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Refreshing Your Customer: An Ocean of an Idea

Posted on April 20, 2007 by Vinnie Lacey.

Blue Ocean Strategy, as its title suggests, is a book of big ideas.  In the business arena, the image of the blue ocean conveys a sense of endless possibility and profitability.  And just like a real ocean, that same body of water becomes much more manageable in the larger context of the universe.  In the business arena, this is the “strategy” part: the definable set of boundaries that makes creating an ocean an attainable goal.

Inherent to Blue Ocean Strategy is dissatisfaction with the status quo of business behavior in the marketplace. This is not the book of a comfortable middle manager; entrepreneurs, however, will feel right at home. The thesis is essentially this: In an increasingly competitive and homogenous-looking marketplace, companies wishing to hit a home run must abandon the traditional rat race.  Instead, they should seek to “create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.”

Authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne root the blue ocean strategy in the concept of “value innovation”: that a company only truly creates a blue ocean when it pursues differentiation and low cost simultaneously. A company cannot embrace innovation for the sake of innovation, lest it find itself in a“bloody” red ocean with the competition—a zero-sum game of one-upmanship.

To back up their findings, Kim and Mauborgne took the strategic move as their unit of measurement, studying companies and their relevant business players in multiple industries from 1880 to 2000.  The stories behind these real-life examples give legs to their findings and subsequent theories.

Three principles of the blue ocean strategy

The creation and implementation of the blue ocean strategy may at first appear a daunting task.  It certainly requires turning a critical eye inward, challenging practices that an organization has always done and takes for granted.

For your convenience, I enumerated three principles of the blue ocean strategy—along with real-life examples—that I found the most fascinating. Hopefully they inspire you to create your own blue ocean of uncontested market space.

1. Simplify, simplify, simplify. As part of the strategy for creating a blue ocean, a company must not only look at what it can add to an industry, but also what it can subtract.  In creating its approach a company must ask, “What factors can be reduced or eliminated from what the industry takes for granted?” 

Case in point: Cirque du Soleil.  This innovative entertainment hybrid not only offered a theatrical twist to the usual circus visit, it also cut down on the most draining and unattractive features of a typical circus.  By eliminating animals (too expensive to maintain), star performers (too unfamiliar compared to movie stars) and expensive aisle concessions (too poorly perceived), Cirque du Soleil created a wholly different and efficient entertainment option that attracted customers in droves.

2. Find Non-customers.  When a company looks to maximize the size of its blue ocean, it must venture outside of existing demand. This challenges the status quo of focusing on existing customers and driving for further segmentation among target audiences. 

This is exactly what took place with Casella Wines’ [yellow tail] brand of wine.  Casella examined why people chose not to drink wine (perception of pretension, complicated choices, price) and formulated a streamlined offering of two simple wines with a basic, hip branding and design.  The focus wasn’t on capturing existing wine drinkers, but rather converting beer and liquor drinkers into Yellow Tail aficionados.

3. Get a Leader.  “Tipping point” leadership—that is, the internal person or persons who can inspire fundamental changes on a mass level—drives a successful blue ocean strategy. 

Take the case of New York City police commissioner Bill Bratton, who faced seemingly insurmountable odds against rising crime rates when he was appointed in the early 1990s.  Bratton was able to recognize certain areas of “disproportionate influence” that were contributing to the bulk of the city’s problems. 

Despite being trapped in a cash-strapped public sector, Bratton executed fundamental changes in these key areas.  This required doing things very differently, calling into question some long-standing practices, and working under tight time constraints.  But it’s hard to argue with success: New York became the safest large city in the US under his leadership. More importantly, he set into motion policies that continue to be used (and copied) in policing districts today.

Blue Ocean or puddle in disguise?

Ironically, what I found most attractive about Blue Ocean Strategy was also what I found most frustrating.  While the book supposedly outlines a “new” approach to strategic thinking, I would hesitate to say it breaks new ground in that arena.

The book does offer a systematic way to think about the process of creating new, uncontested market space—but great companies have also been innovating around the underlying principles for years.  And it is, of course, impossible for me to test how creating my own blue ocean from scratch would actually play out.  The authors do not offer examples of blue ocean strategies sinking.

That may not, however, be the relevant lesson. As I said from the beginning, this is a book of big ideas.  Big ideas are not always easily categorized. Nor are they inhibited by silly little things like budget numbers or consumer trends—or long explanations in books. The value of Blue Ocean may simply be the realization that one can look at an industry, and in turn its own company, in a very different light.  Only you can determine what the spark of an idea is really worth. Cue the dramatic violins.

