Simplicity Rules

How your big business can move like a startup

Endless meetings. Multi-layered approval chains. Legal limbo. Today, such bottlenecks continue to hold companies back, even as they face growing pressure to show productivity gains from AI. But progress is possible. Having worked with many big businesses over the years, our marketing agency has found some effective ways to simplify the complexity and bypass the bureaucracy.

Simplicity Rule #1: Build an oasis of innovation
The best way to compete with nimble startups? Become one. That is, establish an internal incubator – a company within your company.

A large insurance client of ours created just such a unit to test new products, services and marketing strategies. With an entrepreneurial spirit to match ours, they worked with us to launch a new brand in an area dominated by fintech startups – not over a 12-month planning cycle, but a several-week sprint. Eight years later it’s still thriving.

As a marketing partner, we love working with these incubator teams. Ideas are given enough oxygen to breathe. Team members have authority to take risks. And standard operating procedures are loosened enough to let pilot programs quickly test real-world viability – without the main brand risking its reputation.

Simplicity Rule #2: Don’t let perfectionism turn into inertia
In tech, the minimum viable product (MVP) reigns. The idea is simple: do the least possible to get a representative version of your work out there. From there, you can quickly validate and learn from customer response.

When a major tech client came to us with a whole new business model – emphasizing strategic lines of business vs. individual products – MVP let us create a compelling online presence in a fraction of the time it would have taken to overhaul their massive corporate site.

We often recommend MVP – and not just in tech – because it’s ideal in certain situations. Instead of spending months (or years) polishing a product or campaign in a total vacuum, you can iteratively improve your efforts through:

• Rapid prototyping. Gauge interest with quick landing pages before the more Herculean undertaking of building a permanent site.
• Small-scale testing. Forgo a full-scale rollout in favor of a micro-targeted digital campaign to test messaging right away.
• Data-driven pivots. Get real data fast. If a concept fails, the failure is contained, allowing you to pivot at a lower cost.

Simplicity Rule #3: Use outside partners as fast-track lanes
Of course, some complexity is non-negotiable, like legal and compliance checks. But in other cases, you may be able to get around bottlenecks by seeking outside help.

Take tech, for example. In our experience, large companies are often limited by resource constraints, legacy systems and set “go-live” dates that don’t make room for new initiatives. By doing these builds with outside resources, we’ve been able to move up launch dates, significantly in some cases.

Another great reason to look beyond your company’s walls? A fresh perspective. To put it plainly, outside voices are much more likely to ask a very powerful – and essential – question: “Why are we doing it this way?”

Complexity is a choice. Choose to say no.
We know it isn’t easy in a large company, but you can make simplicity a habit. Start by thinking smaller when considering the tasks or teams needed to make a project a success. For more ideas on getting to market faster, let’s talk ›