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Have you ever suggested a blue ocean strategy for your employer or client?

Tell us more about what was the main issues you faced convincing him? and if it was a success story or not.

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Question added by Hossam Abbas , General Manager , Bingo Global
Date Posted: 2013/04/20
Bernard Menettrier
by Bernard Menettrier , Sales Director , German Imaging Technology

Convincing a company (a customer or your employer) to consider a “Blue Ocean” strategy is very challenging, and it can work.
I had this great opportunity some years ago.
A “Blue Ocean” strategy is all about disruptive innovation: designing, developing and deploying a completely new concept, something no one else ever did, getting away from any competitor out there.
It is the opposite to the “Red Ocean” where all competitors struggle for the same “fishes” and kill each others, turning the ocean “red”.
Convincing a company to go for the “blue ocean” has its own set of challenges, and the following list is based upon personal experience, not necessarily exhaustive: Have a compelling innovative idea and a decent business plan that goes with it; since you expect to enter the unknown, there is little chance to build a solid business plan but you still need to materialize the way it should turn into business.
Find a high-level person in the organization who welcomes original ideas; She will be your sponsor.
Establish (preferably have this already established) a high level of confidence between this person and yourself; whether convincing your employer or your customer, confidence is critical.
Sell your project to this person, and help her pushing it through the organization; Be persistent, ready to face many hurdles all the way through; there will be a lot of resistance, but it’s worth your investment.
In a nutshell, be convinced of your idea, sell your idea to the right person and be ready to fight for it.
For further information, I recommend the reference book “The Blue Ocean Strategy” (Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, 2005).
Happy swimming in the blue waters ;)

Amr Yahia
by Amr Yahia , Senior Business Development Manager , Torjoman

Dear Hossam Abbas, Thank you my friend for considering me in this interesting question :) Okay...
"Have you ever suggested a blue ocean strategy for your employer or client?" I can see this is a YES/NO question, and the direct answer for this is NO! However if we go deeply in this, keeping in mind the nature of our Arabian markets, we will find that it is difficult to apply this kind of strategy, and the reason for this is that nobody wants to take the risk to go into the deep blue ocean with a new product, the preference is to compete with others on what is already available, Red Oceans are still attracting more eaters here.
Worldwide, I can not even recall many successful adoptions for the Blue Ocean theory but for Nintendo which has been considered a pioneer in this area.
Meanwhile there have been some domestic trials here and there but in less risky business like Social Media websites...
In all cases who knows what will happen tomorrow...

Ghina Said
by Ghina Said , Public Diplomacy and Media Outreach Expert , European Union Delegation to the UAE

Thank you for this question.
Alas, I would have to say no to that, although I am sure that it would be a great and interesting project to work on.
Finding an innovative way to use an already existing product and creating a niche market to demand it is a fascinating and intriguing thought.
I still have never personally implemented this kind of strategy, but if I ever find a product that could be driven by that, then I would be very enthusiastic to implement it.

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