oceans of strategy
Vinay Kamat
After Tom Peters, who? That was the FAQ a few years ago. Today, after the popularity of Tipping Point, that is perhaps the least asked question. For, author Malcolm Gladwell may have just become management’s feisty intellectual, its pop diva. The simplicity of his writing, and his uncanny ability to relate management ideas to you and me, explains why Tipping Point has become as significant as Tom Peters’ In Search Of Excellence and Al Ries’s and Jack Trout’s Positioning.
Still a hip best-seller, Tipping Point explains why certain ideas click and why others don’t. On his website, www.gladwell.com, the author explains the idea behind the book: “It’s the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It’s the boiling point. It’s the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards.”
And when and why does this happen? Perhaps the best example in the book is about Hush Puppies. The brand was dying until a few kids in downtown Manhattan started sporting them because nobody would. Soon, a fashion celeb wore them too, creating a buzz. It did not take long for the shoes to debut on Manhattan catwalks, triggering an epidemic and creating a global brand out of Hush Puppies. All this happened in two years, and the manufacturer, Wolverine, had absolutely nothing to do with it. What the kids had created was a word-of-mouth effect.
How did it all start? It all began with a good product that hadn’t reached the influence market. A few kids added attitude to their walk to be different, bringing their bold act under the gaze of the influence (fashion) market. And once the influencers got infected, a tipping point was crossed.
Despite his talking gigs around the world, Gladwell has hardly been on the Indian seminar circuit. And although his books are intellectual treats, they are not management gospels since they lack the academic vigour of Peter Drucker or the data-driven constructs of Michael Porter. Still, like Hush Puppies, Gladwell is an attitude that will continue to infect marketers when they are not sure what to do when they have a great product.
Blue Ocean Strategy, a new arrival, may just provide you with the impetus to reach a tipping point. Like Gary Hamel’s and CK Prahalad’s pet theory of strategic intent — the Honda-like obsession to gain global leadership — Blue Ocean is a desire to be different. Authors W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne do not steer away from strategic intent’s core premise: that “the strategist’s goal is not to find a niche within the existing industry space but to create new space that is uniquely suited to the company’s own strengths – space that is off the map”. They add easy-to-follow tactics to the very idea of outwitting competition.
The authors give an interesting example, Cirque du Soleil, which reinvented the circus by crisscrossing multiple business formats and upselling big-top entertainment. How did they do that? “Instead of following the conventional logic of ... creating a circus with even greater fun and thrills...it sought to offer people the fun and thrill of the circus and the intellectual sophistication and artistic richness of the theatre at the same time.” In essence, Le Cirque got out of a red ocean mindset and plunged into their very own blue ocean.
Another Blue Ocean navigator, Casella Wines, devised a wine for the entertainment economy. They turned wine into a fun product that was high on attitude and low on pedigree. “Instead of offering wine as wine, Casella created a social drink accessible to everyone: beer drinkers, cocktail drinkers, and other drinkers of non-wine beverages.”
Both Tipping Point and Blue Ocean are sister ideas. For, you need to create a tipping point in your organisation to lead your team into a blue ocean.
After Tom Peters, who? That was the FAQ a few years ago. Today, after the popularity of Tipping Point, that is perhaps the least asked question. For, author Malcolm Gladwell may have just become management’s feisty intellectual, its pop diva. The simplicity of his writing, and his uncanny ability to relate management ideas to you and me, explains why Tipping Point has become as significant as Tom Peters’ In Search Of Excellence and Al Ries’s and Jack Trout’s Positioning.
Still a hip best-seller, Tipping Point explains why certain ideas click and why others don’t. On his website, www.gladwell.com, the author explains the idea behind the book: “It’s the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It’s the boiling point. It’s the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards.”
And when and why does this happen? Perhaps the best example in the book is about Hush Puppies. The brand was dying until a few kids in downtown Manhattan started sporting them because nobody would. Soon, a fashion celeb wore them too, creating a buzz. It did not take long for the shoes to debut on Manhattan catwalks, triggering an epidemic and creating a global brand out of Hush Puppies. All this happened in two years, and the manufacturer, Wolverine, had absolutely nothing to do with it. What the kids had created was a word-of-mouth effect.
How did it all start? It all began with a good product that hadn’t reached the influence market. A few kids added attitude to their walk to be different, bringing their bold act under the gaze of the influence (fashion) market. And once the influencers got infected, a tipping point was crossed.
Despite his talking gigs around the world, Gladwell has hardly been on the Indian seminar circuit. And although his books are intellectual treats, they are not management gospels since they lack the academic vigour of Peter Drucker or the data-driven constructs of Michael Porter. Still, like Hush Puppies, Gladwell is an attitude that will continue to infect marketers when they are not sure what to do when they have a great product.
Blue Ocean Strategy, a new arrival, may just provide you with the impetus to reach a tipping point. Like Gary Hamel’s and CK Prahalad’s pet theory of strategic intent — the Honda-like obsession to gain global leadership — Blue Ocean is a desire to be different. Authors W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne do not steer away from strategic intent’s core premise: that “the strategist’s goal is not to find a niche within the existing industry space but to create new space that is uniquely suited to the company’s own strengths – space that is off the map”. They add easy-to-follow tactics to the very idea of outwitting competition.
The authors give an interesting example, Cirque du Soleil, which reinvented the circus by crisscrossing multiple business formats and upselling big-top entertainment. How did they do that? “Instead of following the conventional logic of ... creating a circus with even greater fun and thrills...it sought to offer people the fun and thrill of the circus and the intellectual sophistication and artistic richness of the theatre at the same time.” In essence, Le Cirque got out of a red ocean mindset and plunged into their very own blue ocean.
Another Blue Ocean navigator, Casella Wines, devised a wine for the entertainment economy. They turned wine into a fun product that was high on attitude and low on pedigree. “Instead of offering wine as wine, Casella created a social drink accessible to everyone: beer drinkers, cocktail drinkers, and other drinkers of non-wine beverages.”
Both Tipping Point and Blue Ocean are sister ideas. For, you need to create a tipping point in your organisation to lead your team into a blue ocean.
posted by vinay kamat at 5:55 AM
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