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10/02/2007
Flying high with Blue Ocean Strategy
Challenging an industry’s conventional wisdom about which buyer group to target can lead to the discovery of new blue oceans. By looking across buyer groups, companies can gain new insights into how to redesign their value curves to focus on a previously overlooked set of buyers (Blue Ocean Strategy, p. 61).
In a recent appearance on Talk Asia, Tony Fernandez, CEO of Air Asia, discusses how he’s defying conventional wisdom: In partnership with Richard Branson, Fernandez is basing Air Asia’s long haul flight model on one used successfully by short-haul, budget airlines such as Southwest and EasyJet. This move allows Air Asia to serve previously overlooked customer segments, including first-time flyers.
I think airlines have been very much parrots. They'll just follow what everyone else is doing. Why change a model that they're happy in? And it takes someone like myself or Richard Branson who comes from outside the industry to say, hey, let's try something new. Why didn't anyone do iPod? So innovation... Business is all about innovation and this blue ocean strategy.
Related posts:
Blue Ocean Strategy: Washing over Malaysia
[Photo via Airways.cz]
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Breaking the speed record Blue Ocean Strategy style
In 2005, an upstart car company from a small Sweden town insolently claimed the world speed record for supercars away from McLaren. Koenigsegg's success in challenging industry assumptions was so persuasive that it is the subject of a Blue Ocean Strategy case study. Their newest model gets prominent mention in the recent “Most Coveted Cars” article published by Forbes magazine.
Koenigsegg’s Blue Ocean Strategy-like approach allowed it to overstep such accepted industry standards and beliefs as: supercars can only be built by large and established companies, there could be no better or faster car than the McLaren F1 or even that a very big engine must be used. In doing so, it has created a new, Blue Ocean marketspace for itself. As Forbes reports:
The Koenigsegg CCX…the all-new, exotic Swedish supercar performs like the Bugatti, at about half the price. Yet with less than 20 cars available annually in the U.S., some say it's destined to be more coveted because it's within reach of a much larger pool of the rich and famous.
Ben Nef, who sells the CCX at its sole U.S. dealership, Exotic Cars at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, says that as soon as the first deliveries begin this month and later hit the road, the waiting list--now at just over a year--may double.
We invite you to check out the official site of Koenigsegg Automotive here.
[Photo via Koenigsegg Automotive.]
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Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
While I'm generally skeptical of any book that offers a "way to beat the competition" (after all, can't your competition read the book too?), this was a GOOD book full of interesting techniques.
Blue Ocean Strategy is about identifying and tapping into noncustomers with significantly different value propositions than are currently available to those noncustomers.
"Blue" ocean is the idea of uncharted open water as opposed to the highly competitive "red" (i.e. -blood) ocean where competitors are fighting for the same customers with very similiar ideas/products.
The book contains a series of analytic techniques and tools which can aid a group of individuals in:
The book uses a number of commercially successfull [break-the-mold] ideas and initiatives as a basis for drawing common ground between what characteristics made them successful. Some of the examples used are Starbucks, Curves, Cirque De Soleil, the Ford Model T, Southwest Airlines, and an extremely successful NYPD police commissioner.
Concepts/Techniques
This one is definately worth a read especially if your organization is searching for a new product/service idea.
Blue Ocean Strategy is about identifying and tapping into noncustomers with significantly different value propositions than are currently available to those noncustomers.
"Blue" ocean is the idea of uncharted open water as opposed to the highly competitive "red" (i.e. -blood) ocean where competitors are fighting for the same customers with very similiar ideas/products.
The book contains a series of analytic techniques and tools which can aid a group of individuals in:
- Identifying Blue Ocean ideas
- Analyzing the commercial viability of the idea
- Executing the Blue Ocean idea
The book uses a number of commercially successfull [break-the-mold] ideas and initiatives as a basis for drawing common ground between what characteristics made them successful. Some of the examples used are Starbucks, Curves, Cirque De Soleil, the Ford Model T, Southwest Airlines, and an extremely successful NYPD police commissioner.
Concepts/Techniques
- Red Ocean vs. Blue Ocean
- Strategy Canvas
- The 4 tests and the order you MUST do them in: Utility->Price->Cost->Adoption
- Buyer Utility Map
- Price Corridor of the Mass
- Tipping Point Leadership - Motivating movement from strategy. Kingpins, fishbowl managmeent, and atomization.
- Blue Ocean Index (scoring your idea)
This one is definately worth a read especially if your organization is searching for a new product/service idea.
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10/01/2007
The Continuing Success of the iPod
The Continuing Success of the iPod
By Guest Writers Ronald Tong and Ryan Wong (Year 13 students)
Back in 2001, Steve Jobs announced 'listening to music will never be the same again' and launched the iPod. It notched up healthy worldwide sales of 400,000 units in its first year, but at that time, interest was largely confined to tech-savvy early adopters (The Times, 5th September 2007). However, within six years, Apple has sold more than $17 billion worth of iPods, more than three billion tracks on iTunes, its online store, and is now able to exert influence over record labels and the public's buying habits (The Times, 6th September, 2007). Apple has transformed itself from a niche maker of stylish computers into a music powerhouse. Now business commentators are reviewing how it has managed to maintain such a strong position in the marketplace.
Perhaps it is Apple's development process that explains its success? The iPod can now be bought with larger electronic memory and there is now the iPod video, iPod mini and iPhone and a new touch screen version. The latest form of the music player is only 8mm thick, comes with a 3.5in colour screen, built-in Wi-Fi internet access and Apple's Safari internet browser (The Times, 6th September, 2007). Apple seems to have tuned into customers' needs and developed products that match the demands of different consumer segments.
