Blue Ocean Strategy is based on a book of the same name written by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in 2005.

It explores a concept which we know but rarely use. 1/n

It asks companies to grow and develop a competitve advantage by exploring beyond the existing target market and target needs. Blue ocean denotes all those markets unexplored. 2/n

It is like the old story. A shoe salesman was sent to an island to find out the market potential. He came back saying "no one wears shoes, hence no demand or potential". 3/n

As against this another Salesman of a competing company went and reported "No one wears shoes, hence there is tremendous potential" (This was adapted in one of O Henrys beautiful stories) 4/n

This strategy asks companies to go beyond the existing market structure (called Red Ocean) where competitors and their strategy are known. Blue Ocean denotes all those opportunities and markets which are virgin and can be explored for a company. 5/n

This is applicable in your day to day work also. Try out something new, innovative. Dont follow the beaten path.

For eg: Instead of holding a meeting to brainstorm ideas for a solution to a problem, 6/n

set up a competition, ask people to come up with their own solutions ranked 1,2,3 and give prizes to them.

I remember being very innovative and exploring the Blue Ocean when I was running NIIT franchise centre in Thanjavur. 7/n

We had lot of innovations in marketing (where we were the pioneers on many campaigns which became industry rule later). We also tried many innovations with students. 8/n

As a Faculty I dared to go where all other faculty did not, by giving so many value added service to the students. I refused to be confined by the existing rule book but went ahead and redrew the boundaries. And that is why at least quite a few students still remember me. 9/n

They might love me or hate me, but they still think I was a better faculty than others, thus giving me a huge competitive advantage.

Another example I can give from my professional life is when I was a young sales officer in Coimbatore. 10/n

Coimbatore is littered with textile mills and foundaries. Coimbatore is littered with textile mills and foundaries. Though we concetrate on the main mills, the smaller mills in the outskirts used to pick up their lubricant requirements from our resellers, 11/n

who sold not only our product, but those of our competitors. I had a tough Sr.Regional Manager - Sawhney. Every time we drove in my sales area, he will point out a small mill and ask me the details of the mill, like how many spindles, 12/n

what lubricants they buy, their potential,the purchase manager etc. When I said I dont know, he will ask me to find out saying "Beta - no competitor goes to these mills. you go there & you will get at least one barrel of oil,do that with 25 mills & you have met your target. 13/n

and these guys will be so grateful to you that you will get repeat orders". Though skeptical, I followed his orders, mainly out of fear of him ( he was a towring personality) and found out that he was spot on. 14/n

I also took risks in my Sales Area and went to areas others dreaded to touch. And I realy harvested the benefits.

Thus someone like Hero Honda can look at Countries like Chile or Papua New Guinea for a market. 15/n

I have found Ariel can be used as well as Harpic to clean the toilets. Ariel Manufacturer P&G can promote Ariel as a multipurpose cleaner. These are some examples. 16/n

You can apply this in your own life. People tend to look for new assignments or jobs in their area of specialization and competence, whereby limiting their effectiveness. 17/n

In my case, I started as a petroleum sales man, then explored the blue ocean (as a person) by becoming a ITentrepreneur running a computer education franchise (when i had not even touched a computer), 18/n

then moved to strategic planning and then strangely to Corporate Finance (which was a true blue ocean for me) and then to New Venture Advisory. Each blue ocean has given me a competive advantage over my peers. 19/n

The above thread was a mail I wrote to a Student who sought clarification on the topic sometime back. Thought I will share as a thread

Come to think of it, I do follow tjis strategy while tweeting also! And am none the worse for it. n/n