All,
What is Blue Ocean Strategy? We hear this new strategic term conversed, used and practiced across organizations globally, nowadays and adding more value than never before:
Authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne state clearly “Stop Benchmarking the Competition. The more you benchmark your competitors, the more you tend to look like them (more on the BOS on their website www.blueoceanstrategy.com). I stop to think back on terms like Group Think and at times organizations and teams within also get caught in a complex web and eventually ‘copying’ practices their successful or not so successful competitors. Imitation is not a sin, but, it is important to stay above the rest in most processes.
How blue are we? Competition forms an integral part of business and commercial ecosystems. Competition has been a term that has been perhaps omnipresent since the barter system or early cross continental trading systems were in place. Can we avoid it? The answer ofcourse is a big NO.
The more you are in the midst of competition, the more ‘red’ is the territory around you. Let me consider the example of MapleCode as an organization. The Management Consulting ecosystem to which we belong is riveted with competition and similar traits and perhaps the same promise values to the end clients. I will explain later in this blog on how we devise our practices to overcome the redness in the business waters around us.
Before this, I would invite you to listen to a video of Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies - http://tv.insead.edu/video/Blue+Ocean+Strategy/5/2752 (Referenced from INSEAD Knowledge) wherein he clearly states how Blue Ocean Strategy was primarily adopted by a Services company like HCL and its success.
Though Blue Ocean Strategy has many tools to adopt, I am focussing only on the 4 Actions Framework (referenced http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/abo/4_action.html). The main 4 Actions Framework are listed below:
1. Reduce (Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standards to reduce over deliver)
2. Create (Which factors should be crated that the industry has never offered)
3. Eliminate (Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated)
4. Raise (Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standards so your customers won’t have to make compromises)
What is MapleCode trying to achieve?
1. Reduce: To avoid confusion in the minds of end clients, MapleCode strives to focus only on specific and alcove offerings. In each of its 4 verticals namely, Marketing and Branding; IT Advisory; Executive Search and Learning & Development, MapleCode strives to have a maximum of 3-4 lines of offerings directly in line with client needs and client value growth
2. Raise: Create line managers methodology processes to converse and keep end customers happy. Establish a 24/7 model to address client and end customer needs. We realised quickly that it is important to have a voice behind every conversation to our clients as well as candidates. Many of the future initiatives will include a 24/7 call model, team availability across time zones etc to provide quick turnarounds
3. Create: Create and identify new paths and methods that are unique in the offshore market. Primarily we try to achieve areas that have never been tried earlier to achieve greater success
4. Eliminate: We have eliminated redundant steps and complex team structures. Having a complex interwoven methodology would create added confusion and provide lesser prevalence over competition
Visit us on www.maplecode.com for more information on our offerings.
Regards,
Prashanth Vaidyan
Director, MapleCode Consulting Private Limited
Bangalore & Hyderabad, INDIA
**Referring from its global site www.blueoceanstrategy.com, and clear statements by authors of the BOS, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
