Gall’s Law says that every complex system that works grew out of a simple system that worked. It’s a 50-year-old rule of thumb from a slightly cranky book about why systems fail, and it explains why two of the smartest marketers I know, Chanel Clark and Kim Voon, both built something big by going small first. Here’s what happened, and what it means if you’re sitting on a big idea of your own.
Cards on the table: I really admire Chanel and Kim. They’ve achieved all they’ve achieved in a style I aspire to: a combination of spirit, charisma, humour, intellect and grit. I interviewed both of them for my podcast, Slideshow with Dave Hayward, on the same day at the Business Expo. And the theme running underneath their stories has let me indulge my minor obsession with eponymous laws (principles named after the person who described them, like Murphy’s Law).
From a coffee catch-up to 19,000 marketers
Chanel Clark had three bullet points and a microphone.*
She’d been invited to speak at a Tracksuit event, with a hundred marketers in the room. She’d had a wild idea for a year, and figured if she didn’t say it now, she never would. So she counted down from three and announced she was starting a marketing club.
The plan was coffee. Thirty marketers, once a month. She didn’t bother with a fancy name.
“Screw it, I’ll just call it The Marketing Club.” Chanel Clark
180 people joined in the first week. Four years later, The Marketing Club has just passed 19,000 members across New Zealand and Australia, all of it grown organically.
I recorded Chanel at the Podcast Bach, the idea of another marketing great, Stu Lees. Picture a customised “bach” (North Island speak for a holiday home) inside the Business Expo, with intense lighting, Expo noise invading our equipment, and people peeking in the windows. Just the right amount of chaos. On the same day, I sat down with Kim Voon of Insight Online. His story starts at the other end, with a client who already had 50 clinics. But he ended up making exactly the same move: going small to scale big.
* (Complete segue: I’ve tried and failed to shoehorn in a reference to criminally underrated Derrick Harriott’s reggae take on the 1975 soul classic Eighteen With A Bullet without ruining that opening line, so I’ll leave it here for your audio pleasure instead.)
Going small to scale a 50-clinic business
Kim’s agency took on an Australian healthcare business with about 50 clinics. The founder wanted scale, and Kim delivered it: over 250 leads a month, every number on the dashboard green.
Then Kim did something most agencies never do. He went looking for those leads inside the client’s business, and he couldn’t find them.
So he did the maths. 250 leads across 50 clinics is about one new person per clinic per week, spread across five or six services. No clinic manager notices one extra walk-in a week. The previous agency had run the same model and never spotted it.
Kim could have kept pushing. The dashboard would have backed him. Instead, he took the problem to the founder with a plan, and was totally prepared to hand back the account. (Like a journalist protecting a source, we’re calling this founder “Mike”.)
Mike’s response: “You found a problem. We have a solution. You need to get on with it.”
Two clinics in Victoria. A couple of services each. Phone calls tracked alongside bookings. One report covering just those two sites. Ninety days to prove it, then roll it out state by state.
“There is nothing like a lap of reality,” Kim told me. “All that thinking, all the ChatGPTing, there’s nothing like doing a run out in the real world to show you what you’ve really got.”
What is Gall’s Law?
In 1975, a paediatrician called John Gall wrote a slightly cranky little book about why systems fail, Systemantics (later republished as The Systems Bible). Its most quoted line is now known as Gall’s Law:
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.” John Gall
Gall was writing about bureaucracies and machines. He could have been writing about marketing. Big things that work almost always started as small things that worked. Chanel’s coffee club was a simple system that worked, and everything since has grown on top of it. Kim is doing the same thing on purpose: finding the simple system inside a big business, proving it, then building out.
Prove it small, build the structure, then scale
Chanel ran The Marketing Club on her own for a year before she put a call out to the regulars for help. Now she’s in what she calls an operational transformation, “putting in all the framework, systems and structure that I should have done three years ago.”
I’ve been through this journey myself: early success fuelled by individual heroics and sheer bloody-mindedness. Then scaffolding, structure, streamlining, and letting go of control to gain control.
If you can sequence it that way, it’s a great way to go. Prove it small. Build the boring structure. Then scale.
