In our series on Mama Paz Premium baked spaghetti, we were joined by Billy Crawford and JB Magsaysay as we discussed the challenges of working in a family business. Some of the lessons learned were: Getting over insecurities and self-doubt, taking a leap of faith and being generous. One of the most overlooked “Key Success Factor” however was about “Simplicity”.
Businesses and consumers have a penchant for the sophisticated but simplicity trumps sophistication and complexity any given day. We’ve seen much of this in the evolution of products, services and processes. We’ve seen it along assembly lines where a person is tasked to do just one job over and over again. It builds muscle memory and speed. Here’s a Youtube video of food preparation done in what they would describe as “superhuman” speed!
We’ve also seen an evolutionary process with devices from the Nokia Communicator to the Earliest iPhone. From many buttons to one, and then to none. Evolution tends to prove more deleterious than the opposite. You do have remnants of a tail bone but no tail! Well, we all hope you don’t!
In the Netflix Film “The Founder” a struggling Ray Kroc was simply amazed by the speed in which the Mc Donalds brothers were serving up their burgers and fries. It wasn’t about the burgers itself that amazed him but the speed resulting from a very defined preparation, cooking, assembly and serving process. Just burgers, fries and Milkshake in a bag in as short as 30 seconds!
The simplicity in processes and systems is what made McDonalds a great idea. It was replicable. It was scalable. While the sad ending resulted in the victimization of the McDonalds brothers, Ray Kroc won because he profited from the idea of taking simplicity to scale.
In a world of ever growing complexity. Go for simplicity. Simplicity enables scalability.
Till the next time, Keep moving forward in the right steps.
John Walter Bay 