It is no surprise that companies are paying a price for pursuing growth opportunities — a  price called complexity. Product and service portfolios have exploded, processes and systems have proliferated, and organizational structures and interfaces have become increasingly complicated. This complexity is not only inefficient — even worse, it prevents companies from pursuing their next growth frontiers. A.T. Kearney helps companies gain strategic complexity control, based on our many years of experience in all major industries around the world.

Overview of Strategic Complexity Control
Complexity is sometimes referred to as something that can be both good and bad. Rather than this confusion and uncertainty, A.T. Kearney's complexity experts recommend thinking of "value-adding variety" and "cost of complexity." The former should be maximized, and the latter controlled. Always. Our overview, "Taking Control of Complexity," explains the essential attributes... [more]

Strategic definition of complexity
When executives adopt the stance that complexity should be controlled, it's helpful to also have a matching definition. In other words, because our definition describes the problem of having complexity, it's easier to understand how to bring it under control... [more]

Complexity control regimes
To control complexity effectively, it is beneficial to determine the overall "complexity control regime(s)." By assessing the ways in which "pure" play companies control their complexity, we identified the several complexity control regimes that in many businesses can co-exist... [more]

Transparency of cost and value
Our client experience makes clear the importance of creating transparency around the true cost of complexity and the value of variety. And also the challenge — even when companies have established ERP systems... [more]

Total value chain trade-offs
The cross-functional nature of complexity is one of the most important holes in our complexity control fence. When you press on complexity on one end, it just pops up at the other. In our experience, complexity initiatives that take a truly total value chain perspective — even including parts of the customer and supplier value chains — have the most chance of meaningful impact... [more]

Sustainable complexity control
By comparing positive experiences with situations where complexity control was gradually lost, we have identified a number of measures that can at least prolong the periods of control over complexity... [more]