Perhaps the cleverest thing about Blue Ocean Strategy is that I walked away from the book inspired by the success stories.  Pet concepts like “value innovation,” “visual strategy fair,” and “six paths framework” remained on the tip of my tongue.  Suddenly I remembered that despite the hype, Starbucks still sells coffee, Borders sells books, and iTunes, music.  Blue Ocean Strategy has sold over a million copies worldwide; yet hundreds, if not thousands, of newly published business books sit idle each year, never to see the light of a best seller list.  And that’s the genius of creating the blue ocean of blue ocean strategies.

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April 20, 2007 in award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blogs, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, business credibility, Business editorial, Business publications, Business relationships, E-Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing Communication, marketing solutions, mass email, money magazine, Newsletter ROI | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In Review: No Yelling

Posted on February 28, 2007 by Kevin G.

No Yelling: The 9 Secrets of Great Leaders

“What is your major malfunction?”  Not exactly the words you would expect to hear from your boss (unless his last name is Patton, and he prefers pushups to coffee in the morning). 

We all communicate in different ways to get what we want.  Managers, CEOs and other leaders need to understand the necessary steps to take to get their team to work as a unit and get what they want.  The US Marine Corps. manufactures leaders through effective training in the physical and mental realms.  Former marine, Wally Adamchik, knows the methods to handle high stress situations, manage a team, and complete tasks that mirror the likeness of the business world. 

In No Yelling: The 9 Secrets of Marine Corps Leadership You Must Know to Win in Business, Adamchik lets readers in on this classified information:

1.  Integrity 

The individuals that work with--not underneath--you need to trust and respect your efforts by demonstrating integrity.  By building trust, maintaining consistency and establishing non-negotiable terms, your integrity as a leader will develop.

2. Technical Competence

Demonstrate the knowledge and ability to complete the menial, labor-intensive or specialized tasks your workers do for you.  By offering a sincere effort to level with your team, they learn to accept and respect your role as a leader.

3.  Set the Example

Delegating work to a team does not ensure its completion.  Maintaining professional composure and being a role model for others communicates what a leader expects out of a team.

4.  Self-Awareness

It is impossible to be conscious of the tasks and people around you if your personal standards of practice are not identified.  Being self-aware allows leaders to assess unique situations, recognize effective methods of team members, and continually improve leadership style.

5.  Take Care of People

A happy worker is a good worker.  Recognize workers’ accomplishments, give sincere attention to concerns, and make a natural effort to connect on a personal level.  What goes around comes around.

6.  Make New Leaders

The leader will not be there forever, and the team must be able to uphold its responsibilities for the company.  By developing a team of leaders culturally and personally, each member will take ownership and pride in their tasks as they become accountable for successful completion.

7.  Commander’s Intent

When a team knows where it’s headed and why, it will be more willing to spearhead new initiatives and venture into uncharted territory.

8.  Culture and Values

By creating a positive and productive working culture with an honest and comprehensive value system, a team will be able to identify and respect the foundations of their company.

9.  Rehearsals and Critiques

Creating scenarios for your team to practice within allows for mistakes to be made.  When these mistakes are critiqued in a clear and non-threatening, non-judgmental manner, your team will be conscious and motivated to minimize recurrence of the same error.

In Review

At the end of this book, these secrets may seem like common knowledge—but that’s a result of the clear examples and content that progresses naturally from one secret to the next. 

These secrets not only identify the personal qualities a leader must have, but also address the practices necessary to foster a happy and productive team.  Though you might occasionally want to shout “Drop and give me 20,” No Yelling makes it clear how good leadership is created for any team.  As you were, soldier.

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February 28, 2007 in audio publication, award winning blog, award winning design, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, Blogging Tools, Blogs, Brand enhancement, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, business credibility, Business editorial, business magazine | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Strike Against the Beast

Posted on February 15, 2007 by Kevin G.

We’ve all heard the story about the little guy scoring one for his team against an impossible opponent.  Movies like The Mighty Ducks or Rocky might illustrate this in the most obvious way, but it is rare to find this in the online or technical world.  A hacker might be offered a six-figure salary from a major corporation, but that is about it.

Copiepresse, a Belgium copyright protection group, recently won a court battle against Google.  It seems unheard of, but Google can do wrong…for some.  Google’s providing of news stories with headlines, article snippets, and related pictures initially got them in trouble with the Belgium group back in February 2006.  Many of the articles were available only by paid subscriptions to the 18 French-language news journals.

Though Google has lost the battle, it certainly has not lost the war.  Often describing court battles as, “business negotiation being done in a courtroom,” Google will continue to contest the verdict as it pushes conventional wisdom on contemporary business practice.

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February 15, 2007 in award winning blog, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, business magazine, Business Marketing, company blog, company magazine, company newsletter sample, Company newsletters, corporate magazine, Corporate newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack