Winning with the Blue Ocean Strategy

One of the things my firm does to set itself apart and add value to the lives of our clients and readers is connect them with tool and resources to be applied. Our world is filled with an information overload but until that information is synthesized, organized and applied, it doesn't create results.

Today I wanted to give you some tips on different scenarios in which the Blue Ocean Strategy can be applied in helping you win towards your goals.

What is the Blue Ocean Strategy?
The Blue Ocean Strategy was created by W. Chan Kim and Renee' Mauborgne, professors of Strategy and management at INSEAD and codirectors of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. The strategy based on their over decade-long research on key strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries. It challenged the tenets of competitive strategy, the then dominant school of strategy, and called for a shift of focus from competition to creating new market space and hence making the competition irrelevant. Coming with proven analytical frameworks for creating and capturing blue oceans, the blue ocean strategic approach made a paradigm shift in the field of strategy and practice.

How Do You Use Blue Ocean Strategy?
First of all, you aren't going to be able to adopt this strategy by approaching your goal or objective like the masses. If your department, team, board or organization is solely doing what the masses or your competitors are doing, then that is a good indication that you have not created a Blue Ocean-centric mentality.

These days, clients, patrons and customers are attracted to organizations that exhibit Blue Ocean thinking, processes and products/services. The longevity of your success is highly contingent upon you adopting and incorporating Blue Ocean thinking. And as Grant Cardone, author of the "10X Rule", has repeatedly argued, your job isn't to figure out how to compete...your job is to figure out how to dominate your industry. This is a more gangsta way of applying Blue Ocean thinking!

Tips for Using the Blue Ocean Strategy
Tip #1: Exposure: while I am a fan of being obsessed with knowledge of your industry, job or life outcomes, one thing I've learned is that innovation in an industry normally comes not from someone working inside the industry but from someone outside the industry. Why? Because you can create a " crutch" in your thinking if all you've ever been exposed to is what your industry dictates.

Here are some well known examples of what I mean:

• Using his technology background and experience, Steve Jobs used some revolutionary thinking to create blockbusters for Pixar in the movie industry...no further explanation is needed. Jobs' impact on the movie industry has been overshadowed by the success of Apple but I can't emphasize enough how groundbreaking the technology used at Pixar opened up market share and innovation in the movie animation industry and created un-contested wins and revenue at the box office;
• Elizabeth Holmes,  the youngest self-made female billionaire on the 2015 Forbes 400 List, revolutionized the blood test company using a patented tool that created a way to run 39 common lab tests on blood obtained via a fingerstick. Her educational background is chemical engineering.

I could go on and on but I'm assuming you get my point. Get exposure of innovations and education outside of your industry and have the vision to translate that innovation to a solution for your industry.

Tip #2: Create a Non-judgmental Failure Loop: I'm sure you're scratching your head on this one but hear me out. I believe that one of the areas in which organizations goes wrong is defining job responsibilities, processes and systems down to the most minute detail. I understand this is necessary for less experienced staff or to be able to create a clear measurement of success (or failure). However, what I'm advocating is that you give space for your employees, board members, leaders, etc to be able to "fail"... Innovation and Blue Ocean thinking assumes that there must be some sort of tinkering or experimentation occurring. And what's imbedded in tinkering and experimentation is potential failure.

And you don't need to "bet the farm" for this to occur...I'm saying build in a failure loophole whereas you allow 10-20% of your employer's time, company resources or organizational outcomes and metrics to include space for tinkering and experimentation...your organization's greatest Blue Ocean potential will come out of this sacrificed time.

Here are a couple examples:

• Google infamously has built a company culture whereas employees get play time and tinkering time to discuss ideas, challenge the status quo and develop groundbreaking innovations. This is why Google has consistently been ahead in terms of new technologies and diversified portfolio offerings;
• One of my entrepreneur heros is Andy Frisella of 1st Phorm, among other companies. Frisella took $7,000 and with a business partner created an empire with annual revenues of $100 million about 17 years later. On a Periscope episode a few weeks ago, he said something very profound. Someone asked him a question and in answering, he said "...I think that the best way an employee can add value to their organization is to bring great ideas to the leadership. I can't tell you the last time I've ever had an employee come to my office and tell me an idea that they are seeing out in the marketplace. That's extremely valuable to a leader."

Whether you have an organization like Google or one with a culture like 1st Phorm, the tip I'm giving you is a principle that supports a Blue Ocean Strategy: build or create a non-judgmental failure loop of designated time/space in which your employees, board, advisors, etc can put forth ideas, trends, and results of their tinkering.

Tip #3: Drop Perfectionism: only when I became an entrepreneur building my firm did I understand that corporate values and policies support perfectionist thinking. That is why independent businesses are leaving large organizations in the dust because our world embraces the unique, the innovative, the creative and guess what...the products or services created by these people or organizations are NEVER perfect! 

This paradigm shift in thinking is truly why I believe most people don't make it as entrepreneurs. Our antiquated schooling system, society norms and honors/awards system embraces perfectionism. This model is antiquated because in our current Information Age, speed is what's most valuable versus the Industrial Age that valued slow quality the most.

As you are seeking to embrace the Blue Ocean Strategy, you must get comfortable with the fact that speed to market is your greatest ally and that your clients, customers and leaders will give you immediate feedback (through social media, 360 reviews, etc) that will inform the speed in which you upgrade your non-perfect first product or service. Let go of perfection.

Comment below or hit me up at thesupagroup@gmail.com regarding your thoughts about this post...Que