Blue Ocean Strategy is a relatively new concept. The book “Blue Ocean Strategy”, was written by 2 professors at the INSEAD business school (W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne), and was published in 2005. It rapidly became a best seller. The central aim of Blue Ocean Strategy is to avoid head-to-head competition that simply results in declining opportunities and constrained profits. Kim and Mauborgne argue that the key to success in the future is to avoid competition by creating highly differentiated “value innovations” that create uncontested space. It is substantially about “re-writing the rules” – changing our concepts of markets into value domains and by close linkages to the best quality customers achieving a level of profitable growth that head to head competitors in the “Red Ocean” space will not have.
The principal highlights of the Energy Training Centre training course are:
- Introduction to leading-edge “Blue Ocean” thinking and best practice in strategy building
- Focus on the business model as the basis of strategic differentiation
- Video presentations by world-class scholars and practitioners
- Case studies for class work and discussion
- Case presentations based on the personal experiences
The central objectives of this Competitive Strategy and Blue Ocean Strategy training course are as follows:
- To ensure that participants understand the basic concepts of strategy
- To understand how “Blue Ocean” thinking differs from other approaches to strategy
- To understand the six basic principles of “Blue Ocean” thinking
- To understand the meaning of value innovation
- To ensure that strategy is changed and developed to create a sustained level of high performance
- To enable participants to understand how their specialist parts of the organisation contribute to strategy building and achieving sustainable differentiation
The training process is based on a carefully planned mix of highly focused input from the course leader - with practical illustration of tools and concepts; group work on small-scale case studies; interaction and group discussion; and group work on a major case study. The training course manual will serve as a toolkit for subsequent everyday use. There will also be presentations on videos given by acknowledged world-leading authorities on the subject. The principles and approaches to strategy and strategic management will be illustrated by real-life cases in which the course leader has been personally involved.
Day One
- Theme: What is “Blue Ocean Strategy and how is it different?
- What is “Blue Ocean Strategy”?
- “Blue Ocean” compared with other approaches to strategic thinking and management
- Creative analysis of industries and companies
- The integrated supply-demand chain as the basis of 21st century strategic thinking
- How value migrates over time
- Customer selection and the principle of differentiated customer engagement
- Choice, complexity, incomplete information - the fundamental problems in strategy
- Mini-case on strategic choice
Day Two
- Theme: How do we build “Blue Ocean Strategy”?
- Moving from market boundaries to value domains
- The concept of shareholder value and its relationship to strategy formulation
- Tools and techniques that are specific to “Blue Ocean” thinking
- Advanced application of the “balanced scorecard” principles
- The unique specific profitability model derived from “Blue Ocean” thinking
- Strategic choice – getting from competition to innovation and collaboration
- Mini-case on strategy building using “Blue Ocean” principles, tool and techniques
Day Three
- Theme: How do we implement a “Blue Ocean Strategy”?
- Review of the tools used so far
- Launching “Blue Ocean” for the first time in an organisation
- Cascading “Blue Ocean” thinking through the organisation
- Sustainability/renewability – how to work out the focus and balance of each
- Where does risk figure in “Blue Ocean” strategy?
- Balancing cost leadership with differentiation: the final “Blue Ocean” mini-case
