Brief introduction to business tourism

                                                          
In the coming blog the author will like to give a brief introduction to business tourism. Business tourism one of the key components of the overall tourism industry comprises of both inbound as well as outbound tourist who visits a place for business purpose. It consists of conferences, meetings, exhibitions, outdoor events etc.


Salient features of business tourism:-

• Since business tourism involves top ranking executives from business it is of high value both in terms of service expected as well as in terms of yield.

• It is active throughout the year.

• It can stimulate investments in a region.

• It can boost leisure tourism. It had been seen that 40% of the business visitors to a destination do return to the destination along with their family. ( Corporate expenditure survey report, 1998)

• Top quality infrastructure and other facilities are needed in order to business tourism to flourish.

• Generally business tourism does not have any side effects on the local ecosystem. Hence it is considered as a very sustainable form of tourism.

Types of business tourism:-

• Conferences and meetings: - Conferences and meetings constitute a major part of business tourism. It includes Annual general meetings, sales meetings, training courses, management meetings, business presentations.

• Exhibitions: - exhibition provides a friendly platform where seller and buyers can meet cordially and deals can be finalized. There are basically three types of exhibitions, public exhibitions where the exhibits are sold to general public, business exhibition where the exhibits are sold to a narrow set of business customers often coming from a particular industry type and business/public exhibitions where the customers are both business houses as well as general public.

• Incentive travel: - are the tour packages provided by business to its employees and external sales agent as rewards.

• Corporate events: - it consists of a wide range of events such as client entertainment programs, vendor entertainment programs, incentive travels, meetings, conferences etc. the definition of corporate events are very wide and often overlaps with other types of business tourism.

• Outdoor events: - primarily consists of wide range of outdoor activities such as car shows, Christmas fairs, music concerts, culture and art festivals, firework display etc.

Factors influencing business tourism:-

• Sound infrastructure, availability of top quality hotels, transportation, communication network.

• Frequent airline service.

• Moderate climate.

• Investor friendly government.

• Availability of big conference halls along with meeting rooms and hotels in the nearby vicinity.

References:- Business tourism briefing, Available at < http://www.businesstourismpartnership.com/pubs/briefing.pdf>

Branding blunder that Vivek oberoi does:diffrent offscreen and onscreen image

Well it had been a week over here at Sheffield and the author is off to write his second blog & the topic is related to one of his favourite areas of interest: Indain film industry.
The author intends to talk about one of the most talented but most wrongly marketed Bollywood actors Vivek Oberoi, the kind of roles that he plays and the kind of media image that he maintains. One must understand that in a nation like India where both films and actors are adored heavily,every actor is a brand in himself.Every actor has both real as well as latent brand value that can be cashed in the form of asking price for films, stage show charges, endorsements etc.Media plays a very important role in deciding the exact brand value of these actors in the eyes of there customers that is the general public. Many a times there are actors like Ritesh Deshmukh,Arjun Rampal who are over rated in the media and then there are actors like akshaye khanna and vivek oberoi who are grossly under rated.*

Though the author does not intend to go into very details of every actor but will like to point out a very big blunder that Vivek as well as other actors do too often: Maintaining an altogether different image on and off the screen.One must admit that though these days actors in Bollywood are experimenting a lot with there roles, but in spite of that there is a specific kind of roles for which every one is known for. For exp:- Ajay devgan is known for playing serious roles,Salman Khan is known for playing roles of strong headed guy, roles that require throwing lot of tantrums and attitude,Sanjay dutt is known for playing mafia kind of roles and Sahrukh khan for romantic roles.Though Vivek himself had played so many different kind of roles but primarily he is some one who had always been appreciated for rough and rash roles. Be it the role of a dreaded criminal in shoot out at lokhandwala, an aspiring gangster in Company, and the no non sense young guy of Road.Vivek is some one who looks best when he has to play an earthy character, a character which does not reside in some fancy world but comes from the world of darkness,some thing that exemplifies the baser instincts of the human character.Even in his upcoming film Raktha Charitra where he is playing a south Indian feudal lord he is looking magnificent.He is some one who is always associated with grave and grey kind of characters, but when it comes to his off line life he has altogether a different image.He pretends to be too good and humble. Here the problem arises. People in India have a fixed image for every actor, they love to see them in that only. If an actor is rash and grave on the screen then they expect the same off the screen too.If he is a goody goody kind of guy on the screen then the same is expected from him off the screen too. The author is not saying that there is any harm in being a good boy but in case of vivek oberoi it creates an identity crisis. At one hand when he plays the role of a gangster and on the other if he tries to flatter Salman Khan in some media conference then it's obvious that normal public will find it tough to relate with him.He must understand the commonsensical fact that a hero who plays the role of a bhai or a gangster is not expected to plead in public, to try impressing some one knowing the fact that the other person do not even care a damn. Based on the type of role which he does ,Vivek really needs to change his way of behaving in public.There is no harm in showing humility but the essence of a mafia should not be missing nor should the style.The gravity with which he plays his role should not be found missing.The silent arrogance needs to be there not only on the silver screen but also in the real world. After all a brand is what the world perceives you.
(*:- Views are personal in the particular case)

The Arab community: what they have and whta they dont have

Well the author has reached united kingdom for his student exchange program and beside enjoying the English autumn one very important purpose he is having is to interact with the international community and to have a first hand experience of their culture, beliefs and their strengths and weakness with respect to the global business framework. Today the author is going to write on the Arab community:-

Strengths
1> Relationship based business: In the Arab world relationships matters the most. In contrast to their European or American counterparts where two negotiation parties have the tendency to shoot directly to the main agendas, the Arabs give a lot of emphasis to relationships. Business is never discussed initially. Initial time is always devoted to relationship building and once the relationship is built business follows. In the Arab world gestures have a great importance, customs and tradition play a very important role. And it is these gestures that do help a lot in building relationships.

2> Good negotiators: Arabs have always been traders. Trade had been the life line of Arab economy, as a result of which it had been seen that they are not only good sales man but have great knack for negotiations too.

Weakness
1> Continuous hardworking ability is missing in them: in contrast to their other counterparts they do not have the ability put continuous effort. They do put a lot of effort when needed, but cannot continue it for a longer period of time and this is something that really kills there prospect as strong professionals. In the modern world of business sustained effort is really needed if one wants to succeed. For this flaw of there even the Arabs can't be blamed completely. lot of credit goes to the environmental factors of the Arab world also. The weather had always been hostile in the arab land.So it had been some how tough for them to continue putting hard work. More over economies of countries like Bahrain have relied on stuffs like Pearl, fish etc. For these things one does not need to put continuous effort. One needs to work hard only when needed and then after the harvest can rest for large time.

