YOU ARE NOW READY to select your blue ocean move. The team has developed up to six potentially viable blue ocean opportunities, each captured on a one-page, to-be strategy canvas. It has created a compelling tagline for each that is true to the offering and speaks to the market. And it has completed a single-page, eliminate-reduce-raise-create grid as well as an outline of the economic benefits offered by each strategic option. Collectively, these materials show how each alternative could deliver a leap in value for buyers (or donors if a nonprofit or the public if the government) and a win for the organization.
How will you choose which strategic option to pursue? By hosting a blue ocean fair, an eye-opening but high-pressure event. Here the strategic options the team has developed are opened up for transparent feedback and calibration, so that a decision can be reached on which is the best to move forward with and what aspects of it may still need to be refined and worked through to open up a new value-cost frontier.
In our work with organizations, we often hear complaints that senior management is too conservative and that whatever innovative ideas do get put forth are usually neither championed nor taken seriously. Entrepreneurs often voice the same complaints about the investors to whom they pitch their ideas. But when we ask people to share examples of the innovative ideas that were rejected, we see two common problems. On the one hand, otherwise good ideas are couched in such complex and incoherent language that it’s impossible to judge their merits. On the other hand, seemingly good ideas are either all about being different for the sake of differentiation and don’t actually offer buyers a leap in value, or they lack a robust profit proposition. Understandably, investors and executives push these ideas aside.
By contrast, we’ve never seen teams encounter these issues when they make their presentations at a blue ocean fair. Without exception, among the first comments we hear are how professional and easy to grasp the strategic offerings are, and how clearly the presentations lay out the benefits for buyers and for the organization.
Let’s look at how a blue ocean fair works.
A blue ocean fair brings together the organization’s senior leadership and all the members of the blue ocean initiative team. Who should be in the room? In addition to the head of the focal unit, the attendees should include his or her top team as well as the heads of marketing, manufacturing, HR, finance, IT, and logistics. Not only are these executives likely to be called upon to provide specialized support once execution is underway, but they may also be asked to remove obstacles within their functional areas as execution begins. So accord them the intellectual and emotional respect they’re due, and make sure they understand the full range of blue ocean options you’re presenting. By bringing together this cross section of respected corporate community members and influential functional heads, the blue ocean fair creates a natural cadre of ambassadors who can speak from firsthand knowledge about why a shift is imperative and, crucially, the merits of the move that is ultimately chosen.
Customers are also often invited to the fair, as are the noncustomers whom you hope will swell the ranks of your new market space. Suppose, for example, you’re looking at options in the B2B environment for new types of sophisticated hospital equipment. You would want to include both your current key buyers and users (which is typically a small group of people, as the industry is quite consolidated), and some potential customers from smaller hospitals that don’t currently use such equipment. Similarly, when your success is highly dependent on a broader ecosystem, bringing in select supply chain or ecosystem partners is wise. While these are the kinds of people the team typically met during their six paths market exploration, they can add an additional layer of real-time market feedback to the discussion. For the same reason, some organizations invite players, such as industry analysts, that have a naturally broad overview of the industry’s landscape.
For start-ups or small Main Street organizations that don’t have the breadth and depth of talent that large, established corporations do, members of the blue ocean initiative team and their top leaders are often the only internal participants. In that case, it is especially important to populate the event with relevant external guests.
The fair begins with the team’s presentation of all the strategic options they created. (From here on in, we’ll assume for the sake of simplicity that the team has brought all six options to the fair.) Once the presentations are over, the initiative team splits up, and its members go to one of six stations set up around the room. Each station displays a large, poster-sized version of one of the to-be strategy canvases, along with the eliminate-reduce-raise-create grid and the economic benefits to the organization. The attendees are then invited to visit the stations to ask for further clarification, share their comments and suggestions, and raise possible concerns. Finally, they vote for the move or moves they find most compelling, using stickers or Post-it notes to indicate their choices.
After the voting is all done, the top team asks the attendees why they chose for or against specific strategies, adding yet another layer of feedback to the process. Simply seeing the accumulation of Post-it notes or stickers on a blue ocean option—or the absence thereof—and then hearing people’s comments firsthand, helps team members begin to let go of ideas that lack compelling traction and rally around those that garner strong support.
While all the attendees except the blue ocean initiative team members get to vote, the final decision is made by the organization’s executive team. Occasionally, the move these executives choose is not the one that received the most votes. In that case, they absolutely must provide explicit reasons for their choice; but it’s a wise practice to follow in any case—even if the choice seems obvious. A clear and cogent explanation is critical to reinforcing the fair process built into the initiative and keeping everyone committed to the outcome.
