We are working with higher education organizations that are ready for a new Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS). They are each trying to adjust their strategies to the new student, the new business environment, the challenges to their roles particularly in the Liberal Arts and the opportunities to apply new technologies. Some have been early adapters getting into online education, for example, or going after adult students coming back into the work force. Others are just realizing that their traditional focus and core capabilities, those things they held onto as their unique difference, are no longer valuable to their students or to the markets they are providing students for.

I went searching to see what other colleges might be doing with Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) ? Here is one that Renée Mauborgne is working with. Their story is an excellent one to share. We will have others as we do our research about how to best apply BOS to new educational settings.

Johnson C. Smith University and Blue Ocean Strategy

By Guest Blogger Donald G. Bellefeuille, Healthcare Strategist, Director, NBBJ

As we see more and more businesses using Blue Ocean Strategies to adapt to changing times, some innovators and trailblazers in education are "seeing the light" as well. All-too-often, educators are slow to adopt new ideas from business and apply them to academia but here is one story we especially would like to share with you.

This short article examines the many ways Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) can be used to create a better educational system. The process sounds very much like how BOS is used every day in the business world because not surprisingly, people in practically any industry ask similar questions:

1. What are the complexities of the educational workplace that we can streamline and adapt to better serve our students?
2. Can BOS help us share missed opportunities and ideas?
3. How can you make the educational environment more conducive to learning?
4. How can you make school more appealing for students and teachers? What about for their parents?

How can you apply Blue Ocean thinking to educational settings?

Any type of improvement or innovation requires a change in our perception. How does that shift occur? Here is the recipe: Stop + Ask = New Perception.

Trends from the Trenches Series Shifts Gears To Focus On During Next Webinar

NEW YORK, Apr. 7, 2015 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- At no other time in the modern history of healthcare has innovation occurred so quickly. Hospitals -- often slow to embrace change -- are now adopting new technologies to deliver the lowest cost care at the highest level of reliability possible.