The Law of Unbundling and Unburdening

A couple of days back I was having a chat with my friend. During a the course of our chat we came to discuss about his son's first birthday celebrations and how he had managed to keep the costs down. 

Given the space constraints at his house, he approached one of the better restaurants in our vicinity who put forth a total package of Rs. 50,000/- with various things included.

The following is a hypothetical representation of the package (barring the cost of food, beverages and banquet hall all other costs are appropriate estimates):

Description                                                          Cost in INR

Food, Beverages and Banquet hall                       30,000/-

Host for the program -                                             3,000/- 

Decoration                                                               3,000/-

D J Music                                                                 8,000/-

Party Games                                                            6,000/-

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Total                                                                      50,000/-

The package was bundled one. He asked the Restaurant Manager if he had the option to pick and choose. The restaurant manager said he had, but strongly recommended going with the bundled package. Given the fact that my friend could afford to spend Rs. 50,000/- he did not want to unnecessarily splurge it either. His homework told him that there was little he could do about the cost of food, banquet hall and beverages - they were almost the same across the restaurants.

This how he went about unbundling the package.

1) Host for the program - It's just a simple birthday party, moreover in a typical traditional Maharashtrian family believing in simplicity the requirement for Host was never really there. All they had to do is cut the cake, sing the Happy Birthday song and that was it. Nothing more, nothing less. So out went the host for the program.

2) Decoration - Again simple. Balloons of different size and shape and crepe paper. He did a totally outrageous thing of asking the Restaurant Manager if he could do the decoration by himself - and surprise, surprise the Restaurant Manager agreed.  So out went the decoration too.

3) DJ Music & Party Games - During his visit to the Restaurant Manager he had noticed the restaurant was equipped with reasonably good sound system and played some interesting soft music which was just right to set the mood for a wonderful evening. Moreover the party would last at the most for three hours. With major chunk of relatives coming from all parts of the city and having to travel back late night long distance would prefer to interact with each other, have the dinner and rush back home. The family gathering he had attended told him they would enjoy talking and being with each other rather than dancing and playing games. No prizes for guessing that he dropped the DJ Music and Party Games too.

Did the guest go home complaining. Nope. In fact they enjoyed - celebrating the birthday and catching up with other members of the family. My friend and his family got enough time attending to the guests as well. Not to mention the one thing people always talk about any party is the food - that the food the restaurant served up to delight the taste buds ensured there was no room for complaint.

In the bargain of unbundling the package based on what was required and not required my friend unburdened himself of Rs. 20,000/-. That's quite an sum considering the fact that it was about 3 years ago.

This is precisely what set me thinking - in terms of applying the law of unbundling and unburdening to organizations. Just like he went about asking rational and sensible questions in terms of the the birthday celebrations, can't organizations do the same too. If I am right here that's what the concept of core competence talks about too. Do what you want to do and what you do the best. For him the best was to celebrate the birthday and give opportunity to the family members and relatives to interact. No second thoughts about it. Unfortunately, this is where majority of the organizations falter. Desiring too many things, trying to bundle them irrespective of the fact they go along or not without really asking right questions. 

Unbundling means keeping things simple so that you retain mastery over them and do not get burdened / bogged down by things which drain you down.

Unbundling means staying nimble and ready to respond yet being able to cope / ease off the pressure.

Unbundling also helps to not only to cut costs but also to increase efficiency and effectiveness as an organization.

And last but not the least when unbundling the most important thing is being to know, understand and separate what is required from what is not required (or merely a wishlist)

So do give the principle of Unbundling and Unburdening a thought.

(Addendum: Google for unbundling and you will come across some interesting concepts and models...however was not even aware about the concept of unbundling till the time wrote this post...oops)