Here are the guidelines for conducting a successful blue ocean fair.
Begin by presenting the as-is strategy canvas, which shows the red ocean the industry is confronting and, hence, why a blue ocean shift is imperative. Then walk through both the completed buyer utility map, which reveals the pain points customers experience and, as a result, the potent opportunities to unlock trapped value, and the three tiers of noncustomers, which show the buyers the industry is currently shutting out and who could potentially be tapped to create new demand. This gives the attendees the background they need and helps get everyone on the same page.
It is imperative that senior management attend the fair from start to finish. Without their committed presence, both the blue ocean team and everyone else will assume that they either don’t think the initiative is important or they lack the will to see it through. And guaranteed—if senior management skips part of the fair, the initiative team will be demoralized. To get to this point, they have done an enormous amount of work of which they’re rightly proud. More than anything else, this is their moment to shine—to show what they’ve produced despite their initial doubts and trepidation. The organization’s leaders must accord the team members the respect they deserve; and the best way to do that is through their eager listening presence. This also sends a strong signal throughout the organization that the initiative is to be taken seriously, which will reinforce everyone’s commitment to execution while discouraging game playing. Last but not least, attending the entire fair is the only way the top management team can learn enough to choose the best blue ocean move to pursue.
Next, each blue ocean option should be presented by a team member who worked on its development. Give him or her no more than five minutes for the entire presentation. We set a tight time limit here, because we’ve found that any strategy that takes longer than this to communicate effectively is probably too complicated, or not well enough thought through, or too undistinguished to be any good. Knowing they must work within such a tight time frame helps all the blue ocean team members really think through, sharpen, and refine the offerings and business case for each alternative as they prepare for its presentation.
It is vital for everyone on the team to use the same format for their presentations. Otherwise, voting and comparison will become very difficult to do well in the short time of the fair. While there are many ways to do this, we’ve found that the following content and flow serve this purpose well.
• Describe the offering: Start by presenting the offering’s tagline. Follow this with a short, bullet-point description. This should be very easy to understand, so that the attendees can immediately grasp the gist of the offering and why it is compelling.
• Present the to-be strategy canvas: The to-be strategy canvas should show both the strategic profile of the proposed blue ocean offering and the as-is strategic profile of the current industry. In this way, attendees can see for themselves precisely how the proposed move stands apart, diverges from current industry practices, and delivers a leap in value for buyers. It also immediately reveals whether the offering is focused, instead of simply offering more of everything the competition already does, by highlighting what has been reduced and eliminated to lower the offering’s cost as well as raised and created to offer a leap in value.
• Walk through the ERRC grid: Summarize the factors that the blue ocean option eliminates, reduces, raises, and creates. Because the team has already done the hard work of describing each of the factors in concrete, actionable terms when it built the to-be strategy canvas (see chapter 11), this summary will reaffirm how the offering breaks from current industry practice, and how it both creates higher value and drives down costs. In established organizations, walking through the ERRC grid will also give people an indication of how much of a stretch the option is likely to require in contrast with the organization’s current business model.
• Summarize the benefits for buyers (or donors for nonprofits or the public for a government entity): Although the offering’s benefits may already have become obvious, it is worth briefly summarizing the leap in value buyers—including the noncustomers who would find the new offering compelling—will gain. For citizenM hotels, for example, this might be, “For a price approaching that of a three-star hotel, customers will enjoy a five-star location, a vastly superior night’s sleep, great Wi-Fi, and an experience that’s luxurious but not snobby.”
• Outline the economic benefits to the organization: Using the industry’s general breakdown of relative costs across the value chain, size up the magnitude of the cost savings from the factors that have been eliminated and reduced. Then outline the additional costs that will likely be incurred because of the factors you’ve raised and created. As discussed in chapter 11, the above exercise provides rough indicators of the option’s economic benefits to the organization.
If the proposed move might face any potentially significant external hurdles, like government regulations, the team should note them in their presentation as well. With this additional input, the assessment of alternative options can be more complete. It may also be the case that someone at the fair will have overcome a similar challenge, or knows someone in another industry who has. In our experience, being forthcoming about potential difficulties is often the route to finding a solution quickly.
Before moving on to the next presentation, give the attendees five minutes to note their thoughts about what they’ve just heard on recording sheets. These recording sheets, as well as a summary of the contents to be presented at the fair, are provided for your free download and use at www.blueoceanshift.com/ExerciseTemplates. This will allow you to capture people’s immediate, instinctive reactions to each alternative, and help to ensure that everyone in attendance is listening keenly.
