Simple is good!

Why your elevator pitch is so important...

When I was in college I occasionally played chess with my roommate.  Now this guy was/is a wizard - Phi Beta Kappa as an Economics major, Harvard Law School, president of a billion dollar company.  You get the idea - one smart dude.

If I tried to compete with him on a full board, I would lose every time, and badly.  Chess is a complex game, and he could quite simply deal effectively with more data at one time.  BUT... I found that if I traded him pieces until there were only a few left on each side, I could WIN, at least some of the time.

I had found a way to make the game simpler, to increase my chances of success against a powerful adversary. 

The ability to reduce your strategy to its essence lowers your risk.  It permits you to understand very clearly (in most cases) what is required and what will result.  It also enables you to make things understandable to your employees, your allies, your clients, and your investors. 

In describing your prospective business, this amounts to communicating four things, clearly and concisely.

• What will you do? 
• For whom will you do it?
• Why do they need it?
• Why will they pick you?

Make no mistake, however.  A simple strategy is generally a good idea; but simple does not mean unsophisticated.  Remember Thoreau's apology to his friend: "Please excuse me for having written such a long letter, but I did not have time to write a short one."

And a simple strategy does not automatically make success come easily.  Even though I managed to give myself a fighting chance to win at chess, I didn't always win.

This has been said and written many times by many people, but I'll give credit to someone who said it in my presence just two weeks ago.  "Never confuse simple with easy."  Brian Engleman, SRI International

Comments

[Anne Clelland]

I subscribe to your blog in Google Reader and respond with mixed feelings when I see So you want to launch a business in bold. That means there's a new post and I'll experience the cognitive dissonance of being asked--again--to think about my business in a new way.

It ain't easy.

Ultimately, I thank you for sharing the complexity of your thinking and the comprehensiveness of your knowledge.