2> Lack of awareness in brand building activities: Though the Arab world is really growing very fast but still when it seems as if they are not yet very well versed with modern business practices. One of them is there disinterest towards long term brand building practices. When ever the Arab invests in some brand building activity they want a very quick result. But practically this is not the possible. Modern brand building takes a large amount of time. It's not something that can be done in a very small time.

(Views here are based on the authors own understanding of the Arab people, his readings on the Arab world and his interaction with people who have worked in the Arab world.)

Why is Rahul Gandhi not appropriate for the post of PM?

He has the killing Persian looks, is one of the most media savvy street smart politicians and is touted as the PM in making by many. The author is talking of none other than the scion of Gandhi family Mr.Rahul Gandhi. Though Mr. Gandhi is considered as next PM who can lead India to newer heights, the author has got strong opinion against him.
(To be very frank the author will like to make it very clear that he does have reservations for the Gandhi family and Congress regime but today the discussion will be solely on objective facts)

Author will also like to make it clear that:-

1> Mr. Gandhi cannot be deprived from the post of PM because his original name is Raul vincy:- Though Mr. Gandhi is from Italian origin but that does not mean he cannot be the PM. As long as the person is capable and efficient enough to carry on the responsibility even an Alien will do.

2> Mr. Gandhi cannot be the PM because it will affirm that India is a monarchial democracy:- Well author will like to reiterate that India just needs a capable and efficient PM, it does not matter whether he is a Monarch, Autocrat, Plutocrat, Socialist, Communist or anything else.

Now the point comes why cannot he be the PM

1> What kind of experience he has?:- when Dhiru bhai Ambani launched his sons Mukesh and Anil he didn't give them the profile of a Ceo, they were initially inducted as normal management trainees, once they gained ample experience senior profile where given to them. The same must hold true for the PM's office in India, the job requires very high degree of capability and experience and cannot be executed by any neophyte. If Mr. Gandhi is really serious to execute this great duty with full efficiency then he should have taken some portfolio in the current ministry and tried to learn how things really work. If he thinks that just because of the Gandhi surname ruling and administration is a part of his DNA then probably it’s a blunder that the nation might has to bear.

2> Mediocre academic background: Though academic background is not a prerequisite for the post of PM, but having a good background is an added edge. In spite of all the rumors that Mr. Gandhi has degrees from big foreign universities, the fact is that he had been a below average student who just managed to pass during his St.Stepehens days and could not even get a post graduate degree.

3> Lacks aggression and eloquence: since the past six years Mr. Gandhi is visiting the parliament as a MP. But hardly there had been a single incident where he would have shown some courage or eloquence which is the prime requirement for a leader.

4> Is unaware of realities: Born and brought up in a situation of paranoia and isolation he is devoid of the ground realities of India. In Narendra Modi’s words he is like a fish born and brought up in a captive atmosphere of an aquarium.
(Views are personal)

Branding: the 360 degree edge

Today author intends to write on a very important field of marketing and branding known as 360 degree of branding. It should be known that between any brand and its target audience there happens to be many touch points, there are many media channels through which a target audience can get to know a particular brand. It can be the regular once print media, TV, radio, hoardings, live shows and demonstrations, emerging once like web medium or even something unconventional as theatre or street plays. Often it had been seen that just one or two medium is used to promote a brand but when a company decides to use each and every one of the available medium, when it tries to communicate at each and every one of the touch points then this approach is known as 360 degree of branding.
It is quite evident that 360 degree of branding is an expensive as well as time consuming approach and cannot be used too often, but it becomes extremely essential when a brand has to be launched in the market. Whenever a brand is launched it needs a very high degree of recognition. If all the existing media channels are not used then the chances are very high that the nascent brand might not get the amount of exposure it should have got to be successful. One must understand that whenever a brand is launched the very first thing which it needs to be successful is awareness among the general public. Once the awareness sets in and people began to start making perceptions for the product then only the final selling can happen. If the general awareness itself cannot happen at the first go , perception for the brand let alone final sales is never going to be realized. So it’s very essential that whenever a product or a brand is getting launched companies rather than choosing one or two media channels must go for a 360 degree kind of approach where the newly evolving brand can be communicated through end no of media channels. A point that has to be considered over here is that often 360 degree branding does not end up in huge sales figure ,the reason being that communication efforts get diluted over a large no. of channels but it does provide a huge amount of brand awareness that can be capitalized over a period of time in making sales.
One reason the author intends to write this blog is that often start ups are not willing to spend much on brand promotion. Rather than going through the 360 degree frame work, now day’s entrepreneurs prefer just one two media channels in which the web medium predominates. Given the rate at which web penetration is increasing day by day the importance of the web medium along with the social networking sites cannot be discounted but at the same time it will be fool hardy to neglect other regular channels like the TV, radio, newspaper, magazines ,hoardings etc. Every medium has its own importance; every medium has its own takers. So it is in the interest of startups that they should try utilizing whatever touch points they can in order to create brand awareness for their newly launched product. One must understand that for a newly launched product branding should be wide spared covering as much audience it can cover.

Book review: In Search of Excellence

                                                                         
Today the author attempts to write the review of one of his best book ever. A book that escalated his
interest in the world of management like anything.

INTRODUCTION


In Search of Excellence (here after referred as ISOE) written by two management consultants Tom Peters and Thomas Waterman is among some of the best written management books ever. The book has been among the best bestsellers in the world with more than 3 million copies sold worldwide. It was written by surveying 43 best companies in America. The fundamental idea of the book was to find out what drives excellence in a company. What is that common factor which is common in all the top notch and top performing company? The story of writing the book is also very interesting. In 1977 McKinsey director Ron Daniel launched two projects; the first and major one, the Business Strategy project, was allocated to top consultants at McKinsey's New York corporate HQ and was given star billing. Nothing came of it. The second 'weak-sister' project (as Peters called it) concerned Organization - structure and people. The Organization project was seen as less important, and was allocated to Peters and Waterman at San Francisco. Peters traveled the world on an infinite budget, with license to talk to as many interesting business people he could find about teams and organizations in business. He had no particular aim or theory in mind. But after the conduction of the in depth analysis Tom tried to prove that it is not systemized philosophies, high level of no. crunching and bureaucratic systems that make a company great, it’s the so called soft sides such as culture and people that makes a company great. In a way ISOE was an attempt by Tom to refute the ducker’s principles of management that heavily relied on systematic frameworks. The essential message of In Search of Excellence is very simple:-

• People


• Customer


• Action

Main ideas of the books:

The book is based on the 7s framework of “Mckinsey”:-

• Structure


• Strategy


• Systems


• Shared values


• Skills


• Style


• Staff




The book is fundamentally divided into eight chapters. After their conclusive study the authors found that there are eight parameters that are always very important for a company’s success.