Once all the presentations have been made, encourage the attendees to circulate, think deeply about each option, ask clarifying questions, offer suggestions, and really take in and weigh the instinctive appeal for buyers as well as the economics of each option. One member of the team that developed the option should be at each station to answer questions. Be sure to capture people’s feedback just as it happens.
Then give each attendee a few stickers or Post-it notes and ask them to place from one to all of these on their preferred strategic option(s), depending on how compelling they found it. While there is no fixed rule on how many stickers to hand out, in our experience, distributing three to five works well.
Alternatively, if you’re worried that attendees might influence one another’s selections, you can provide each voter with a sheet listing the name of each option and ask each of them to place their stickers there instead of on the posters or flip charts. You can then collect the sheets and transfer the votes to the displays to reveal how each of the options did.
When the voting is finished, what people think becomes immediately visible—almost like looking at a heat map. Now you want to gather even richer feedback through a focused discussion with the attendees. While there are many ways to go about this, we’ve found that asking people, strategy canvas by strategy canvas, why they did or did not vote for each blue ocean option serves this purpose well. “What specifically captured your imagination?” “What didn’t?” “What’s a drawback?” “What in the option’s value or profit proposition should or could be sharpened?” If one strategy canvas received an overwhelming number of votes, ask what about it made people so passionate. Likewise, if one canvas received very few votes or no votes at all, ask people why they did not vote for it. “Were others just much better, or was there something about the option’s value to buyers, or its economic benefits, that troubled you or turned you off?” As people recount their reasoning—the pluses, the minuses, and their doubts—take careful notes.
Taking the time to drill down into the attendees’ responses is invaluable, not just in deciding which option to choose, but also because it can take a blue ocean offering up a level. Other times, you may learn that it was the tagline more than the actual strategic profile that captured people’s imagination. That can tell you a great deal about what the team got right and what might need to be modified, so that the blue ocean option walks the talk.
When external guests are present, let them know that the organization’s leadership will be calibrating all their feedback, as they decide which strategic move to pursue, and how it should be refined.
Now it’s time for the executive team to make the critical decision on which option (or options) to move forward with. Every executive team tends to have its own method of collective calibration and decision making. However, we’ve found that the decision-making process tends to work best when each member of the executive team starts by sharing their thoughts on each option, and then the whole team debates one another’s assessments, noting areas where further clarification or refinement is necessary. Here are some key questions the executive team should explore:
Given the feedback we’ve heard, should any of the factors on a to-be strategy canvas be modified or revised?
Did the presentations or subsequent discussions reveal any missing essential component, which, if it were included, would multiply the offering’s appeal to buyers?
Does the offering fail to eliminate and reduce factors sufficiently to drive lower costs and break the value-cost trade-off?
Is there a lower-cost way to deliver any of the factors proposed to be raised or created that could strengthen the offering’s economic benefits?
What capability gaps would need to be closed to execute this option? And what ideas are there for how the organization could close them effectively at low cost?
The executive team should make a short list of the strongest blue ocean options and select the one they think holds the highest market potential. As they do so, they should be sure they’re carefully considering the voting and comments of all the fair’s attendees. In the process, executives often see opportunities to merge two complementary and overlapping offerings into a single coherent whole.
Once they’ve reached their decision, the executive team communicates it to the blue ocean initiative team and the other organizational members attending the fair, along with their guidance on which aspects of the option need to be refined, based on their own deliberations and the comments made at the fair. We cannot overemphasize how important it is for them to provide sound and concrete reasoning to the team to support their decision.
Because the decision is usually very close to the voting, we have rarely witnessed people being puzzled by an executive team’s selection. The team may initially be surprised if the executive team suggests that two offerings be merged into one. But once their reasoning has been explained, and they’ve been encouraged to ask questions, the team members soon come to understand the strategic logic the top executives are using. Once in a while, the most popular strategy at the fair does not make the cut. When this happens, it’s usually because it appeals to what we call the “emotional” vote: An offering appears better than it really is only because it’s so different. On deeper reflection, however, it becomes apparent that the difference is grounded less in a leap in value for buyers than in simply being original. Technology-driven companies often fall into this trap.
