Complexity, Diversity, and Scale

Next time you are at your local grocery store to purchase a "simple" toothbrush - - try to estimate the number of different brands, models, colors, styles, etc. that are for sale. Your average grocery store might have literally hundreds of selections. We come to expect this - - a hallmark of capitalism is diversity. Freedom to have unlimited choices based on a system of resources with sufficient scale and scope.

Other examples, beyond the toothbrush, of the intersection among complexity, scale and diversity include the following:

• Online retailer Zappos carries 90,000 different varieties of shoes.
• McMaster-Carr, a hardware wholesaler, carries 480,000 products in their catalog. They carry 2,432 varieties of wood screws.
• Amazon carries 85,000 different cell phones and cellphone products.
• So far, we have created 500,000 different movies and one million television episodes.
• The Ford F-150 comes in 78 different variations.
• We have created 1.1 billion unique songs.
• Your average grocery store has 285 varieties of cookies, 175 kinds of salad dressing, and 85 brands of crackers.
• The standard 26 letters in English have produced 16 million different books in English.

The success of any organization depends on a tradeoff between complexity and scale. In some respects, this is also the message of sustainability. The tradeoff between complexity and scale has to do with the understanding that if we want to do many different things then we cannot also do the same thing many times. In a manufacturing context, this is a very natural idea - - if you want to mass produce the same item many times, you cannot at the same time produce many different items. In meeting the demands of the environment, an organization has to match the scale that is needed with the complexity that is needed. If what is needed is to make 100,000 copies of a product, the organization should be capable of producing that number of products; if what is needed is to make 1,000 different, customized products, then it should be capable of producing such diversity. Basically the organizational structure has to match the demands of the environment.

Think about this as you decide on your next toothbrush. The line between complexity and chaos is a fine one, especially in a world where energy concerns could come to dominant global logistical systems. The line between product diversity and sustainability might even be finer, where resource constraints may ultimately have a profound impact on diversity and choice.