1. A bias for action, active decision making - 'getting on with it'. Facilitate quick decision making & problem solving tends to avoid bureaucratic control

2. Close to the customer - learning from the people served by the business.

3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship - fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'.

4. Productivity through people- treating rank and file employees as a source of quality.

5. Hands-on, value-driven - management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing its commitment.

6. Stick to the knitting - stay with the business that you know.

7. Simple form, lean staff - some of the best companies have minimal HQ staff.

8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties - autonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralized values.

The best part of the book is that the top 43 American companies are from various backgrounds. These companies include IBM, McDonalds, Caterpillars, 3M, and Walt Disney etc.

The common theme of the book is that it is the kind of culture and shared values that are built in a company are actually responsible for its success and profitability. The book puts huge emphasis on building a culture of innovation. It strictly says that the world is changing (the world here means the business world) and to survive and constantly deliver in this chaotic world it is very important that modern companies should innovate and evolve constantly. Until unless the innovation factor is not there it is very hard to grow continuously, but innovation in itself is not very easy. It is such a dimension that needs to have a very strong culture to support. A culture that isn’t dependent on any particular but on a set of factors. It talks about giving more and more freedom to people, who are in line jobs, who are more close to customers. Because it is these people who are at the front, a CEO dressed up in a resplendent suit may not know what is happening in the field very soon, but the field worker who remains at the market for most of his time can get the glimpse of changes very soon and so it is very essential that authority and freedom must be given to him. Because until unless he will not have this he cannot deliver the message to the upper echelons. The book also has a great message to the top executives of the firm. The book suggests them that they should also try to be visit the field and rather than always getting restricted to their glass chamber they must assign some days of the year where they can directly visit the field and can have a firsthand experience of what actually happens in the field. For this the book gives the example of Walt Disney where the bosses are supposed to visit the field at least once in a year, they are supposed to be dressed as cartoon characters and they greet various customers. These kinds of experiences always make top management close to their customers and help them understand the general psychology of their customers. It also states that the most successful companies are those companies that promote their employees to innovate. Even in the entire process if the firm loses some money they really don’t care much. Additionally when it comes to innovation it’s not essential that innovation will be driven by the top team of scientists only, it can even be driven by normal workmen working in the floor. To strengthen this point the book has given example of companies like 3m which known for coming up with a very high no. of innovative products every year. The book takes a critical view on the “Bean Counters”(Bean Counter is the term used for top B-school graduates in the time of 60’s and 70’s in America, they were highly systematic in approach and used a wide range of numerical tools .) The book is not very supportive of the stands taken by the bean counters. Bean counters were known for doing a return of investment analysis for everything that was done. According to the book such an approach might look sophisticated in the beginning but hampers the qualitative aspect of a company in the long run.

Conclusion

The book is wonderful read that has its own unique flow. The best part of the book is the maverick approach followed by the authors, anyone who has a penchant to do something unique and to think of a situation with a non stereotypical approach, this book is a must read. The book is highly inspiring and very systematic in approach. It’s among the very few books of its time that had tried to consider the “people factor “and “Culture factor” in the success of a company. Another important strength of the book is that it is based on the fundamentals of solid research rather than assumptions.

Though like any other good piece of work it has its regular flaws too. The book primarily focuses on companies that have American origin. The time when the book was written lot of Japanese firms were also rising but hardly any focus is given upon them. Secondly many of the things that the book talks about are in general vague in nature and cannot be described very easily. The book also does not have any analytical tools as such.

But all in all the book is a great read and can be read by all sorts of people such as corporate, Entrepreneurs, Managers, students and general readers etc.

The martial art of marketing

As someone who has always been passionate for "marketing as an art”, author attempts to describe the martial art of marketing, the hidden skills and art which good marketers should have. Having said this the blog does not attempt to write the obvious ones like good communication skills, better negotiation power blah,blah,blah(these are the fundamental requirements & no one can be a good marketer without them)

• A marketer has to be a great "Mind Reader": A marketer has to be great in reading mind of other's. Marketing is such a profession where one is exposed to end no. of people ranging from customers, suppliers, clients, channel members etc. He is never independent in making decisions which depend heavily on the other factor mentioned above; hence he has to read the mind of others beforehand to craft his game plan.

• A marketer has to be a good actor: As discussed in the above point he has to communicate with a lot of people. Many a times his job includes a lot of negotiations, communications & other related stuffs, has to don many hats at the same time, many a times has to pretend things. For all such a good acting skill is a prerequisite.(May be that’s why all the great marketers in India such as Bharat dabholkar, Alyque Padamsee, Sohail seth etc have background in theatre)

• A marketer should be creative with his computer skills: Marketers are suppose to give lot of presentations, many a times in front of people who might not have much of the subject related knowledge. Under such situation what does matter is not content but the creative aspects of the presentation.

• Knowledge of music is an add on: Marketing requires a lot of networking with people. It had been seen that music (includes all the three parts, dancing, singing and instruments) is a great tool in helping people do networking with others.

• An indulgence with various forms of art helps one understand and evaluate alternatives: Marketing is such a profession where one needs to have the hunch of understanding and evaluating available alternatives, needs to have the insight to think beyond the obvious. Having an interest in various forms of art such as acting, music, and writing can help you hone these required skills. (Because the world of art is something that attempts to look at the world in its alternative form)

Though marketing has its own analytical and mathematical sides but the author believes primarily it’s an "ART" or rather a "Martial Art" where one needs to don many hats at the same time, use the best of the available techniques, the realm of human psychology has a very important role to play and creativity is the best weapon to attract and stimulate someone. Due to all these things marketing requires individuals to be well aware (and if possible well equipped) with different facets of art.

Blogs have edge over Books

                                                                 

The author is of the opinion that in the realm of management following a good blog might be much fruitful than reading a management book. Though there are many reasons for that but fundamentally it’s the very basic nature of blogs and books that gives advantage to the blog over the books.These can be summed as follows:-


• Blogs are always latest and books are always old:- One must understand that the realm of business management is very dynamic and changes very fast. It takes many years to write a book,hence a book can never be latest,by the time a book undergoes its idea phase and by the time it comes to publication there is always a gap of few years .Even the latest of the books will talk about something that had taken place some 4-5 years back. In contrast to this a blog is always latest,fresh and captures the present situation in a better way.

