The Art of Subtraction for the best Innovations

According to Matthew E May in his book “The laws of Subtraction “: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything, decision makers have to answer three questions:

          - What to follow versus what to ignore

     - What to leave in versus what to leave out

     - What to do versus what not to do

Usually, they try to answer the second part of each question. This is what calls May the principle of “subtraction”. It’s a simplification process, a “less is best” approach to innovation. To illustrate his theory, he gives us “6 secrets” which should help the decision makers to do less and better.

     1.     What isn’t there can often trump what is.

The idea is to take off everything that makes a product superficial to obtain its very essence. It’s what the youth car brand Scion (producted by Toyota for the north American market) did when they presented a very simple and cheap car. Then the buyers can personalize it. More that the price, what isn’t there becomes a marketing plan, especially for gen Y buyers who want unique and affordable product.

2. The simplest rules create the most effective experience

The rules of the road is technically an amount of obligations and prohibitions that restraint the action of the drivers and pedestrians. Why not simplify it to a very only one rule? That is the project Exhibition road in London for the 2012 Olympics Game. Cross lights, pathways, road and traffic signs have been removed to build a unique and simple road with only one rule: “all due respect to the most vulnerable”. Result? Twice the fun and a steady flow _ with half the normal number of accidents.

         3. Limiting information engages the imagination.

When you need to deal with a lot of information, your mind is not really inclined to be imaginative. The former group Carbury Scwheppes (now have been bought by Kraft Food) aired a 90-seconds television commercial for its chocolate bars a few years ago that featured a gorilla (rather a man in a gorilla suit). The brand appears in the TV spot only during the last 4 seconds. During the entire first minute, you only see the face of the gorilla who looks to be contemplating the music and preparing for the performance of a lifetime on a famous song of Phil Collins. Then you have a 26 seconds drum session on the music. Sales rose 10% in the two months following the ad and the video have been viewed more than 6 million times on youtube.

     4.  Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints.

How is it possible to do a “faster, better, cheaper” space exploration to collect data on mars that cost 10% less than a classic mission? That was the NASA’s challenge in the mid of the 90,s. An engeenering company tries to do it. Result: the project have been achieved in less than 44 months _ less than half of the precedent mission and with more restraint teams. This “impossible” task required a “change everything” approach. For example, they had the idea to install a huge airbag as the landing method. Effectively, it simplifies a lot of things!

5.  Break is the important part of breakthrough.

According to the American doctor Richard McCauley, healthcare is not only a question that concerns sick people but also for healthy people. They need to go to the doctor for simple things such as vaccination or just for a checkup. So, he had the idea to open a health center just for healthy people because these persons don’t want to go in a place with sick and coughing people. And at the opposite, sick people don’t really want to be in a room with healthy people when they have a serious cancer. In his center, he just gives low prices fees that don’t need insurance.  Innovation often demands a break with convention.

      6. Doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing. 

It doesn’t mean that it is better to always do nothing but sometimes, take a break and not working or just not thinking about your job is more efficient that just doing something to show that you do something. Meditation _ a practice that eliminates distraction and clears the mind _ is an effective way to enhance self-awareness, focus, and attention, and to prime your brain for achieving creative insights. If Google is well-known all around the world for that, others companies such as Oracle, Bloomberg or Ford have CEOs that encourage meditation.

Better than hiring some “specialized in meditation consultants” who are going to be very expensive, maybe be it will be a good idea to create a space inside the company’s buildings where employees could go for meditation or just for thinking about something else for few minutes when they really need it.

 According to Matthew May, these six rules point to a single, powerful idea for achieving simplicity in any innovation effort: “When you remove just the right things in the right way, good things happen”.

Article adapted from Matthew May’s book, The Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything (McGraw-Hill, 2013).