Simplify?

Simplify, simplify, simplify? 

Those three words (including the strikethroughs) sit on a sign at Apple headquarters.

It’s part of the company ethos. Simplicity runs through its org charts, products and communications. Companies that make new things are often celebrated. But companies that make things simpler are more successful.

Apple is rarely first with technology. It launches a mere handful of phones a year, yet skims 92 percent of profit in the entire smartphone ecosystem. Meanwhile, Samsung sweats out 50 or more phones a year to make a mere 5 percent. Simplicity pays.