What is a blue ocean fair really like? Let’s observe what happened when Kimberly-Clark Brazil (KCB) set out to make a blue ocean shift in South America’s largest market for bathroom tissue. When it comes to a highly commoditized, hypercompetitive industry, few industries are redder than the US$1.5 billion–plus Brazilian toilet tissue market, which numbers more than 50 competitors and 200 brands. But what can you possibly do with a product as simple and basic as toilet paper? KCB was about to find out.
The entire Brazil executive team, the Latin American continental leadership team for the bathroom tissue category, and the senior and mid-level leaders from every KCB product line were gathering in the large, modern, air-conditioned ballroom of a São Paulo hotel for the blue ocean fair. The objective was not only to select the strongest blue ocean move with the best profitable growth potential, but also to mobilize the willing cooperation and commitment of leaders at every level of the organization to ensure its effective implementation. Since bathroom tissue was the focus, there was no shortage of buyer experience in the room: Everyone was a customer. Counting the blue ocean initiative team, almost 100 people were present. Then two external board members also arrived, increasing the profile of the occasion and the nervousness of the blue ocean initiative team.
Curiosity and expectations were both high. The initiative team sat at the front of the ballroom. The CEO of KCB, João Damato, who was also the category leader for bathroom tissue for the whole of Latin America, welcomed everyone to the meeting. He briefly set the scene by describing how highly commoditized the market was, and how difficult it was to stand out and achieve an acceptable margin, especially given the power retail trade could exert over commoditized products—brands notwithstanding. He then reminded everyone about the purpose of the initiative: to propel a leap forward in KCB’s profitable growth and margin.
The blue ocean initiative leader then outlined the industry’s current red ocean reality in more detail, provided an overview of the blue ocean shift process, and recounted the chronology of the initiative, which had kicked off only three months earlier. Murmuring broke out when the industry’s current strategy canvas appeared across a large screen and the pain points on the buyer utility map were revealed. A large percentage of first-tier noncustomers expressed their frustration, which was aptly summed up in one characteristic comment, “You need a math degree just to select your toilet paper, the choice is so overwhelming. Yet nothing stands out.”
The initiative team then gave a spirited and sometimes highly amusing pitch for the blue ocean options they had developed. Each of the six strategic options, which ranged from Just a Hug to Funny Paper, elicited its share of “oohs,” “aahs,” and other sounds of appreciation. The applause increased after each presentation. Throughout, all the attendees made notes on preprepared sheets designed to gather their feedback on what they loved and hated about each offering as well as their ideas on how to improve each strategic alternative.
When all six options had been presented, the team leader pointed to the six stations set up around the perimeter of the ballroom, each displaying an offering’s to-be strategy canvas, its ERRC grid, a summary of the benefits to buyers, and an overview of the option’s economic benefits to KCB. The initiative team had taken it upon themselves to create rough prototypes of each offering, too. They handed stickers to each of the attendees, and told them they could give a maximum of two votes to their most highly rated strategic option. With that, people got up, walked around, looked, asked questions, made recommendations, wrote Post-its with their thoughts and stuck them onto the flip charts or simply gave their feedback to the team at the station, voted, had coffee, came back, and sometimes changed their votes or had another exchange with a team member. In the space of one to two hours, all 100 attendees gave feedback and had in-depth conversations with the team.
As the heat map of the most highly rated strategic options emerged from the myriad of small colored stickers, team members breathlessly compared notes:
“Hey, Claudio… Congrats, my friend! It looks like you got the most votes.”
“Ha—thanks! Listen… I was just presenting the idea! It really belongs to all of us, especially Mario. I got so many questions about changes to the production line, I was delighted I could refer them to Sergio, who gave answers that seemed to ease their doubts.”
“There’s no technical problem we can’t solve: What we’ve always struggled with isn’t so much the engineering side as it is creating product offerings that unlock innovative value.”
“I’ve never talked to so many leaders or received so much good advice in the 12 years I’ve been here. It was just amazing—my best day at work, I can honestly say!”
When all the voting was done, the flip charts were moved to a separate room where the board members, and the executive and category teams could deliberate. They sat around a large conference table with the charts in front, while the initiative team sat behind them so they could listen attentively to the deliberations, clarify points if needed, and take notes on issues to be resolved. Everyone else went out to make calls, check their email, and have more coffee.
Addressing the blue ocean initiative team, the CEO opened the debate. “This is amazing. For such an apparently simple product, where all the potential means to stand apart appear to have already been tried, you came up with an ocean of ideas on how to make it stand apart.” Then, addressing his fellow decision makers, he continued, “We can see that the top two ideas received considerably more votes than the other four. What I would like to hear, in your own words, are not only your major takeaways but, importantly, your concerns about these two ideas and, especially, what wisdom you can offer to ensure that we create a leap in value for buyers, increase the rate of profit and growth, and lower our business risk. Also, if you see aspects of the other blue ocean options that would increase the value and margins of these choices, please say what they are.”
