Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Elegance

(http://antbsd.twbbs.org/~ant/wordpress/?p=546, January 8th, 2007)

Elegance 翻成中文叫「優雅」,在教育部國語辭典中,他的意思指「優美高雅」(@#$% 這是解釋嗎?),反詞是「粗魯」,簡單來說,就是「不粗魯」。

我一直很想知道「優雅」是什麼,管理學大師 Tom Peters 談優雅(但他沒說什麼是優雅),「The Elegance Solutions」一書的作者 Matthew 也在此書中談 Toyota 的「優雅管理」,也寫了一篇介紹文章(PDF)在 ChangeThis 上面。

那麼什麼是「優雅」?我找了很多文章,希望能夠一窺究竟。

在 Matthew 的介紹文章中,有舉例說明。在 Lesson Number 1:It’s Not About the Gizmo (It’s About Elegance) 中指出,

Mention innovation, and people immediately think, technology. The truth is that business innovation is about value, not gadgetry. But the pace of technological progress sweeps us off our feet and we get all caught up in the gizmo, losing sight of the why behind the what. People don’t want products and services. They want solutions to problems. That’s value. And when it come to solutions, simple is better. Elegant is better still.

Great innovation requires understanding and appreciating the concept of elegance as it relates to solving important problems. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”

Elegance is the simplicity found on the far side of complexity. An elegant solution is one in which the optimal outcome is achieved with the minimal expenditure of effort and expense.

Elegant solutions embrace an overarching philosophy of doing far more with much less, a notion that has become synonymous with Toyota and is present to this day in all of their operations, from design and engineering to manufacturing and distribution to sales and marketing.

An elegant solution is recognized by its juxtaposition of simplicity and power. The most challenging games have the fewest rules, as do the most dynamic organizations. The most memorable films have a simple message with complex meaning, touching a universal chord while allowing multiple interpretations.

An elegant solution is quite often a single tiny aha! idea that changes everything.

Finally, elegant solutions aren’t obvious, except, of course, in retrospect.

作者認為,當談及「Innovation」時,大多人都會連想到「Technology」。但企業的「Innovation」是關於價值 (Value),而不是這些科技產品。我們都呼略了表面下的深層意義(losing sight of the why behind the what)。其實顧客不是想要產品或服務,他們要的是「解決問題」,這就是價值(Value)。當談到這個時,simple很好,elegant也很好。

極佳的 innovation 需要了解並體會「優雅」的概念。Oliver Wendell Holmes 曾說,

I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the
other side of complexity.

我不追求複雜性表面上的簡單,但是我願意將我的生活獻給複雜性深層下的簡單。

唯有在複雜性深層下的簡單才會發現「優雅」。唯有「優雅」才是追求最低成本效益的最佳結果。

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