• Blogs are to the point where as books have a high degree of redundancy:- Blogs are always to the point but on the other hand books have high degree of redundancy. A book needs to be of few hundred pages, as a result of which even if the author does not want he has to repeat certain stuffs end no. of times. This makes the book boring after some time.

• Comments add value to blog:- Comments add lot of value to a blog,it helps in understanding it better,gives additional information and can also add counter views. No such facility is available in book.(Though these days stuffs like book reviews can be of some help but they cannot be as instant as comments)

• A blog has a very high degree of variability where as books are generally written on a single idea:- An author can write an end no. of posts on various issues on the same blog.Thus following such blogs give eclectic knowledge. In contrast just take any management book such as Positionong,Judo Strategy,Hard Ball etc and you will see that it’s the same central idea that keeps on repeating itself.


• Blogs are small ,books are too large:- last but not the least books are so large that one has to think twice whether to go for it or not, in contrast blogs are small enough to at least not de motivate you from reading it.

(Well having said this author will like state few facts based on his experience:-
1> One should not jump directly to blogs. Initially one should try to read few good books first
2> The given analysis is more applicable for business management related stuffs.
3> Views are personal)

Blue Ocean Strategy for BJP

This article will be a confluence of two widely divergent ideas that is, management principles and Indian politics. It attempts to design a blue ocean strategy for BJP.
(Non Indian readers please note that BJP also known as the Bhartiya Janata Party is a national political party of India that believes in Hindutava)
(Blue ocean strategy is a strategic approach that tries to capture non customers for a firm by providing them cost efficient value innovation)

Before carrying forward the analysis 1st we must understand the customers and non customers of BJP.
Customers:-
1> Any Hindu fundamentalist be it a hard core or a moderate.
2> Educated Urban class(Delhi is an exception)
3> Business class people and Brahmins(BJP is also sometimes known as Brahman Baniya party)
4> Others(that include people from various socio economic classes that cannot be categorized)

Non customers:-
1> A large amount of Indian population that is politically inactive,do not have any opinion of itself, and often rely on any crap that the media tells them(The author is of the opinion that Indian media is highly biased against the Hindutava forces of India and often portrays them in negative light( views are personal))
2> A large part of rural poor
3> people from scheduled caste and scheduled tribes(There is another tendency In Indian media of  portraying Hindutva as something anti-dalit )
4> Marxist (Both hardliners as well as moderates)
5> pseudo seculars(India has a good chunk of such people)
6> South Indians in general (baring Karnataka)
7> Muslims and Christians (Includes both hardliners as well as moderate)
8>Others (again those that cannot be categorized)

Now other than hardliners, from the red camp and from the religions of Islam and Christianity ,BJP has the potential of attracting all other class of non customers)

Presently, BJP is hugely spending its resources:-
1> Hindutava:-
a) Genuine issues:- such as terror attacks, safety concerns of people, respect of national symbols, Cow slaughter etc.
b)Not very genuine issues:- defending any crap that is related to Hinduism even that might be something like the caste system, defending a shankra charya who had been involved in murder case, or any other Hindu ritual that does not make much sense these days.
2> Opposing the incumbent central govt. for any action it takes.
3> Maintaining strong ties with other Hindutva factions such as Rss, Vishawa Hindu parishad, Ram sena,Shiv sena etc.
4>Projecting leaders like Narendra Modi & Varun gandhi as the new face of Hindutva.
5> Struggling hard to solve its internal differences.

Now the author attempts to do an ERRC analysis

(ERRC is eliminate, reduce,raise & create analysis where some of the existing parameters are reduced or eliminated where as some are raised and some new are created)

Eliminate:-
1> Anything that shows the irrational side of Hindutva should be scraped completely from the party agenda(Its good for party as well as Hinduism also)
2> Internal troubles of the party.
3> unwanted minority bashing

Reduce:-
1> Reduce, pestering the incumbent govt. for anything and every thing.It sends wrong signal to the media.
2> Reduce Strong ties with parties like Rss and ram sena(though this really does not mean that ties should be completel cut off, because provide essential force to the Hindutava movement but BJP must understand that general Hindu psyche dislikes very aggressive viewpoint)
3> Reduce activities that deals with symbolic side of Hinduism. Stuffs such as national song etc does not make much sense in the present scenario (Though the author finds them very important)

Raise:-
1> Raise activities that are focused more towards development rather than religion.

2> BJP govts (as well as allies)have done phenomenal jobs in states like Madhya Pradesh,BiharGujrat,Chattisgarh etc. BJP must try to promote strongly on these lines.

3> Karnataka:- Karnataka is the 1st South Indian state where, BJP had formed its government,so strategically it has great significance ,but unfortunately nothing substantial have been done by the govt over here. Since Karnataka can be the launching ground for spreading the influence in other south Indian states,  BJP needs to take extra care for carrying out strong development works over here.
4> Though hard-line Hindutava is dangerous but there are lot of important issues that needs to take care of, including terrorism, Kashmir crisis,conversions in the name of money etc. These issues should be raised seriously ,not only will it be good for the health of nation but will also help in garnering support of a large no. of people who in general are politically inactive but do fear such stuffs.
4> Promote Modi and Varun for their vision (also developmental activities in Modi's case),not for Hindutava

Create
1> Take initiatives for the development of the Scheduled and backward classes of India. Hindutava(moderate) cannot be a Viable idea until unless these people will remain marginalized.
2> Take strong action against illegal Immigration:- India especially its eastern and north eastern parts are infected heavily with illegal immigration. West Bengal itself has some one crore illegal immigrants(thanks to the local government).BJP must try to garner public support on such issues.

Though this alone is not sufficient and as a party BJP needs to take a lot of other steps but these steps if taken properly can surely convert a lot of non customers into customers.

(Views here are personal and attempt to see certain things with a very objective approach, the blog does not intend to hurt any one)

Disadvatanges of being too Mathematical in Approach

                                                                                                                                                                
In the present world of management there is too much of reliance on mathematical and analytical thinking. As someone who tries to observe managerial sphere with a very keen perception the author, does not find this trend very appealing. Now before doing a thorough analysis it will be good if the point be made very clear that there is no grudge against mathematics in general and the author also admits the fact that these are of extreme significance for management as an approach but the ongoing trend where it is infiltrating into each and every aspect of managerial thinking, is something that needs a revisit. The reason for this goes as follows:-

1> In Mathematics 2+2=4, in reality it is not the case. In real world business scenario 2+2 might be 4, 3,5 or even 14 or -4. Mathematical tools are too much mechanical in approach, now having a robust mechanical model in practice makes things very easy to understand and can be comprehended easily by the takers but one must understand that might be far away from what might happen in reality. Just because a mathematical model is robust enough does not guarantee that it will be correct also.

