When Jack Welch was boss of GE, the giant American conglomerate, he extolled the virtues of “speed, simplicity and self-confidence”. Businesses are now realizing why he put such an emphasis on encouraging simplicity.

Ron Ashkenas was part of a team put together by Welch 25 years ago while developing his business strategy known as the “Work-Out” process. “The simplicity part was really important,” said Ashkenas, author of Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organisation and Get Things Done. In fact, at most big companies 10% to 40% of profit is wasted because of harmful complexity.

The Sunday Times, April 21, 2013