Blue Ocean Strategy Tools, Frameworks and Methodologies - does it work?

"What blue ocean strategy seeks to do is to make the creation and capturing of blue oceans as systematic and actionable as competing in the red waters of known market space. For although blue ocean strategists have always existed, for the most part their strategies have been largely unconscious. Blue ocean strategy seeks to remedy this by not only decoding the pattern and principles behind the successful creation of blue oceans, but also providing the analytical frameworks and tools to act on this insight."

The above statement is the definition given by the practitioners of BOS. However, I disagree.

You can be guided by your subconscious mind. However, leading a group of people forces one to consciously present the idea for a complete buy-in. Unless you are in the army, a tyrant or a cult leader, your followers would want to know the strategy behind each action which they are asked to performed. 

What is Blue Ocean Strategy?

Ten Key Points:

• BOS is the result of a decade-long study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 30 industries over 100 years (1880-2000).
• BOS is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost.
• The aim of BOS is not to out-perform the competition in the existing industry, but to create new market space or a blue ocean, thereby making the competition irrelevant.
• While innovation has been seen as a random/experimental process where entrepreneurs and spin-offs are the primary drivers – as argued by Schumpeter and his followers – BOS offers systematic and reproducible methodologies and processes in pursuit of blue oceans by both new and existing firms.
• BOS frameworks and tools include: strategy canvas, value curve, four actions framework, six paths, buyer experience cycle, buyer utility map, and blue ocean idea index.
• These frameworks and tools are designed to be visual in order to not only effectively build the collective wisdom of the company but also allow for effective strategy execution through easy communication.
• BOS covers both strategy formulation and strategy execution.
• The three key conceptual building blocks of BOS are: value innovation, tipping point leadership, and fair process.
• While competitive strategy is a structuralist theory of strategy where structure shapes strategy, BOS is a reconstructionist theory of strategy where strategy shapes structure.
• As an integrated approach to strategy at the system level, BOS requires organizations to develop and align the three strategy propositions: value proposition, profit proposition and people proposition.

 

Promoting anything without the necessary information is a recipe for disaster.

Yesterday, I participated in a panel discussion about the Malaysian Bond Market and derivatives organised by ASLI. Below is the agenda of the conference.

The 15th Malaysian Capital Market Summit - ASLI - Agenda

It was interesting to hear the ideas from the other panelists about what can be done to increase the bond and derivatives market further.

For my part, I highlighted the need of getting the information infrastructure in place first before pushing ahead with new derivative products. Promoting such a market without the necessary information is a recipe for disaster.

Below was the scene taken from the stage. This event was held at the Prince Hotel.

Bond Index Report - November 2010 - BPA Malaysia

This is the monthly Malaysian bond market performance report published by Bond Pricing Agency Malaysia.

The level of volatility that was seen in October did not continue into November. Throughout November, the reduced volatility enabled returns of all tenure buckets under review to be in positive territory.  The sukuk universe continues to out perform the conventional bond space although not at the levels as reported last month. This difference in more obvious for the corporate segment compared to the government segment.




Bond Index Report - November 2010 - BPA Malaysia