a few devices. With case studies of famous companies in all different industries from finance to fast food, the authors show how anyone can analyse their business' potential to become a simplifier and which route they should take to maximise the impact.

©2017 Richard Koch, Greg Lockwood (P)2017 Little Brown Book Group

reducing options improves economies of scale

Less parts, less parts to mess up, and more focus on the most important. Like pruning a tomato 🍅 plant, it focuses growth on tomatoes instead of branches.

Yes we get the Why, more on the How please

Great points but half of the book felt like a white paper or scientific journal. The examples were repetitive and felt stale after awhile. Perhaps a How rather than Why focus would be better.

surprising elaboration on traditional strategies

I found the core concept 2 be very complimentary to classical strategic concepts such as those put forward by Michael Porter but with rich practical explanations and modern examples

Good

I enjoyed the book very much, but the reader's voice varied too much in volume.

Irritating accents

Great content, but I was distracted and irritated by the British narrator’s switching to a ridiculous, old fashioned, nasal American accent when reading the many quotes attributed to Americans.

Just silly, and slightly condescending.