So the first article in the blue ocean series introduced what a blue ocean was and the theory behind it. This one focuses on how you create a blue ocean. Actually there are no hard and fast rules, in my opinion most blue oceans are created by luck, experimentation or through frustration with existing industries, [...]
Blue ocean strategy and value innovation
Competing in over crowded industries is no way to sustain competitive advantage. The real opportunity is to create blue oceans of uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. What are red and blue oceans? Red oceans represent all the industries in existence today. In red oceans industry boundaries are defined and companies try to outperform [...]
From idea to launch in 1 year and 4 pivots – The Portman Gallery
Unbeknownst to me three years ago a friend of mine started working on an idea for an online art gallery. About a year ago I had a similar idea and excitedly called him up only to find he had had the idea first. That conversation was the first nascent beginnings of the The Portman Gallery. This [...]
STARS Air Ambulance: An Information Systems Challenge Case Study
One of my Information Management lectures looked at analysing the STARS Air Ambulance case study from HBR which looked at the recently appointed chief information officer Sharaz Khan and his first few weeks in the role. The IM function of the company was not aligned with the rest of the company, there were lots of distributed projects underway, no [...]
Was Michael Porter right that generic strategies are only about cost leadership and differentiation?
Michael Porter’s generic strategies state that strategies for broad market scope fall into two categories: Cost leadership - having the lowest cost base e.g. Ryanair Differentiation – having a unique or different product e.g. Dyson Porter assumes that consumers are either motivated by value or quality which implies they are rational. If he is right then companies [...]
A framework for developing business strategy
This week I have been working on the strategy for a new start-up and thought it would be interesting to document the strategy framework that I was taught at business school. 1. Analysis The first step is hard data and research and this is split into two areas: external analysis (i.e. the market and competitive [...]
Why money alone does not work in motivating people
1. Money as a motivator In the twentieth century Taylor’s instrumentality theory (1911) argued that money is the only reason people go to work, he later endorsed economic man theory (1947), which stated that money is a major motivating factor. 2. Hard rewards alone do not work Modern approaches to motivation argue that money is [...]
Focus, focus, focus and then focus some more
One of the first business books I ever read was “Focus” by Al Ries and it really made an impact on me. I recently came across a quote from Twitter founder Ev Williams that again brought up the concept of focusing: “Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. [...]
Day 5: TOGAF 9 Exam
So today was TOGAF exam day. In just five days I have gone from not knowing much about TOGAF to being TOGAF 9 certified. I had to book my test on the appalling Prometric website which was a test in itself, there is no map of the test centres, links don’t work and there are [...]
Day 4: TOGAF 9 Training
Phew the final day of training and my brain has been pushed to the limit this week, we have condensed a 1,000 page manual into a four day course. It was quite a relaxed day today, closing off loose ends and finishing off the course. We started the day looking at requirements management, which TOGAF [...]