What is subtractive change?
A working definition from MIT Sloan
subtractive change (noun)
A business decision focused on reducing complexity in pursuit of better outcomes for customers and growth for the company.
New programs. New products. New processes. In functional silos, those are considered the best ways to get ahead, hit goals, get recognized, and get stuff done.
But customers and customer-facing employees can become overwhelmed, according to MIT Sloan professor of the practice Zeynep Ton. In her work with the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute, Ton has seen “a tendency to default to addition (of features, products, or promotions) to grow a business but seldom a consideration of subtraction as a major change lever.”
Writing in MIT Sloan Management Review, Ton shows how companies like Sam’s Club, Quest Diagnostics, and pet store chain Mud Bay each made an internally coordinated decision to reduce the number of products, the call center volume, and store hours, respectively. Each move resulted in growth.
Subtractive changes look upstream, focusing on reducing complexity and improving customer experience. Ton contrasts that with “blunt instruments” focused on short-term financial gains, like closing stores and laying off employees.
“If more companies took [a subtractive] approach,” Ton writes, “we would see better jobs, more satisfied customers, and better individual and corporate performance."
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