As a general rule, I favor the Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) principle. In some cases, I also like to follow rules of thumb when working on a day-to-day basis. That said, in business I always believe that one should try to ground KISS and rules of thumb within the context of core business theories. If one is going to diverge from theory, then be cognizant of where those boundaries are and what the risks are.
Some example KISS and rules of thumb that I try to use on a day-to-day basis within business operations:
- Talking to the press (PR) – While educating press contacts may be great, KISS and speaking quotably are musts.
- Storyboarding out the ideal sales pitch and process (Sales) – Push potential objections and roadblocks as far back into a presentation as possible. The objective is not to hide things by any means, but the average person is looking for a reason to say "no" before they will even try to understand the merits of what you have to offer.
- Keeping the marketing message simple (Marketing) – People can’t spread your ideas for you if they can’t remember what your ideas are. Although there is a constant struggle with doing disservice to a product by simplifying the marketing message, it takes experimentation to get the balance right.
- Minimizing accounting and finance perfection except for specified periods or for external customers (Accounting and Finance) – Administration costs and internal communications costs go up dramatically if one tries to implement GAAP accounting at all times other than agreed upon intervals and fixed times (e.g., beyond end of month, end of quarter, end of year).
In light of probably a long list of rules of thumb for me, a conversation my daughter and I had this past week gave me extra pause about how I apply the KISS principle and rules of thumb. When driving through a somewhat "seedy" area of town, my daughter asked me if we could go eat at one of the restaurants there. I told her "no" that I didn’t think the area was safe and that it might have "bad people" around.
Then she asked me a seemingly simple question, "how do you know if someone is bad?"
Methinks the KISS principle doesn’t work too well in cases like this.
I started off by talking about the bars on the windows of some of the houses and the fire-gutted properties all-around. I stated that there is a tendency for bad people to be around. My daughter then countered me by saying that these properties weren’t that close to the proposed eating place.
I then tried to point to some of the people begging for money, but then this degenerated into a poor people are bad type conversation that wasn’t right either.
We had a whole bunch of mini-conversations, and I couldn’t find very good footing for quite awhile. I finally tried to reason that bad is what bad does. When you see bad things, e.g., illegal graffiti on the walls of building, this is the wake of what bad people have done. In my mind flashed the wake of Worldcom and Bernie Ebbers. I was getting more satisfied with how my answer was playing out as it made intuitive sense and was snappy.
Then I got the question, "but what if the bad person doesn’t do anything bad?" … oh well. It’s back to the drawing board …
To bring things back, where I end up getting nervous about the face value of KISS and rules of thumb are scenarios where I’m in some sense taking custody for someone’s well being. The circumstances might be as I’m getting closer to closing a sales prospect – I want to make certain that the person understands everything presented, that we are making an informed choice together, and that we have addressed the business needs of the prospect. If I’m talking about career advice for someone, let’s be clear whether I’m providing some quick advice or deeply thought out counsel. If we’re talking about me helping an entrepreneur to decide which direction to take his/her business, I know there may only be one shot and that the endeavor is a treasure.
So treat rules of thumb and KISS with care.