2> It kills the qualitative approach of a manager:- For a successful manager it is essential that he should be well versed with qualitative as well quantitative approaches. But relying too much on the quantitative approach and using a quantitative framework for each and every managerial situation might undermine the qualitative approach in some one.

3> Mathematical models cannot go beyond the obvious: - One must understand that any analytical or mathematical model always considers the available and existing frameworks. But is some one really wants achieve a major breakthrough he needs to think beyond the obvious which is not possible by depending on mathematical thinking approach. One must understand that something like a Ford's "T model", Southwest’s low cost aviation service, Toyota’s "Just in Time" were not the outcome of some mathematical thinking. They were purely based on the ability to think beyond the obvious, to understand the latent demand of the customers, to catch the hidden loopholes in the system and these abilities really don’t come with mathematical thinking but with experience, with the knowledge of the qualitative aspects of a problem, with systemic thinking and beyond that the guts to explore something that had been unexplored so far and to execute the findings with confidence.
Having said this will like reiterate that mathematical thinking also has end no. of advantages but will like to describe this in details in some other blog.

Blue Ocean Strategy

“BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY” or BOS is a revolutionary management philosophy that questions all the conventional wisdoms that have been predominant in the management circles till date. It consists of a very radical view that if one wants to beat competition the only way that is possible is to not focus on your competition. The idea came first into picture in the form of a bestseller namely “BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY” written by two INSEAD professors “W. Chan Kim” & “Renée Mauborgne” in the year 2005. The book talks about creating blue oceans that is uncontested market space. So far the traditional wisdom had been to fight against competition, most of the successful management theories in field of strategy such as “porters five force” “resource based model” and “delta model” basically talks about gaining competitive advantage with the help of product differentiation and price cutting. Such kinds of strategic moves are known as “RED OCEAN” strategy where companies fight bloody warfare against each other. It had been seen that though such moves might give a firm competitive advantage over another and can also result in top lines but since a large amount of resources are wasted in fighting against the competition ,cutting price and providing high end solutions to the customers at lower price it often ends up affecting the bottom line. Contrary to this belief “BOS” talks about creating blue oceans or in other words uncontested market space. It says that rather than focusing on existing customers and devising strategies to beat competition in order to get a larger share of the existing market space, companies should try to focus on the large share of population that has so far been the non customers of the company. Rather than trying to woo the same existing customers by giving them higher service at lower price the prime focus of the firms should to achieve value innovation. According to the book “VALUE INNOVATION” means:-


“ Value innovation is created in the region where a company’s actions favorably affect both
its cost structure and its value proposition to buyers. Cost savings are made by eliminating
and reducing the factors an industry competes on. Buyer value is lifted by raising and
creating elements the industry has never offered. Over time, costs are reduced further as
scale economies kick in due to the high sales volumes that superior value generates.”


THERE ARE FEW THINGS THAT IS VERY FUNDAMENTAL TO BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY:-

1> “BOS” fundamentally tries to capture the non customers of a company.

2> “BOS” proposes to shift the focus away from competition.

3> “BOS” proposes “avoid segmentation and to look at the commonalities between customers and non customers spread across various profiles”.

4> “BOS” talks about diverting from existing industry norms and coming up with value innovation.


Along with proposing a strategy Blue ocean strategy also consists of various strategic tools that can be applied to implement “BOS” in real life business situations. These are:-

ERRC FRAME WORK:-

A strategic frame work which plans to :-

1. ELIMINATE:- eliminate few of the product features that are not required by the non customers.

2. REDUCE:- Reduce few of the product features in comparison to the industry standard that are not very essential for non customers.

3. RAISE:- Raise the standard of few of the product features higher than the industry standard.

4. CREATE:- Create few new product features that can fulfill the requirements of non customer .



MENTAL MODEL:-

In order to implement “BOS” it is very essential that the way companies think needs to be changed .Until unless there is no paradigm shift in this, it will be very difficult to implement “BOS”. There are fundamentally two kinds of paradigm shift that is very important over here.

1> Focusing on non customers:-

Companies need to start focusing on their non customers rather than customers. Focusing on non customers can give them various kinds of new insights which otherwise is very difficult to obtain. Non customers are generally classified into three types .These can be:-



a) Customers who are mentally your non customers but occasionally do use your product out of some compulsion.

b) Customers who have the needs for the kind of service your industry offers but who still prefers to choose an alternate industry to fulfill their needs.

c) Customers who are far away from your industry and they are not at all willing to use your product/service.



2> Try to see the commonalities rather than specific requirements: - Often it had been seen that large amount of resources get wasted in segmenting the existing customers and providing them high value services. An alternative approach could be rather than trying to concentrate in differentiation, companies can try generalization. Between customers and non customers there is always some kind of commonalities. There are some basic requirements which are shared by people across both the customer as well as non customer bases. Companies should try to leverage this and try to come up with such cost efficient solutions that can fulfill the main requirements of both kinds of people that is those who are customers as well those who are non customers. That may help in increasing the market share by leaps and bounds.



UTILITY, PRICING, COSTING, ADOPTIBLITY MODEL:-

1> UTILITY: - In order to make a new product a big hit in the market it is very essential that the product must have exceptional utility for its end users. The very same principle holds true for blue ocean strategy,”BOS” calls for coming up with value innovation, but this value innovation will not serve any good until unless it does not have exceptional utility in the non customer base.

2> TARGET PRICING: - Along with utility it is very essential that the price should be fixed in such a way that it can be afforded by a wide range of customers.

3> COST: - Along with price it is also essential that the cost of innovation and producing the product should be very much within the limits of the budget of the company. Proper pricing cannot be done until unless costing is not with in budgets.

4> ADOPTIBLITY: - the new innovative measures should find easy adoption both amongst the customer base as well as among the employees of the company.

Anxiety can drive to experiment something new in life

The up coming blog that I am going to write will basically deal with the positive side of anxiety, so far lot of negatives have been said on the anxiety factor, and frankly speaking being anxious is a very uneasy state of mind, though it is neither painful nor torturing as such but it creates such a chaos in your inner world that every thing seems to disturbed, any ways this not the point of discussion, the point of discussion is that this state of inner volatility can also do a great good provided if it is used in a proper way .This state can really motivate you to take new resolutions in your life and to implement something new, some thing more positive in your life .

