Sense and Simplicity

Ah, simplicity.
The holy grail.
But as elusive. For all the cries of simplicity and the reference to it in our strategic direction, our lives seem to become ever more complex. More stakeholders, more interfaces, more targets, more virtual communication challenges.
True progress is scarcely visible. Meanwhile, some euphemisms have developed.
What do most managers mean when they ask for simplicity?
"Keep off my turf, get off my patch"
"I want to block your initiative"
"Comply with what I tell you"
"Why do I have to do all this admin stuff which is beneath the dignity of a person of my genius?"
A great article in Harvard a couple of years ago (sorry, in the interests of simplicity I couldn't be bothered to look it up, I will if you ask nicely) argued that addressing the SYMPTOMS of complexity is doomed to fail. The only way to crack it was to fundamentally simplify the activities the business does. Fewer products, less of the value chain, fewer regions.
Personally, this feels right. But I'm not sure if that is the approach we are taking.
It is all part of the concept of discontinuities of scale. Most of my experience suggest that scale does more harm that good in most businesses. The economy of scale theory was invented for the age of manufacturing and only holds for that type of business. Anyway, back to that hobby horse another day.
And is simplicity a great goal anyway? So long as complexity for us is complexity for an industry, then complexity equals value potential. Another lesson from Economics 101 - perfect competition means no money for anyone. Simplicity leads to commodity leads to perfect competition.
Anyway, what are good are simple messages, repeated again and again. More Upstream, Profitable Downstream. Brilliant. And not just motherhood or brand-speak (what is the difference?). $250m NIBT by 2005. Simple. Easy to relate to our daily work. Enables tradeoffs and clarity of targets.
Ah, those halcyon days of 250 million fish! Shame about the unintended consequences! It was great for its time, but such simplicity for us now would be just plain wrong.
We've replaced the age of the fish with the age of ambiguity. Complex. Difficult. Demanding of leaders. Necessary?
Even with customer value and all that ambiguity, it is worth having a go at some simple slogans, things that are always right, very clear, and guide action. Distinctive to our business, not just blah for any business in the world like "make lots of money" or "customers preferred partner".
What slogans could we use for 2008-2012? We have tried "transforming industries" and discarded it immediately - I still don't know why, I quite liked it. Greg announced it in a blaze of glory (admittedly it was invented after several pints of lager in a conference at about 2AM, but hey so were most great things, ask Churchill), and was disappointed that it was greeted with a resounding raspberry.
I quite like "The difference is technology". I feel it is time to put technology back centre stage. Of course we'd have to define what it is, but that is another story, we'll gloss over that one. Difference can refer to competitive position (ever heard of CTI? Ask in your group if not and if you are still lost ask my team), to innovation/newness, and best of all to customer value difference - the point of technology in the first place and Shell's stated aim.
Can you do better? We are seriously looking for some messages so your input has some chance. Prize for the winner - same prize my Thrilling Combination team got for winning the global talent show. Nothing. Well, nothing so far.