Simplicity reigns supreme

REGARDLESS of whether you sell widgets or gizmos, services or indulgences, in the end every business is really all about connections. Between people, between products, between ideas.

And when it comes to mastering connections, the key is always simplicity.

Sure, I know, you’ve heard it all a million times before. But beyond the usual grandiose rhetoric and base generalisations, there is a genuine commercial business case for why streamlining communications and practices works.

There is, as everyone knows, a limited number of opportunities for any enterprise to make its case to a potential audience. After all, our media landscape, our shopping spaces and our lives generally are increasingly busy, leaving only rare chances for external voices to break in.

So, when the opportunity presents itself, a business needs to be ready to strike — clearly and concisely.

In essence it comes down to this. Don’t tell people what questions to ask, answer the questions they’ve already got. If you have to both create the need, and then provide the solution, you require two distinct moments of connection. If, by contrast, you identify a need and speak to it, that saves half of the required investment.

That lesson applies beyond the theory of business, and deeply into practices as well.

In the food we create, simplicity reigns supreme. While there will always be a place for fine food, those are culinary art experiences, not really restaurants as such.

The dishes that thrive are those whose character, design and delivery communicate most clearly with their intended market.

Think of it as excellence over creativity.

It is, after all, a fairly simple rule.

WHILE THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A PLACE FOR FINE FOOD, THOSE ARE CULINARY ART EXPERIENCES, NOT REALLY RESTAURANTS AS SUCH.