At first it might seem a bit counterintuitive that how come there be a relationship between anxiety and taking a new resolution .But there is a fundamental relationship between them . As human beings we all suffer with some sense of incompleteness and incompetency and we do want to remove it, we always make plans to take something new in life but unfortunately most of the times it gets restricted to planning only .We hardly implement in practice, the reason being the underlying pattern of our habits which is so deep in us that we do not find it easy to break this down .externally we might have some sort of angst with us but internally we are habituated with the way we live and are with complete peace with us ,internally we do not want any change . Now the good part of anxiety is that it creates a lot of inner turmoil, suddenly the so called equilibrium that the mind had created comes to a crash .we start doubting ourself,suddenly we are at some unease with our self, the so called habitual set up that was developed by us disintegrates temporarily. Now this period of temporary disturbance is the most fertile ground for doing some thing new,in this situation of chaos of yours there is no predetermined habitual inclination to stop you from doing some thing new , in anxiety you get the freedom to start any thing new .(In fact rather than freedom it is more of a need , you really want to do some thing new to pacify your anxiousness , to suppress your uneasiness)

The point that has to be taken care of is that anxiety can get you started but after that to continue some thing for a long period of time you need a decent amount of self discipline and dedication .Once the dose of anxiety goes down old habits will like to come back but with a lesser vigor , at such time you need to be a bit more patient and cautious . You need to be committed towards your new found practice for a while, after that over a period of time this new commitment of yours will become a habit and both you and inner being will be used to it .

So next time when ever you suffer with an attack of anxiety don't panic, rather try to use this opportunity for some better purpose .

1st Step of Building a Brand: Be Audacious

                                                                            
After writing extensively on Blue Ocean Strategy the author will like to keep it off for a while and will like to delve once again into his favorite domain that is Brand building.
Brand building and its management is definitely a very complex phenomenon which takes care of various dimensions into account such as product design, product management, media channels, logos, symbols, distribution networks, ambassadors, mascots and above all commitment of individual employees towards their respective duties but the very first thing which has to be taken into account is the audacious acceptance of the superiority of your product. All the employees and concerned individuals of a product must admit the fact that they are associated with one of the best brand, no matter that might be the reality or not.
The logic for this is very simple; marketing is fundamentally a psychological warfare, a battle of mind where a marketer always attempts to promote his product in a bombastic way, with some degree of exaggeration attached with it. (one must know that all marketers are liar and all customers are irrational), so it becomes very important that before hitting your customers with your exaggerated tag line, the general belief of superiority of one’s product must be shared by its own employees. As long as one himself is not convinced with the superiority of his/her product how the hell is he going to position it to the customer. It is very essential that one must believe in the superiority of his product even that calls for becoming audacious.
But again one must understand that there has to be a fine line drawn, no doubt there will remain a fine gap between what your product actually is and what you want to make other believe by your audacious acceptance of your product as something extremely fantabulous, but this touch of audacity should not become so strong that rather than promoting your product in the right spirit it is making you as well as your product a laughing stock. The line is delicate one and one has to draw it himself, Few examples that might explain it better could be :-

1>Lets say your B-school belongs to the higher ladders of the 2-tier B-school, then rather than proclaiming that you belong to a 2-tier B-school and getting yourself mixed with a lot of B-schools which are inferior to your B-school the wisdom lies in the idea that you must exaggerate and say that your B-school is among the top tier B-schools (of course in the lower ladders)

2> Let’s say you have a business which is facing fierce competition from an emerging competitor and in the recent quarter the competitor had done fairly better business than you. Under such circumstance rather than patting the back of your competitor the best strategy should be not to accept your competitor's victory and keep on persisting on the fact that you are still the best. Like the Romans you must have the conviction of not accepting your defeat at any cost. (Though in the next quarter you must be in a position to beat your competitor to prove it.)

Having said all this the author will again like to reiterate that branding is a very long term phenomenon that considers a lot of stuff into account but anyone who is seriously thinking to build the brand of his product first needs to be audacious enough in accepting the superiority of his product even that calls for moving a few steps on the line of exaggeration.

Review of Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper

Author attempts to review a research paper that describes the Blue Oceanic thinking in 20-20 cricket.The link for the research paper goes as follows:-
http://www.slideshare.net/deepakagrawal2009/20-20-cricket-blue-ocean-strategy

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY & 20-20 CRICKET


PRODUCT:- 20-20 cricket.

MARKET:- vast majority of people that include both cricket followers as well as non followers who will be impressed by the newer version of cricket which packs cricket,thrill,speed and entertainment altogether .

The given research (in the form of ppts) is about the use of blue ocean strategy to innovate a newer version of cricket known as 20-20 cricket which packs a great amount of thrill and entertainment along with the usual stuffs of a cricket match.

The paper discusses that earlier there were one day international and test cricket which were having limited loyal customers but after implementing value based innovation which was combined with entertainment, a newer version have been created in the form of 20-20 cricket which is much shorter, less time consuming but gives a high value of entertainment and thrill to its viewers. A strategy canvass curve is drawn which states that for 20-20 cricket viewers have to spend less money and time but get a very high value of return in the form of entertainment, speed of the game, involvement of the family, certainty of result ,excitement etc.

Analysis of the 20-20 cricket had also been attempted with an ERRC framework. The frame work states that:-

ELIMINATE :-


1> Conventional Wisdom about cricket

REDUCE:-

1> Time spend

2> Money spend

3> Uncertainty of result

RAISE:-

1> Pace of game.

2> Excitement

3> Poll of young talent

CREATE :-

1> A new industry itself that takes its inspiration from both cricket as well as well entertainment.


In the final slides a classification had been made for 20-20 cricket, one day international, and test cricket as pioneer( one that changes the industry’s strategic canvass by giving value innovation to its non customers coupled with huge expenditure on promotion so that the new concept can be positioned well ), migrator (one that applies some innovation to give better value to customers but still is unable to change the industry’s strategic canvass), settler( one whose strategic canvass resembles the industry’s strategic canvass by 100 % and which plays entirely in the red ocean) respectively .

TYPE OF THE PAPER:- Practical application.

SCOPES OF FURTHER IMPROVEMENT:-

There are further scopes of improvement:-

1> Comparison of the 20-20 version of game with the most famous sport of the world that is soccer can add more value to the research.

