Review: Simply Effective

Do you feel like you are working harder and getting less done? It's probably because you are, says Ron Ashkenas, a managing partner of Robert H. Schaffer & Associates, where he consults to CEOs and senior executives. Between meetings, reports, voice mails and e-mails and often overly complicated decision-making hierarchies, many of us find ourselves trapped in a network of unnecessary complexity. It's a wonder we accomplish anything, Ashkenas argues. In Simply Effective , Ashkenas says corporate America should start de-layering and consolidate organizational structures, prune product and service lines, clarify communications, prioritize strategies and redesign processes with simplicity in mind. He cites several case studies culled from his more than three decades of advisory work with some of the top companies around today. It all sounds easy enough, but the devil, as it often is, is in the details.