SIMPLIFY
Examine value streams and distinguish value-added (VA), non-value-added (NVA), and necessary non-value-added (NVAR) work. Redesign complexity with intention.
What adds value—and what makes work unnecessarily difficult?
The situation · Private Equity / Operating Partner
Complexity hides in handoffs, exceptions and approvals, consuming margin and slowing the pace the value-creation plan assumes.
Desired outcomes
- The cost of complexity made visible
- Value streams prioritized by contribution
- Released capacity directed to value-creating work
What SIMPLIFY creates
- Value created
- A clearer flow of value with fewer unnecessary activities and handoffs.
- Informs the next discipline
- Gives LEAD practical processes and interfaces around which to establish ownership and execution routines.
What complexity is consuming the enterprise?
Complexity removed from structure, process, portfolio, and decision rights so capacity returns to the work that creates value.
Complexity is rarely chosen. It accumulates — one product, one exception, one approval, one hand-off at a time — until the organization spends more energy operating itself than serving customers.
SIMPLIFY separates the small share of work that creates most of the value from the work that only creates motion, then redesigns structure, flow, and decision rights around it.
The decision follows from holding both lenses at once: concentrate where value is high and complexity is low, standardize then price where both are high, and simplify or retire where complexity is high and value is not.
SIMPLIFY converts enterprise complexity into focused priorities for leadership and execution.
Read the full SIMPLIFY one-pagerThe SIMPLIFY SIPOC
Suppliers
- Operations, commercial, and finance leadership
- Process owners and frontline teams
- Enterprise systems — ERP, CRM, BI — as data sources
Inputs
- Customer, product, and channel profitability
- Process maps, cycle times, and rework
- Organization structure and decision rights
- Cost-to-serve and working-capital data
Process
- Segment the portfolio by value and cost to serve
- Map the work as it actually flows
- Separate value-creating work from complexity
- Redesign flow, structure, and decision rights
- Standardize what remains and remove what does not earn its place
Outputs
- A simplified portfolio and cost-to-serve view
- Redesigned core processes with owners
- Clear decision rights at each level
- Released capacity — time, cash, and attention
Customers
- Customers, who feel shorter lead times and fewer errors
- Operating leaders and their teams
- Ownership, through margin and working capital