2> The case only talks about the blue oceanic thinking involved in 20-20 cricket. Annexation of success sagas like IPL & 20-20 World cup can add more value to the researc

Review of a Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper

In  the following blog the  author attempts to review a "BOS"  based research article . the link is given below
http://www.csi-sigegov.org/3/13_379_3.pdf


ICTs for the Effective usage of Blue Ocean Strategy for Societal Development: An analysis with reference to the parameters of capability


Vinay Sharma , Piyush Seth and Shujauddin Niyazi

This research is about conceptualizing the idea that ICT( information and communication ) can be used in serving the “Bottom of the Pyramid “ population by providing value innovation.( Value innovation here refers to cost efficient as well as innovative products that cannot only fulfill the requirements of the rural population but are also in the limits of their affordability). The research paper further concludes that serving Rural BOP as blue ocean customers will help in bringing prosperity as well as in their overall growth & development. This in turn will ensure economical and social harmony. One very important aspect of this research is that it does not only believe in reducing poverty on absolute terms such as better per capita income, better health and education facilities but also on the development of skill sets and capabilities of individual that can lead them towards the path of sustainable growth.

Target Segment:- Rural Bottom of the Pyramid customers.

Sample size:- 300

Type:- Practical applications.

Research Methodology: - Focus Group discussions (FGDs)

With the help of local influential people villagers were assembled at village head’s house. Initially a very formal chat was conducted so that their understanding of issues likes health, literacy; general well being can be understood. After that the discussion took a serious turn and based on their two groups were made one which were distinct in their perspectives.

Key Parameters of Capability Discussed

• Social


• Political


• Health


• Education

• Economic

Some of the common findings that came in the due course of discussion were :-

1>  64% of the total respondents believe strongly that the distance between the villages and the nearest post office effects the frequent communication of villagers with others and rest of the 36% of total respondents believe in the same fact but with some less confidence

2>  67% of the total respondents strongly believe that listening radio, watching television and reading newspapers are beneficial for the respondents and they get the required information by these mediums for their concerned livelihood and rest of the 33% also believe in the same fact but with some less confidence.

3>  74% of the total respondents are strongly with the fact that health is the most important factor for leading whole of their life, 21% of the total respondents agree with the same fact with some lesser.

4>  98% of the total respondents consider water resources as one of the reasons for good health and rest of 2% deny that

5>  45% of the total people say that they believe in skill related education, 16% of the total people say that they believe in literacy related education, 12% say that they believe in qualification related education and 26% of the total people say that they believe in job oriented education.

(Similarly other related concerns were evaluated)

Conclusion:- After the given research it was clear that rural populace at the bottom of pyramid have their own latent needs and they clearly understand that entities like health, communication, and better governance can influence their well being and development of capabilities.

This rural populace constitutes a large blue ocean of customers. To tap it what is needed is that companies must come up with innovative solutions that can suffice their requirements in an economical fashion and can provide them capability building facilities. The paper also gives due credit to ongoing strategic moves such as e-Choupal , Yeshaswini, SKS Microfinance, Mann Deshi Udyogini. To make such initiatives easily affordable and accessible what is needed is utilization of ICTS (information & communication technologies)

Scope of further Improvement:-

The research paper gives a strong foundation regarding the scope of “BOS” for catering to the rural populace but it does not give any innovative measure itself. Had the research been extended a bit further to design one two strategies then that would have been a strong value addition.

Review of Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper

            

                                                                            
The author attempts to review a research paper written "BOS". The link of the  original research paper is given below. The research paper will be helpful for anyone  who wants to implement "BOS" as a strategic tool for future growth of their companies.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&hid=104&sid=caf61ccd-9b0e-485f-97b3-414c3ec26520%40sessionmgr113

Analysis of the Use of the Blue Ocean Strategy; Case Study Analysis On 14 Different Agencies


Zainal Abidin Mohamed,

Graduate School of Management/ Faculty of Economics and Management

University Putra Malaysia

E-mail: zainal@econ.upm.edu.my

Blue ocean strategy is attracting a lot of attention these days (in both Academics as well as Managerial quarter .) but since it’s a new idea there is a dearth of good quality research work done in the following field. The given research paper that have been conducted on 14 companies is among the very few original work that had been done in the given field.

The given research is basically exploratory work that includes case study approach as well as in depth interviews and seminars. It had been done on 14 companies that come from various segments such as educational institutes , govt. organizations ,pvt. companies etc. The topic on which research was done was the “ERRC” cycle( Eliminate , Reduce, Raise, Create ).For someone who is not very familiar with BOS, it should be noted that “ERRC” is an important tool that is very fundamental to BOS, it aims at erasing and reducing few of the unimportant elements from the value chain accompanied by raising few and creating entirely new values with the help of innovation so that better solution be provided to the end users. In the given research first 6 out of 23 companies (these companies claimed that they are using BOS) were selected and they were termed as group “A”. Another 20 companies were selected and they were termed as group “B”. Group “B” consisted of companies that were interested in understanding “BOS” in an organized frame work . For these 26 companies a half day seminar was done , After the seminar individual visit were made at each and every of these companies and detailed study of their “ERRC” strategy was made . Though these companies were from different back ground but a lot similarity had been seen in their “ERRC” frame work. Components like cost component and stuffs which were not giving good return, diversification plans etc were put under eliminate and reduce frame work where as for create and raise framework stuffs like customer satisfaction, providing new products and services were considered seriously.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: the research has given some fresh insights on “ERRC” frame work of the “BOS” and can be used by all types of industries which are willing to implement BOS as a strategic framework for their growth.

SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENTS:- 1> Research paper had been written too short which makes it difficult to comprehend. Making it a bit more elaborative will serve the purpose better.

2> Graphs have not been explained very properly. The attribute taken for the y- axis is not very clear which again makes it difficult to comprehend.

Review of Blue ocean Strategy Research Paper

                                                                                                                                                      
As a part of my blue ocean initiatives the blogger  will like to review an article that talks about how to develop blue oceanic ( new & innovative ) pattern in writing research papers.Here is the link :-

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&hid=109&sid=c75d12d6-bc32-4d7c-929d-5e6f5998c490%40sessionmgr11

Creating Blue Oceans of Thought via Highly Citable Articles


Detmar W. Straub

Editor-in-Chief

dstraub@cis.gsu.edu

Target Segment:- Academicians & Researchers

Abstract:-We have learnt a lot about Blue ocean strategy, but this article happens to be different because it talks about having a blue thinking in research publications. In today’s world one can find a plethora of articles, publications and research papers, but hardly any one comes up with any original thinking. Mostly they all swim in the very same red ocean. Here in this post the author tries to figure out few methods that might be helpful in inspiring intellectuals to think and write on blue ocean kind of thinking pattern, coming up with articles that can really add values to the existing structure of knowledge.

The author had very well cleared few facts such as there is hardly anything which is purely new in its nature. Most of the author writes on the fringes of BOS, or in another words that’s pink oceanic in nature.

