Business Change Management

Blue Ocean Strategy®: The key to successful growth in uncontested markets

We recently presented a workshop on “Change Matters: How to Find New Market Space” at a Vistage group. The Chair introduced us by noting how someone in one of his other groups had taken our workshop last year and had had one of those “aha” moments, when a big new idea popped into his head. It was a Blue Ocean moment. Where those unmet needs and new, nonusers are all around you. But, you just don't see them.

The visual exploring exercise we had led, where we Reverse Everything, opened his mind up to what he had walked away from. He had literally been rejecting an area of business because of the way he had defined his business—a “that’s not our business” problem. By defining success in just one way, he had not been able to “see, feel and think” about potential opportunities in new ways.

In your own discovery phase of Blue Ocean Strategy®, that “it’s not our business” problem might be the next challenge facing you if you are going to push into new markets where often, those new opportunities are waiting for you.

Blue Ocean Strategy® Step #4 is all about what’s next: Getting the Strategic Sequence Right.

My hope at this point is that you have already begun your Blue Ocean Strategy® exploring, that you have tackled your strategic canvas for today’s business, and that you are beginning to see new markets emerging before you. Maybe you have even had an adrenaline surge in the brain, that “aha” moment that is telling you that a “big idea” is blasting through. (Note: Usually people fall in love with the idea but run away from ways to turn it into a business that can generate real value for new and existing customers, as well as for their own company.)

Let me explain how Blue Ocean thinking reverses everything.

First, your traditional way of thinking about strategy is totally going to be inverted. Since you are trying to create demand in a new market, you have to shift the focus into new directions. It’s hard to tackle the competition and worry about market share. You have to create demand.

I have both run companies and worked as a consultant. And I always cringe when someone says…“the consultants will handle it.”

I recently read an article in Branding Strategy Insider entitled “4 Brand Transformation Lessons from JC Penney” written by Thomson Dawson. The article essentially says that JC Penney is a broken company and a broken brand. Early on, the article talks about the need to fix the internal culture of the organization.

It comes as no surprise that everyone, everywhere, is using social media. What is surprising, however, is how unevenly it’s being adopted in the healthcare industry. To some extent, the time is past when doctors were afraid of digital technology. Savvy ones now text their patients information, track diseases through Twitter, identify health trends on Facebook and communicate with patients through email. These sophisticated users feel as though they are extending the medical community. But although this high-user trend is increasing, most physicians are still learning how to use social media to its full potential. For these doctors, online physician communities are proving to be effective places for bolstering their learning.

Always at the forefront of innovative, influential business ideas, Forbes.com is currently featuring a cutting-edge article by Andrea Simon, Ph.D., principal and founder of Simon Associates Management Consultants (SAMC). Dr. Simon’s article, “Why We’re So Afraid of Change — and Why That Holds Businesses Back,” examines how in today’s economic landscape, a great many CEOs are struggling with changes in their market space, supply change, consumer behavior…everything.

Andrea Simon, Ph.D., principal and founder of Simon Associates Management Consultants (SAMC) has recently written an article examining how men represent a vast unexploited market in today’s healthcare industry. The article, “Men: Untapped market waiting for a hospital just like yours,” is currently being featured by the medical industry website, FierceHealthcare.

I recently ran across a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal: "With Bottle-Fillers in Mind, The Water Fountain Evolves.” It tells the story of how Elkay Manufacturing Co., a family-owned maker of plumbing equipment based in Oak Brook, Ill., has completely revolutionized the water fountain. Thinking beyond the old drinking fountain model, Elkay invented a new type of fountain that refills bottles. Talk about innovation…now that’s a “Blue Ocean®"!

The fourth installment in Andrea Simon’s fascinating “How Do I Do a ‘Blue Ocean’ Strategy®?” blog series is currently being featured on Vistage International’s Executive Street.

Physicians seem to be reluctant to manage their reputations online but get very upset when people go online and talk about them. If you aren’t going to protect your brand reputation, you open yourself up to “anything goes.”

After completing my three-day intensive certification as a practitioner of “Blue Ocean Strategy®,” it became clear that the one chapter really missing from the book was the “How to” chapter. This, then, is the blog-size version of that chapter so perhaps you can find your own “Blue Ocean.”

Need to change? Maybe you need a Blue Ocean Strategy.

We are working with a company’s entire leadership team that is really devoted to using the tools of Blue Ocean Strategic thinking to help them reinvent their business. They had a very successful niche in the home building market, but when the home construction industry collapsed and their products became more commoditized, they were forced to rethink everything.

I have been conducting Innovation Games with consumers for a healthcare system client and have been struggling with the huge disconnect between what people (consumers/patients) really want in the care and caring that physicians and healthcare systems are supposed to deliver, and what they’re getting.

Executive Street, the daily blog of Vistage International, recently published the third blog in Andrea Simon’s “How Do I Do A Blue Ocean Strategy®?” series. In the latest installment, “How Do I Do a ‘Blue Ocean Strategy®?’: Step 3,” Andrea explains that the “that’s not our business” problem might be the next challenge facing you when you push into new markets. Often, new opportunities are waiting for you right under your nose.