Simplicity at it’s Best

Nov. 10, 2003

The more complex things are the better they are, right? Not so says eWeek! 

How simple is your organization? In a recent article in eWeek Eric Lundquist points out that the more simple we keep things the better off we’ll be. He uses an example that most of us are somewhat familiar with: Ethernet – the standard in networking today. In this example he compares two types of network technologies: Ethernet and Token-Ring. Ethernet was the first on the scene but it was not necessarily better. Token-Ring has some advantages over Ethernet, but adding it “often meant complicating a network”. The result? “The best technology did not necessarily win, but the simplest certainly did”. 

The article also uses an example from the software world. One that I know we are all familiar with: Microsoft. The author interviewed the CIO of Harvard Medical School, John Halamka, about the issue of complexity. Halamka believes that “fast, light, and robust is better than complex, full-featured and unreliable”. He goes on to ask “Does the animated paper clip really add value?” with reference to Microsoft’s bloated Office products. 

The bottom line: How can your organization be improved by simplicity? “The lesson is not that the vendor with the most features wins; the one that delivers the simplest solution ultimately prevails”!