“Simplicity”: Lessons learned growing Port Cities, and Insight from Clients
#14 - From IKEA to Apple: Top-Performing Companies Embrace Simplicity to Drive Growth
Hello and welcome to issue #14 of Odoo Trailblazer, our journey to become the #1 Odoo partner!
When Steve Jobs made his highly anticipated return to Apple in 1997, he made waves with his commitment to simplicity. He streamlined the product offering into four lines: two laptops and two desktops, tailored for personal and professional use. By simplifying the user interface and creating integrated ecosystems, he made drastic moves toward simplicity that reshaped the industry. The rest, as they say, is history.
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1. Let’s start with a few examples
At Port Cities, we understand that we're not Apple or IKEA. However, when speaking about simplicity, we recognize the things we got right and the mistakes we made along the way.
Here's what we got right:
1) We focused on one product (Odoo)
First, we focused on Odoo. While many companies diversify their offerings as they grow, we stayed dedicated to Odoo. This singular focus allowed us to develop a specialized sales practice, technical expertise, and best practices. We positioned ourselves for scalability and growth by doing one thing exceptionally well.
Lesson #1- Diversifying your offer helps sales in the short term but increases complexity.
2. We standardized jobs & delivery procedures
Another success was the standardization of job positions and delivery procedures. Early on, we defined career tracks, levels, and clear expectations for growth and compensation. We simplified management by standardizing pricing, invoicing methods, task management, and internal processes and ensured clarity throughout our organization. This approach was closely tied to our use of Odoo, making operations straightforward.
However, we also encountered challenges:
3. We opened many countries too quickly
One area where we faced complexity was our rapid expansion into multiple countries. Opening new markets undoubtedly contributed to our growth. Still, it introduced various complexities, including legislation, administration, accounting, taxes, and adapting our offers and processes to local cultures and regulations. The geographical expansion helped us grow but made it more difficult to maintain a simple business and uphold the good practices we established.
4. Tolerate many exceptions
While we encouraged innovation and allowed our local directors and managers to experiment, we lacked discipline in fighting complexity. We said yes to many ideas and initiatives, including opening too many countries, without rationalizing our business enough. We realized that making simple decisions and implementing streamlined processes alone was insufficient; we must continuously battle complexity and be willing to say "no" more often.
Lesson #2 - It's not enough to make simple decisions and implement simple processes. We must relentlessly fight complexity and say "no" a lot.
But why does complexity matter?
Let's explore its significance:
1 - Preventing overheads from increasing:
Complexity adds items to control and manage, costing time and requiring more staff and managers. With more products, countries, processes, and offers, there are increased expectations to handle. Simplifying operations mitigates these challenges, preventing exponential growth in overhead costs.
2 - Enabling exponential growth
While simplicity may not immediately boost sales, it establishes a strong foundation for scaling the business. By excelling in one or a few areas, businesses can focus on automation, digitization, and even business model transformation. Many successful business models started with simplicity at their core.
3 - Creating a Virtual Cycle
Managing revenue growth without increasing complexity prevents exponential growth in overhead costs and raises gross margins. Becoming experts in delivering a single offer or product efficiently generates a positive cycle. This enables continuous improvement and investment in the product, leading to business growth.
So, where do you start?
Based on our experience working with numerous companies, here are our key learnings:
Learn to say "no" to unnecessary complexities and distractions.
Prioritize simplicity in processes over striving for perfection.
Leverage business software upgrades as an opportunity to rethink processes, simplify operations, or even reinvent your business model
The best companies aren't just the ones with the best business models or products but are obsessed with simplicity.
What’s next?
Draw your conclusions, but here are my targets:
We aim to keep Port Cities' business simple enough to achieve our sales target of $100 million and assist thousands of companies with Odoo.
We strive to help thousands of businesses implement Odoo, guiding them to rethink their business processes, create new business models, and simplify their operations for better growth.
Think simple; think big.
Useful links:
The previous issues of this newsletter
To follow me on Linkedin
To implement Odoo with us
If you are a partner and you need experts in large data projects
that happen in personal life too, the more we growing, often we realize that all of this actually just needs a simplicity.