The Times 100 presents a case study that has some interesting parallels. The case study explains how 3 has been able to maintain market leadership within the 3G technology market. The case study emphasizes the company's major strength as 'anticipating and meeting customers' needs' to maintain and promote the life cycle of its products.
Sources:
iPod touch available at your fingertips - TimesONLINE, 6 September, 2007
The iPod story - TimesONLINE, 5 September, 2007
The Times 100 Edition 12 Case Study - 3, Market leadership in the 3G market
Potential Study Questions:
What is meant by the term 'early adopters'
What are the key stages in a product's life cycle?
What is meant by an extension strategy? What evidence is there in the passage that the product life cycle of the iPod has been extended?
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세외전
다산연구소
예나 지금이나 백성들에게 가장 무서운 것은 가혹한 세금입니다. 나라의 구성원이라면 국법에 의하여 납세의 의무가 있게 마련이고, 그 의무를 이행하지 못하면 온갖 불이익을 곱으로 당하게 되어 있습니다. 가난한 백성들, 먹고 살기도 힘겨운데, 이중 삼중의 세금은 등짝을 굽게 만들었습니다. 지주에게는 지세(地稅)를 바쳐야하고 나라에는 국세를 바치는 불쌍한 농민들, 세금만 물지 않는다면 얼마나 좋았을까요.
다산은 강진에서 귀양 살며 남의 집안 초당에서 객으로 살았습니다. 초당 주변에 아름다운 꽃과 나무를 심고 연못을 파, 경관을 아름답게 꾸몄습니다. 초당 아래 등성이를 일구어 계단밭을 만들고는 미나리를 심어 식용으로 쓰기도하고 팔아서 용돈을 만들기도 했지요. “초당 아래 세금 없는(稅外) 밭을 새로 일구어”란은 시에서 보이듯, 세금 물지 않는 것을 이렇게 기쁘게 여긴 적이 있습니다.
우리 나라에는 예부터 다세(茶稅 )가 없으니 (東方自古無茶稅)
앞 마을에 개 짖는 소리에도 무섭지 않네 (不怕前村犬哭時)
모 든 종류의 특산물에는 세금을 물기 마련이나, 지천으로 흩어져 자라는 자연산 차에는 세금이 없으니, 관리들이 마을에 들이닥쳐 개가 짖더라도 겁날게 없다는 다산의 시는 백성들의 심정을 얼마나 날카롭게 표현했습니까. 토지대장에 아직 올리지 않아 새로 일군 토지에 세금이 없어 즐겁고, 다산(茶山)에 무성한 차에는 세금이 없어 기쁘다는 다산의 심정이 조선시대 백성들의 마음이었습니다. 군포세(軍布稅)가 무서워 자신의 생식기까지 자르던 슬픈 백성들, 그래서 공자는 가혹한 행정이 호랑이보다 더 무섭다고 말했을 겁니다.
오늘날 3백만명에 육박하는 국민연금 체납자들에게 이 제도가 혹시 호랑이로 둔갑한 것은 아닌지 잘 살펴볼 일입니다.
박석무 드림
예나 지금이나 백성들에게 가장 무서운 것은 가혹한 세금입니다. 나라의 구성원이라면 국법에 의하여 납세의 의무가 있게 마련이고, 그 의무를 이행하지 못하면 온갖 불이익을 곱으로 당하게 되어 있습니다. 가난한 백성들, 먹고 살기도 힘겨운데, 이중 삼중의 세금은 등짝을 굽게 만들었습니다. 지주에게는 지세(地稅)를 바쳐야하고 나라에는 국세를 바치는 불쌍한 농민들, 세금만 물지 않는다면 얼마나 좋았을까요.
다산은 강진에서 귀양 살며 남의 집안 초당에서 객으로 살았습니다. 초당 주변에 아름다운 꽃과 나무를 심고 연못을 파, 경관을 아름답게 꾸몄습니다. 초당 아래 등성이를 일구어 계단밭을 만들고는 미나리를 심어 식용으로 쓰기도하고 팔아서 용돈을 만들기도 했지요. “초당 아래 세금 없는(稅外) 밭을 새로 일구어”란은 시에서 보이듯, 세금 물지 않는 것을 이렇게 기쁘게 여긴 적이 있습니다.
우리 나라에는 예부터 다세(茶稅 )가 없으니 (東方自古無茶稅)
앞 마을에 개 짖는 소리에도 무섭지 않네 (不怕前村犬哭時)
모 든 종류의 특산물에는 세금을 물기 마련이나, 지천으로 흩어져 자라는 자연산 차에는 세금이 없으니, 관리들이 마을에 들이닥쳐 개가 짖더라도 겁날게 없다는 다산의 시는 백성들의 심정을 얼마나 날카롭게 표현했습니까. 토지대장에 아직 올리지 않아 새로 일군 토지에 세금이 없어 즐겁고, 다산(茶山)에 무성한 차에는 세금이 없어 기쁘다는 다산의 심정이 조선시대 백성들의 마음이었습니다. 군포세(軍布稅)가 무서워 자신의 생식기까지 자르던 슬픈 백성들, 그래서 공자는 가혹한 행정이 호랑이보다 더 무섭다고 말했을 겁니다.
오늘날 3백만명에 육박하는 국민연금 체납자들에게 이 제도가 혹시 호랑이로 둔갑한 것은 아닌지 잘 살펴볼 일입니다.
박석무 드림
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