You Can’t Win the Strategy Horse Race with a Planning Mule

One of the questions I was asked recently is: “How can you be so sure that the tools of Blue Ocean Strategy® will result in lower cost and increased revenue?”

The short answer is that clients find and capitalize on a large hidden market opportunity that will grow their business when they know how to look for the opportunities. Remember, a consultant (at least this consultant) doesn’t come up with all the brilliant ideas. The client (YOU!) does when you know how and where to look for them.

What I do that is difficult for you to do by yourself is guide your thinking and show you how to use the latest tools to uncover those ideas. A recent client discovered over a million dollars in services they were providing customers that the customers did not care about. This sort of “low hanging fruit” is common and goes right to the bottom line.

Consider how we used to do surgery. Until very recently, most surgeries were major operations and meant days if not weeks of hospital stays. Today, our tools are much more sophisticated and our knowledge more refined. That results in less trauma to the patient, shorter recovery, and greater surgical success.

It isn’t too much different with the tools of strategy. Most of the old methods of strategy creation have the client focusing on the competition and the current market. Brainstorming, a longtime method used in strategy creation, didn’t produce very good results. Why? Because the brainstorming was not properly directed. Using the old tools of brainstorming and SWOT analysis is a bit like riding a mule in the strategy horse race. You will seldom find yourself ahead of the pack.

The tools we use in Blue Ocean Strategy® help direct your thinking in ways you would have never thought about yourself. This gives you a strategy to get out in front of the pack rather than having to constantly spur your mule to try and stay even.

Telling someone to think differently without giving that thought process a direction and a purpose is usually a waste of time. We know what we know and we tend to fall back on that. It is comfortable and we have gotten some results in the past.

Unfortunately, the past is behind us and isn’t likely to come back. Blue Ocean Strategy® is designed to show us the way to survive and thrive as we move into the future.

If you are ready to find your path to thriving in our rapidly morphing world, call or text my cell (407-342-6507) or email me info@corporatestrategy.com.