Why do some countries and companies fare better than others economically and operationally when their fundamentals are virtually the same?
There are, of course, a whole series of parameters and factors that play a role, but one seems particularly interesting to observe: over-engineering.
By culture or by essence, some countries or large groups develop complex systems, processes and organisations that become almost self-supporting structures. What do we mean by this?
In a country of SMEs such as Switzerland, efficiency, and simplicity, going to the essential in a pragmatic and flexible way are cardinal values. However, the legislative and regulatory framework must allow for this, which is often the case in international comparison. This approach could be summarised by the famous “keep it simple”.
As a counter-example, it is interesting to observe our French neighbours and friends who often excel in the art and manner of complicating approaches, laws, and decision-making bodies to the maximum: in other words, why make things simple when you can complicate them…
Naturally, there is a history and a model of society that is totally different from the Swiss system: excessive centralisation, an academic system that limits the chances of a manager reaching the highest levels if he/she has not attended a top school, political layers that make it very difficult to understand and predict local actions, the distribution of competences that make the mayors of cities totally dependent on decisions taken in Paris, etc.
This is often the case with companies, which tend to over-engineer any action when in many cases it would be enough to take a simple decision at the right time and execute it to get a much better result. Make no mistake: engineering is essential in many areas and many activities can be successfully carried out because of it.
On the other hand, it becomes distressing, not to say frustrating, to want to diagram and detail certain processes or flows to a level of detail that no one understands any more: it is art for art’s sake. For an SME, this “luxury” is not allowed.
Having had the “privilege” during his studies of writing processes of “relative usefulness” which consisted, for example, of describing the actions surrounding the purchase of a loaf of bread in 40 steps, the undersigned has since had doubts about certain methods…
Again, it is not a matter of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” but of assessing whether the over-documentation, the triple-checking, the four layers of decision-making are useful. In most cases, the answer is clear: no.
The evil is pernicious. Under the pretext of audits, compliance, and a desire to explain, experts are hired in all fields, experts who get lost in conjecture and ‘out of touch’ explanations to deal with what are, after all, very simple cases.
It is to be hoped that company directors, at least in Switzerland, continue to combine the strengths and contributions of each individual, whether they be employees or experts, so that the overall result is as efficient as possible. For some of the countries around us, it could be a long way to go, if they aspire to it…
Have a good week, good thoughts and see you soon.