The author had given frame work that can help people go the blue oceanic way in thinking. Things such as citation, conferences and giving more emphasis on quality of work rather than mere numbers can help in diverting towards the blue oceanic way of thinking.

Author has also given two practical examples of such thinking based research paper. Out of which the abstract one had been produced below:-

“Effective visual design of e-commerce websites enhances website aesthetics and emotional appeal for the user. To gain insight into how Internet users perceive human images as one element of website design, a controlled experiment was conducted using a questionnaire, interviews, and eye-tracking methodology. Three conditions of human images were created including human images with facial features, human images without facial features, and a control condition with no human images. It was expected that human images with facial features would induce a user to perceive the website as more appealing, having warmth or social presence, and as more trustworthy. In turn, higher levels of image appeal and perceived social presence were predicted to result in trust. All expected relationships in the model were supported except no direct relationship was found between the human image conditions and trust. Additional analyses revealed subtle differences in the perception of human images across cultures (Canada, Germany, and Japan). While the general impact of human images seems universal across country groups, based on interview data four concepts emerged— aesthetics, symbolism, affective property, and functional property—with participants from each culture focusing on different concepts as applied to website design”

Though the article is a good read there are still few other steps that can be taken to ensure elements of blue oceanic thinking is there in the writing :-

1> To understand blue oceanic thinking it is very essential that one should be near to customers and their needs. It had been seen that generally academicians operate from their own glass chambers which are away from the general customers. Until unless one is not near to the customer base it is difficult to understand their latent needs and desires and hence blue oceanic thinking patterns are tough to achieve hence it becomes essential for them to spend some time with end users not as an academician but as an observer.

2> Generally students on account of being young and energetic have much better understandings of the market, latest innovations and trends. So taking their active support in writing research papers can be something of great help.

3> Many a times we come across crazy ideas, but we have a general tendency to neglect them, more often than not these crazy ideas can be converted into truly original research initiative that can challenge assumptions.

REFERENCE:- 1>MIS Quarterly

December 1, 2009
2> ebsco

Review of Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper

                                                                
In the following post as a part of his research activity the author attempts to review and analyze a Blue ocean strategy based research paper

Planning with Blue Ocean strategy in
The United Arab Emirates

Colin Butler
College of Business and Economics, UAE University, United Arab Emirates

Type of paper:-Analyzing the condition of BOS in UAE

The research paper published in Strategic Change (August,2008) analyses the condition and scope for BOS in UAE. The article starts off with some theoretical description of the blue ocean strategy followed by the findings of a research work conducted among the managers of UAE. In the end the article also attempts to give some recommendations that can be included in the strategic frame work of UAE based companies so that BOS can be used more efficiently.

The methodology used is questionnaire based survey followed by their analysis with the help SPSS software. After conducting a pilot study on five  UAE based managers a fully fledged test is conducted where 300 questionnaires were send to managers all across UAE, the questionnaire was based on manager’s opinion about issues of strategy change such as getting into uncontested markets, trying to capture non customers, trying to focus on 2 or3 key attributes of the value chain etc. the questionnaire also attempted to know the size & type of the companies, their country of origin etc.

The major findings of the research are:-

1> SMEs were more open to adopt BOS.

2> There was a positive correlation between using a differentiated and low cost strategy and which all factors should be eliminated from the value chain.

3> There was a positive correlation between raising the bar of certain activities above the average level , becoming more functional and putting less emphasis on personal relationships( which often ends up consuming a great deal of time and money)



Recommendations:-

1> In the context of UAE it had been seen that their customer base is highly differentiated and a lot of emphasis is given to the demographic profile of the customer. The research recommends that rather than profiling their customer as Europeans, Indians, Africans, Arabs, Americans, Hispanics etc and giving highly customized solutions to them the business houses should try to figure out few needs which are common in all the demographics and based on that they should try to give a low cost solutions that can be well received by all of them.

2> Business houses at UAE put a lot of emphasis on personal relationship with their customers. This might be an hindrance in implementing BOS. Rather than going the personal relationship way the research suggests that they should try using IT services in communicating with their customers and should spend less time and effort in personal face to face kind of relationships. IT services and call centers will also enable them to capture customers all across the globe.

Scope for further Improvement:-

Though the paper does give some valuable recommendations but it is not industry specific. Use of industry specific suggestions would have served the purpose better.

In general the article is a good read for general readers who are interested in understanding BOS as a concept along with managers and entrepreneurs who are situated in UAE to understand BOS in their context.

Review of a Blue Ocean Strategy Article

                                                                                           
In the given article the author attempts to review a Blue Ocean Strategy article from Ebsco. The link of the original article is given below:-
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&hid=9&sid=1adc80e0-b7bf-460e-a64a-03334d3e28e6%40sessionmgr110


Chaotic Blue Ocean Strategy
By Hilary beckar
Chaotic Blue Ocean strategy is an article written by Hilary beckar from Carleton University (published in the “Review of business Research”, Nov 2008 edition ) .The article talks about the relationship between the theory of chaos and Blue ocean strategy.
Type of the Article: - Description Based
The article “Chaotic Blue Ocean” is fundamentally a theoretical article that does not only attempts to view Blue Ocean strategy( hence forward referred as BOS) in relation to theory of chaos but also describes BOS in an elaborative way. Any one going through the article will get a very fresh understanding of BOS.
According to theory of chaos there is chaos everywhere, even the most deterministic systems (where the final outcome depends on the initial conditions) cannot be predicted for the long term. The business world itself is not insulated from this chaos, it is highly dependent on the environment where it operates, the kinds of micro as well as macroeconomic changes that keep on happening , changes in the demographics ,changes in the technologies and govt. regulations etc make the business world highly vulnerable . Under such changing environment it becomes very essential for corporate to come with newer strategies. It had been seen that in order to make higher profits & to resist changes Corporate often come with “READ OCEAN STRATEGY” where it tries to outperform its competitors on account of product differentiation and cost leadership. This entire process ends up in great wastage of resources.
The author giving the reference of the blue ocean strategy book argues that rather than going for a competitive warfare the company should adopt BOS that can enable them to capture newer customer segments in an entirely non competitive space. Three very important points that makes a strategy BOS are-

1> It must focus on giving new Innovative solutions to the customers at efficient price.
2> It must capture the non customer base of the company.
3> While formulating the strategic framework the term competition should never be considered.

The article though gives some basic idea of the frame works which are used in the formulating a “BOS” strategy but avoids delving deep into it. One of the drawback of the article is that it doesn’t give any practical example to demonstrate the concept in a more better way. In general the article is a good read for anyone who wants to have a firsthand knowledge of “BOS”. It could be liked equally by managers, students and academicians.