As we move into February, business leaders around the world are grappling with a paradox that will define success this year:
How to reduce complexity to maintain competitiveness without diluting overall operational and talent capability in the process.
Let's connect the dots based on this week’s business news. The theme I'd like leaders to reflect on for this week's article: Simplification should not be about surrendering capability, but liberating it. We'll explore how SMBs can do just that by taking a page from current enterprise-level events.
Global Companies are Rewriting Complexity as a Competitive Risk
Nestlé’s new CEO has launched a major overhaul of the food giant’s sprawling global operations, refocusing it around four core product categories and cutting 16,000 jobs over 18 months to "sharpen strategic clarity and operational responsiveness after a sluggish growth period." (Philipp Navratil/Nestlé strategic plan, Financial Times)
Unified Systems (not over-obsession with under-utilized tools) are the Backbone of Simplicity
Recent reporting on the evolution of e-commerce underscores that effective operational simplification increasingly depends on unified systems.
This year, businesses are beginning to move beyond basic AI chat tools to agentic AI and unified commerce platforms that demonstrate the power to link inventory, pricing, customer context, and fulfillment across channels. This enables automation that works reliably across several systems/workflows versus siloed benefits. (TechRadar analysis on agentic AI and unified commerce)
The key takeaway here isn’t that AI alone simplifies — it’s that integration simplifies. When your data and processes live in a single, governed architecture, complexity drops not because features are removed, but because friction is eliminated.
This is a fundamental that all companies should strive for regardless of AI entering mainstream daily life. No matter what age of business we operate within efficiency and a lean operating philosophy are still and will always be a powerful approach.
What it means: Before adding new tools, ensure existing systems are integrated so they can support automation that amplifies capability rather than fragmenting it. Poor system-wide integration is a seed that allows complexity to germinate and chaos to take root.
Organizations Report Execution-Barriers Less to do with Technology, more to do with Complexity
A recent large executive survey found C-suite leaders are prioritizing automation and AI not as buzzwords, but as enablers of operational resilience and clarity. However, those same leaders say that a significant share of workforce time is still spent maintaining existing systems and processes rather than innovating. (Global C-suite survey, Rimini Street/Censuswide)
The implication is clear: Complexity isn’t simply a coordination problem...it’s an execution tax that diverts talent away from strategic work. Energy is perpetually sapped with little to no fuel left in the tank to discover new possibilities (whether it's new revenue streams, or innovative solutions to long-standing obstacles).
What it means: Simplification must include governance (i.e. the system of rules, processes, and structures that direct and control organizations or states, determining how decisions are made, implemented, and monitored) — not just tools. Clarify ownership, reduce duplicated effort, and eliminate outdated processes that soak up your team’s time, talent, and energy.
A Framework for Simplification that Preserves Capabilities
Here’s a simple, actionable framework you can start applying today:
1. Identify Strategic Anchors
Define what your business must do exceptionally well. These are core capabilities that drive customer value and competitive advantage.
Nestlé’s refocus on coffee, pet care, nutrition & health, and food/snacking serves as its strategic anchor.
SMB action: List your top 3 strategic anchors and plan how you can prioritize investments around them.
2. Rationalize Instead of Remove
True simplification is about rationalization. Agentic AI and unified commerce works only when systems are rationalized into coherent data flows.
SMB action: Audit your tech stack and processes:
Which systems are redundant? Why.
Which create more manual work than they save? Why.
What data lives in silos? Why.
Which applications are only being utilized for 20% of the value they offer. Why.
Understand WHY. Then ACT.
3. Free up your Team for High-Value Work
The executive survey shows leaders want teams focused on innovation — not upkeep.
SMB action: Automate low-value tasks only when they reduce burden without eroding capability.
Example: Move repetitive reporting tasks into dashboards instead of copying and pasting spreadsheets. Moreover, don't have AI become your sole source of interpreting and correlating the data week to week, month to month, year after year. Think about this, you free up some time but do you want to lose that capability? Watch out as IMO this is one of the biggest self-imposed dangers -- delegating the wrong things so much that human talent/critical thinking/imagination is stifled because we simply aren't challenging those parts of the brain any longer, over time.
The Strategic Takeaway
Simplification is the art of ordering complexity so that your systems, people, and decisions consistently reinforce one another.
This week’s high-level business signals show that global leaders are working to balance organizational capability at the same time as they work to simplify. They are working to achieve this by eliminating barriers to execution, integrating systems for coherence, and aligning resources tightly to strategic priorities.
Remember this, leaders who succeed will be those who proactively reshape their organizations to be leaner and stronger, but not leaner at the expense of strength.