Saw this goodie in reference to the hot new strategy book… which may or may not be all that great in the final analysis… here’s a blurblet someone wrote which condenses the plan:
"What is a BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY? The authors explain it by comparing it to a red ocean strategy (traditional strategic thinking):
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DO NOT compete in existing market space. INSTEAD you should create uncontested market space.
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DO NOT beat the competition. INSTEAD you should make the competition irrelevant.
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DO NOT exploit existing demand. INSTEAD you should create and capture new demand.
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DO NOT make the value/cost trade-off. INSTEAD you should break the value/cost trade-off.
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DO NOT align the whole system of a company’s activities with its strategic choice of differentiation or low cost. INSTEAD you should align the whole system of a company’s activities in pursuit of both differentiation and low cost. "
This translates into: if you operate in clubland full of rock stars, you’ll get a lot more action if you have a reputation for being the best masseur/masseuse around than you will as another wannabe rock star…
(confession: this strategy really did work for me in a slightly different context)
I think this is why Bono has positioned himself as such a successful ambassador for third world development… he’s a celeb in a world full of faceless wonks…
It’s why hipster suburbs like Williamburg, outer Manhattan, Nuevo Yawk become such tediously competitive poseur grind alleys… the mind numbing un-originality of striving for scintillating originality… now who do you think will get attention in this place, the yet more peacocked, more striven, more overdetermined vehicle of social signage, or a couple of grunts back from a tour of Anbar province ?
The question is: what assumptions and expectations are implicit in the background ? What is the strange attractor that is pulling one and all ever so obediently into its gravitational field ? What do you know, possess, have an aptitude for, that punctures that force field ? What unique value can you bring to the party ? Best yet, what problems can you make go away ? You know why most people are extremely well paid, and rise to high positions, and all that ? They can take some giant pain in the ass problem that nobody else wants to face, and for a small price, make that problem vanish.