When Chanel and I talked, I found myself sounding like a Gartner consultant, describing it as moving from a heroic individual to enduring performance. I see people (including me, in the past) try to skip the middle step, and that’s where green dashboards with nothing behind them come from.
Practice what you preach
It was a big day at the Podcast Bach. Along with Kim and Chanel, I interviewed Auckland Transport’s Anna Lawrence (her episode is coming soon). Then Mina Amso turned the tables and had me on Notes From The Executive, one of Aotearoa’s leading business podcasts. She asked how I look after my own brand.
My answer was three things. LinkedIn, along with speaking at events and contributing to the marketing community. Slideshow, where people tell the story of the problems they’ve solved in business. And my newsletter, Bright Objects, every fortnight. The podcast and newsletter are relatively new, and while they’re small, they’re growing fast. Each one was a small thing I knew I could keep turning up for.
Three lessons from Kim Voon and Chanel Clark
Kim and Chanel were generous with what they know. Here are three things you’ll get from their episodes.
How to get found in AI search. Kim’s rule (is this “Kim’s Law”?) is that authority beats volume. Five hundred AI-written posts about plumbing won’t help you. Being the plumber who knows the drainage problems in the Waitakeres will. He also shares a simple trick: ask ChatGPT who the best providers in your category are, then ask it how it came up with those names. The answer tells you where you need to show up.
How to tell if your business needs a community. Chanel now teaches businesses from FMCG to tax and wealth how to build one, and she starts with the same three questions. What would a community do for the business? What do your people actually want from it? Can you keep showing up, long term? “And if it’s not, don’t do it.”
Why your first customers are already in your phone. Chanel didn’t realise how many marketers followed her on LinkedIn until one post filled her club. When Kim started posting video, his first wave of leads came from existing contacts he just hadn’t had lunch with lately. Together, they make a strong case for getting over the fear of hitting post. (If that’s where you’re stuck, it’s the kind of thing we help with in B2B social media marketing.)
Kim’s episode also covers the full story of the two-clinic rebuild, how your personality can define your business, and ranking in AI search: Kim Voon on Slideshow. Chanel’s covers how she got Jon Evans of The Uncensored CMO to two Marketers Days in a row, buffered by an uncomfortable but productive economy flight in between: Chanel Clark on Slideshow.
A big thank you to Stu Lees and Jay Downes for creating the Podcast Bach and inviting me in. Loads of fun.
If you’re sitting on a big idea, you may need to go small to scale. If there is a there there, I can help get the idea off your metaphorical napkin and into market, whether that starts with brand strategy or a plan to prove it small. That’s my favourite kind of conversation. Let’s have it.
Questions people ask
What is Gall’s Law?
Gall’s Law is a principle from John Gall’s 1975 book Systemantics: a complex system that works always evolves from a simple system that worked, while a complex system designed from scratch never works and can’t be patched up to make it work.
How does Gall’s Law apply to marketing?
Launch the smallest version of a campaign, channel or community that can prove itself, measure it against real business results, then build out. Kim Voon rebuilt a 50-clinic lead generation programme from two clinics. Chanel Clark grew a monthly coffee for 30 marketers into a 19,000-member community.
Should a business start small or go big?
Start small enough to see what’s working. If you can’t trace a result back to a customer, a booking or an invoice, the test is too big. Prove it, put the structure in, then scale.
Sources and further reading
- Slideshow with Dave Hayward, season 2 episode 11: Kim Voon, Insight Online
- Slideshow with Dave Hayward, season 2 episode 12: Chanel Clark, The Marketing Club
- Notes From The Executive with Mina Amso: Dave Hayward (from 54:45)
- John Gall, The Systems Bible (first published as Systemantics, 1975)
- Paul Graham, “Do Things That Don’t Scale” (2013)
- The B2B buyer journey: how buyers decide before you meet
- Bright Objects newsletter
- Derrick Harriott, “Eighteen With A Bullet” (a cover of Pete Wingfield’s 1975 original)
If you know your business is all steak and needs some sizzle….. we’d love to hear from you.
Dave Hayward
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Warm personal stories wrapped around solid business, revenue and marketing strategy, how-tos, technology discussion (especially AI), philosophies and tactics. Occasionally, we’ll talk about personal productivity and things important to us (like astronomy and dogs).