The discussions quickly zoomed in on Just One Hug, which had the largest share of votes. Just One Hug took a roll of toilet paper and significantly reduced its size—but not the amount of paper it contained—through compression. People had only to give it a hug, and—voilà—the compressed roll would pop back to a round toilet paper roll for easy use. Just One Hug’s packaging also had a strong but simple plastic strap to make carrying it even easier.
“With many Brazilians going to supermarkets via public transport or on foot, and many traveling long distances to get to a hypermarket, carrying toilet paper is a nightmare, which has somehow escaped the entire industry’s radar,” observed one executive.
“What Brazilian hasn’t struggled,” another chimed in, “with a kid in one hand, a bag of groceries in the other, and a large pack of toilet paper tucked precariously under his or her arm? Come on. We’ve all been there. Many Brazilians struggle with this every week. It’s a fact of life for the bulk of the market that’s lower income, which we’ve never been able to tap into.”
“It’s more than that,” added a category team leader. “I can tell you from my own experience, people struggle to store toilet paper once they get it home. We all buy these bigger packages so we don’t have to run out to buy more every few days. But there just isn’t room for it in our small apartments’ limited cupboard space. Just One Hug’s compressed size addresses that problem, too. Yet the whole industry is focused on embossing toilet paper, or adding scents, or providing low-quality, one-ply tissue. No player addresses these very real challenges. No wonder the vast majority of Brazilians buy toilet paper almost exclusively on price. The industry hasn’t given people on tight budgets a compelling reason to do otherwise.”
“What’s more,” another executive added enthusiastically, “Not only is Just One Hug’s size markedly smaller but, with its distinctive packaging and carrying strap, everyone can immediately see just how different it is, allowing it to stand out easily in the sea of white paper, and saving people time and anxiety in making their selection.”
“Last week, in one of the trade magazines, I saw that a secondhand vacuum-packing machine was available in Italy for a really low price,” another manager added. “If we make a decision quickly, I’m sure we could still get it. That would bring our costs down even further, increasing our profit margins and lowering business risk.”
“Great idea,” said the legal counsel. “By the way, I’m going to check the patent situation immediately when I get back to the office. I know the team looked at this, but we want to make sure no one can easily imitate our idea. It’s so simple—but it’s pure genius.… I am very excited!”
The product development executive drew the discussion back to the other blue ocean options. “In terms of good ideas, why wouldn’t we combine the environmentally friendly component of Ecko (the option with the third-largest number of votes) with Just One Hug? With Just One Hug’s packaging reduction and leap in shipping transportation efficiency, it already has a strong inherent environmental component. The compelling value of Just One Hug plus eco fiber should give us much more leverage with large retailers, who are increasingly challenged on sustainability. Its smaller size will also drop our needed shelf space and costs.”
“You just stole my point,” laughed the supply chain director.
One by one, the decision makers voiced their concerns, insights, and pledges of support. The team members all made notes about what was said. After the fair, if their proposed offering was chosen, the team would take three weeks to both test the offering on the streets of Brazil, using the simple prototype they had created for the fair and further flesh out the business case they had already been developing for the new offering.
After a fruitful 90 minutes of deliberation, the decision makers stretched their legs, while the other attendees (who had used the opportunity to organize multiple business meetings in and around the hotel) reassembled in anticipation of the announcement. The CEO outlined the decision taken—to pursue Just One Hug with eco fiber; explained why it was taken; and summarized the guidance given to the initiative team. For the next 20 minutes, many of those present offered their personal support, expressed whatever concerns they had along with their ideas for addressing them, and offered additional suggestions for increasing the offering’s profit and growth potential.
As the blue ocean team members rolled up their flip chart sheets and tucked their prototypes under their arms, the CEO huddled with them as if they were a soccer club. He repeated his congratulations and deepest gratitude for the outstanding job they’d done—all in a matter of less than three months—as well as for the insights into the existing market they’d so clearly revealed and the compelling and “never a boring second” way in which the new ideas had been presented.
