Latest News
Wawa Claims, Names 'Fast-Casual-to-Go' Segment
CSP Daily News, April 5, 2012
The CEO of an American convenience store chain, WaWa, wants to change the image of his company. Howard Stoeckel's redirection was guided by the principles of Blue Ocean Strategy, where an enterprise shoots for success by trying to create a whole new market. The company focused on the food service channel to differentiate the brand and create Wawa's own "blue ocean," a sea where the competition has yet to sail.
What Big Pharma—And IBM—Must Rediscover: The Customer
Forbes, March 28, 2012
The future of the pharmaceutical industry will depend on making a shift similar to one IBM made in the 1990s, wherein then-CEO Lou Gerstner saved the company with a strategic master-stroke, i.e. guiding the firm to a competition-free “blue ocean” by listening to its clients. Unfortunately, while the move saved IBM, the change wasn't lasting. Likewise, the pharmaceutical industry needs to make patient outcomes their central pre-occupation. If both IBM and big pharma are to survive, they'll need to reassess their priorities and put the customer first.
Higher Growth Through the Blue Ocean Strategy: Implications for Economic Policy [PDF]
Research Policy, June 2012, Vol. 41, Issue 5, pp. 928–938
"Higher growth is a key goal of companies, governments, and societies. Economic policies often attempt to attain this goal by targeting companies of certain sizes that operate in specific industries and focus on a specific business activity. This approach to policy making has considerable shortcomings and seems to be less than fully effective in increasing economic growth. We suggest a new approach to policy making that stems directly from the entrepreneurial perspective. This approach examines a successful business strategy framework—the Blue Ocean Strategy—to discover conditions for high growth. We test the propositions on empirical data for two cases of successful high-growth business, namely Slovenian gazelles and Amazon.com. The results reveal a gap between the macro level of economic policy making to achieve higher growth and the micro level of business growth. The findings call for a change in the focus of economic policies on specific size companies, industries, and business activities to intra-industry cooperation, collaboration between companies of different sizes, value innovation, and creation of uncontested markets." Read the full paper here.
North Shore Credit Union Nets New Market
BC Business, December 2011; Vol. 39 Issue 12, p. 33
North Shore Credit Union, a Vancouver-based company, succeeded in adopting a blue ocean innovation strategy to make business grow by generating demand in an uncontested market space, instead of competing with other suppliers in an existing market segment.
E-Learning as a Career Path
American Journal of Business Education, March/April, 2012
E-learning is a rapidly growing industry with emerging career opportunities that require expertise in business, information technology, and instructional design. However, most academic institutions lack cohesive programs for preparing students for e-learning careers. We argue that information systems (IS) programs have a unique, “blue ocean” opportunity to prepare students for e-learning careers with nominal curricular adjustment. This paper builds on the MSIS 2006 model curriculum to describe an approach for incorporating e-learning as a career track in information systems (IS) graduate programs. An example e-learning curriculum from a large, public university in the western United States is also presented. We believe that an e-learning IS career track can enhance the appeal of the IS major by providing students with access to a multi-billion dollar industry and opening additional employment opportunities as they prepare for a career in business.
Value Innovation and Goal-Oriented Management Made Samsung TV ‘The Global No. 1’
Hankyung Business, December 21, 2011
In this article, former CEO of Samsung SDI, Mr. Son Wook, explains how Blue Ocean Strategy and Samsung ‘s Value Innovation Program Center have positively impacted the company and have been credited with generating half of Samsung Electronics’ profit. [English translation, PDF]
Perspective: Questing for Blue Oceans
Science Magazine, February 10, 2012
This article argues that society needs disruptive scientists who can find solutions and radically new ideas in unexplored blue oceans.
Stalking the Wild Blue Ocean
Bangor Daily News, February 7, 2012
The Top Gun Program has been created to find blue oceans in order to help the State of Maine build its entrepreneurial capacity.
Developing Sri Lanka on the lines of Dubai
The Sunday Times, January 8, 2012
In this article, Lloyd F. Yapa examines how Sri Lanka's economic development strategy could be adjusted on the lines of Blue Ocean Strategy to lift the country's GDP and attract a greater pool of direct foreign investment and talent to the country. To achieve this, Yapa examines Sri Lanka's current national policies along the three key strategy propositions of Blue Ocean Strategy—the value proposition, the profit proposition and the people proposition—and suggests how Sri Lanka could change its economic development strategy to unlock a blue ocean of economic growth.
MBA Students’ Performance in Global Ranking
Gulf Times, January 19, 2012
Qatar University’s College of Business and Economics (CBE) students’ performance has been ranked in the top 4% globally, based on the Blue Ocean Strategy Simulation (BOSS) used in top-ranked MBA programs around the world.
Tougher Days Ahead for Australia’s Retail Sector
International Business Times, January 19, 2012
The global economic slowdown and the online shopping phenomenon have affected Australian retailers. A report from The Retail Education Center recommended that retailers adopt the Blue Ocean Strategy as the only way they can survive, particularly for enterprises selling books, DVDs, music and furniture.
Dictatorship of the Customer—Beware
Zimbabwe Independent, January 12, 2012
To escape the tragedy of customer dictatorship, you need to view customers from a buyer utility perspective. Buyer utility refers to the fundamental value customers need. Looking at customers from a buyer utility perspective can help one discover new sources of value to offer customers systematically neglected by current industry or marketing biases.
Is Your Business the Same As All Your Competitors?
eZine, January 12, 2012
Every business has competitors, but competition is a state of mind. No one is exactly like you, argues Norm Bour, and understanding that may be the key to business success. So what separates you from everyone else?
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