Trumping Elegance
As a follow-up to my last post about the importance of elegant solutions, I wanted to mention that, like anything, it can be taken too far. So the question is, what trumps elegance. The idea came to me at lunch today. I was at a famous Los Angeles sushi restaurant called Sasabune. The thing about this restaurant is that they have rules that cannot be broken. The owner is hardcore about what you can and cannot do. For example, there are no California rolls; NEVER! No take out, no way. The idea is that he wants his sushi to be a certain way. If you get take out, it’s ruined. The guy I was eating with told me a story of this very wealthy business man that frequents the place and became quite friendly with the owner. He wanted to have the sushi for his office, which was literally across the street. He offered a lot of money for it; more than 10x the cost of the sushi. Of course Sasabune said no dice! That’s commitment to elegance. But I think from my perspective elegance can be trumped in certain circumstances. Such circumstances differ from situation to situation, but here are a few examples.
First, when the elegant solution is just so much work for so little reward; in other words, its big time overkill. Sometimes you can come up with a very elegant solution that is just a waste of time, in these cases I’d probably give way on the importance of elegance. A second example is revenue; at some point revenue trumps elegance, maybe not for the Sasabune owner as my story above makes clear, but at least in my book. I know there are some people that will debunk that, but when you’re in a growth business like me, sometimes revenue just wins. It’s the age old balance between form and function.
First, when the elegant solution is just so much work for so little reward; in other words, its big time overkill. Sometimes you can come up with a very elegant solution that is just a waste of time, in these cases I’d probably give way on the importance of elegance. A second example is revenue; at some point revenue trumps elegance, maybe not for the Sasabune owner as my story above makes clear, but at least in my book. I know there are some people that will debunk that, but when you’re in a growth business like me, sometimes revenue just wins. It’s the age old balance between form and function.
I am right there with you on your point about revenue. Sometimes people build up a business to a certain point and it becomes so much their baby they let their pride get in the way of taking it to the next level. I just recently started watching Shark Tank, a T.V. series about people pitching their fledgling businesses (or ideas) to a groupu of investors. All these people started their businesses to turn a profit, but I am astounded how many will not allow the "sharks" (investors) help them go to the next level just because it's not on their perfect terms. So in many ways, I think people let elegance (or their perception/interpretation of elegance)get in the way of what should simply be decisions based on what it more profitable for the business in the long run. Great post by the way- it got me thinking.
Posted by: Jason Shick
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, i've been watching that show too . Thing thing that irritates me is that they are offering like 50K for 50% of a business... just use your credit card to get the thing off the ground i'm yelling at the TV.
Posted by: Jeff Solomon