Following the fair, the KCB blue ocean initiative team conducted 210 face-to-face interviews in which people were chosen at random on one of São Paulo’s main streets, taken to a booth, shown the Just One Hug prototype, and asked for their feedback. While the team had already conducted ample market fieldwork in the process of developing their blue ocean options, this rapid market test with an actual prototype allowed them to confirm the strength of the offering, learn about any needed adjustments, and assess the offering’s mass market potential, which was considerable: 80 percent of the interviewees said they would love to buy it. KCB followed this market test with a small-scale launch of the actual offering in Brazil’s Northeast. This test launch was to not only cross-check and validate the market test’s positive reaction in São Paulo but also further evaluate the offering’s mass market potential. With these rapid market tests, the team refined the move and sharpened the heart of the pitch to buyers and to retailers as to why Just One Hug opened up a new value-cost frontier in the red ocean of toilet paper.
In 2009, several months after the new packaging machine arrived from Italy, KCB used Neve, one of its key brands, to stage a full-scale launch of Neve Naturali Compacto, the trade name given to Just One Hug. The pack of compressed rolls contained the same amount of toilet paper per roll as standard ones, but its smaller size made it easier to carry and store. It was a breeze to identify at the point of sale. And it sold at a competitive price that drew demand across every segment of the market, including buyers who had previously bought only from the “value” range of the market. And since it was made with sustainable and recyclable fibers, it was environmentally friendly to boot.
As for KCB’s costs, the compressed size led to a 15 percent drop in transportation costs—especially significant given Brazil’s large size, a 19 percent reduction in the amount of packaging material used, and a drop in returns due to damage, all contributing to gross margins greater than 20 percent—unheard of in the industry.
Apart from creating unbelievable value for buyers and higher margins for KCB, the product proved to be a win for retailers (in this case Walmart), which saw a unique opportunity in being able to list Neve Naturali Compacto as an environmentally friendly product, due to its far lower carbon footprint as well as its reduced packaging and use of eco-friendly fibers. Several months after the new product was introduced, KCB was named the “Best Sustainability Supplier for Walmart,” a deeply significant honor and achievement. (It later became the most sustainable product in the whole of Kimberly-Clark globally.) Last but not least, Neve Naturali Compacto’s leap in both value to buyers and environmental sustainability increased KCB’s negotiation power with retailers.
The new value-cost frontier the offering unlocked inspired KCB to roll out the “Compacto” format across every one of its major brands like Scott, providing a leap in value for its entire line of toilet paper. First launched in 2009, the blue ocean Compacto format, born from the fair, remains the industry standard in Brazil and a star performer for KCB, despite the eventual entry of followers who imitated it.
Requiring your initiative team to rapidly market-test the prototype of the selected blue ocean offering with potential buyers you want to turn into customers—the way that KCB did—is crucial. This will not only allow you to understand the optimal way to position the offering to buyers and supply chain partners (or to the public or donors, where relevant), but also to learn about any additional adjustments you might need to make. Rapid is the operative word here. Which is to say, test your blue ocean offering in a short, specific amount of time as soon as possible after the fair is over. Why? The fair will have created momentum, which you don’t want to kill by waiting too long to start testing or by taking too long to conduct the test. The more you delay, the more the team and your organization’s technicians will also be tempted to build complicated, costly prototypes, which will add little to testing the offering’s core idea and often overcomplicate it as well.
One of the most inspiring realizations that occurs at a blue ocean fair and, in our opinion, one of the most valuable is the profound shift in people’s perceptions of their own and others’ creativity and worth. Almost invariably, senior executives are taken aback by how creative the ideas put forward by their people are. It’s common to hear them saying, under their breath to themselves, if not out loud to others, “I never knew our people were that good.” And they mean it. Similarly, the people on the team are almost always surprised by their own creative competence—feelings that tend to get expressed in remarks such as “I didn’t believe I could think beyond the industry’s boundaries,” or “I never knew I was that creative,” or simply, “I can do it!” And with those feelings come increased confidence, and renewed mutual respect and appreciation. It is a watershed moment that has a profound effect on the organization’s culture. When the team members and other attendees go back to their departments and share what they heard, saw, and learned, the authenticity and power of their words are palpable to others. This goes a long way toward building everyone’s confidence in the integrity of the process and the blue ocean shift underway, further preparing the ground for effective execution.
Your blue ocean strategic move is almost ready to launch. The executive team has decided which option to pursue. The initiative team has conducted rapid market tests to confirm the market potential of the chosen offering and further tighten and refine it. Now the team is primed to formalize the big-picture business model of the move in a way that will maximize return and minimize risk for launch. Let’s see how this final step unfolds to ensure that the business model for the new offering will not only offer a leap in value for buyers, but will also have compelling economic benefits for your organization.